Black Ice Software
October Developer News
Volume 12, Issue 10 - September, 2007
The BLACK ICE NEWSLETTER is published by Black Ice Software, LLC. The contents of this newsletter in its entirety are Copyright © 2007 by Black Ice Software, LLC. 292 Route 101, Salzburg Square, Amherst, NH 03031, USA. Black Ice Software, LLC. does hereby give permission to reproduce material contained in this newsletter, provided credit is given to the source, and a copy of the publication that the material appears in is sent to Black Ice Software at the above address. Phone: (603) 673-1019 Fax: (603) 672-4112 sales@blackice.com www.blackice.com

WHY SHOULD YOUR SOFTWARE SUPPORT MORE THAN ONE HARDWARE MANUFACTURER?

In the beginning of the Computer Telephony industry it was an advantage to make strategic alliances with hardware manufacturer’s in order to leverage the newest technology and to combine marketing resources. Today almost all of the Fax Server and Voice Mail Server companies are using several hardware manufacturers to satisfy their customer’s diverse demands for new technologies.

 

The CT market is evolving so rapidly that a one-hardware manufacturer can not keep up with the demand for technology. Our open fax architecture and single API for the leading fax boards gives developers the ability to use standard based building blocks to create complex applications. By providing more flexibility, the developer is able to render innovative communication systems and reach a wider audience.

 

A unified messaging scalable system requirement further complicates the picture. Consider a typical corporate customer: He already has an out dated fax server and wants to upgrade to newer technology. He’d like to keep his old hardware since he paid a lot for it a few years ago.

 

He may start out with a pilot fax server system of 4 ports (using old hardware) but wants to go up to 36 or 48 ports and wants to add voice mail at a later time (getting some new hardware). In addition he wants to do a large volume of fax broadcasting once a week sharing fax and voice resources.

 

A similar scenario: the customer is already sold on the hardware and shopping for a software solution but insists on using one hardware vendor for faxing and another for voice mail. In both situations, unless your fax or voice mail server supports a variety of hardware you’ve lost the sale.