With the acquisition of three-month-old CloudVox, Chicago-based IfbyPhone takes a formal step to rationalizing the Recombinant Communications ecosystem by closely linking its library of robust voice applications and tools with a cloud-based instantiation of Asterisk’s “open source” call processing software. In the words of founder Irv Shapiro, IfByPhone, which already has 15,000 customers, will now support three approaches to “API-telephony” (also known as voice mash-ups). They range from Rent-an-App; Rent-an-App-and-Integrate; and Stage 3 (Do-Everything-In-The-Cloud).

The first way was the simplest, “Rent-an-App” it is akin to Salesforce.com’s approach to CRM where companies license access to services on a monthly basis.

The second model is “Rent an App and Integrate” with existing business processes. The leader in this model isn’t Salesforce.com, which started out (prior to offering API-based access to SalesCloud or ServiceCloud) by offering access to well-understood CRM functions – like customer records, sales opportunities, call reports, etc.). Instead, Amazon Web Services, a business unit of Amazon.com provided businesses like Target a programmatic interface to e-commerce functions like “check-out” which could be integrated with existing inventory management and “pick, pack and ship” systems.

Acquisition of CloudVox enables IfByPhone to move to the next model, Stage 3. To quote Shapiro, “we’re opening up our infrastructure to anyone who is an Asterisk developer” to go beyond “rent-an-app” and use the call-processing, voice-processing and data-processing resources in the cloud any way they please. It creates an abundance of solutions that can be put into effect quickly to respond to business requirements.

The newly combined company brings to light the new competitive landscape (or ecosystem) for Recombinant Communications. It is a world where participants must carve out their territory in a space that is legitimized by the fact that e-commerce giant Amazon, CRM leader Salesforce and search giant Google all have designs for dominance. There’s no better indicator that this is an area of rich opportunity.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Cloud-based telephony, Recombinant Communications, IfByPHone