Small Business VoIP

Jazinga (News - Alert), a company founded in February 2007 by a group of Internet and telephony veterans and entrepreneurs, is helping SOHOs to look 'bigger' to the outside world by bringing data networking, traditional telephone service and low-cost VoIP service in one solution.

 

Jazinga's small business telephony system is a single, affordable appliance that combines an enterprise-quality phone system with networking, e-mail and fax and requires little more than plugging in to operate.

 

With Jazinga, companies have telephony features like automated attendant, company directory, individual voice mailboxes, voicemail to e-mail and the ability to integrate remote users.

 

Earlier this year, Jazinga announced it was named a "Best Newcomer" in the Best of Show Awards at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East 2008.

 

To find out more about what the company has been up to and what they will be presenting at the upcoming ITEXPO West happening September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert), I caught up with CEO, Randy Busch.

 

 

Jazinga was excited to release the Beta of its do-it-yourself small business networking and unified communication appliance. The positive response of Beta testers has indicated that we have accomplished our goal of creating a small business telephone system that can be installed and managed by someone with little to no telephony or IT experience. This has been Jazinga’s biggest achievement in 2008 so far.

 

Jazinga will be launching its first commercial networking and unified communication appliance in the fall of 2008. This first release will be specifically designed for small businesses but will be followed soon after by another appliance specifically designed for home users.

Busy households will soon have a cost effective unified communication appliance providing distinctive rings, individual voicemail boxes, voicemail to e-mail, privacy management and many more features available to them while at home or anywhere in the world they and their family members happen to be.

 

At Jazinga, we believe that communication systems will continue to evolve to the point where technical experience or expertise will no longer be required to install and manage communication systems. Users will employ wizard driven interfaces, using simple, non-technical language, to install and manage communication systems. We believe unified communication appliances will follow a path similar to that of networking and wireless networking appliances over the last 10 years.

 

Google (News - Alert) has contributed the most to communications in my opinion. They participated in the mobile auctions and released Android just to name a couple of potentially influential market moves. The true effect will not be known for a while but they certainly have made the old stayed communication companies sit up and take notice.

 

Apple has certainly had a good run, especially in the press coverage department. They have succeeded in getting people excited about communications again. Apple has set a new bar in usability that will benefit everyone - whether they use their phones for personal or business.

 

Blackberry Curve but I also have an iPhone.

 

I think it’s too early to call, but Apple is winning the PR battle right now. It will be fun to watch as RIM tries to win a greater share of the consumer market and Apple tries to push further into the business market.

 

This is a tough question and frankly a point of frustration for me at times. Unfortunately the market moves at a slower pace than many of us in this market would like to see. Many of the technologies that we are working on and have been using ourselves for quite some time will likely just achieve broad acceptance 5 years from now.

 

Wireless technology will continue its rapid deployment and I think today’s sophisticated communications solutions will become off-the-shelf solutions creating greater opportunity for adoption by small businesses.

 

How small businesses can enjoy the same communications capabilities that only large enterprises have been able to benefit from until now.

 

Small business owners and those looking to help them with their communications needs.

 

Jazinga is the first full-featured, do-it-yourself, unified communication system for small businesses. Other solutions are expensive and require telecom expertise to install and manage, or they have limited functionality.

 

Google will Acquire AT&T Wireless. I’m not sure why, but with the many possibilities for disruption in the industry it sure would be fun to watch.