Tomorrow BroadSoft, a VoIP software provider for telecom companies that’s been around since 1998, will officially announce a platform for integrating voice into web applications. The company’s new offering, BroadSoft Xtended, will enable developers to add voice capabilities to their applications and then showcase these applications in a centralized directory called the Xtended Marketplace.
Comparisons can be drawn most easily to Ribbit, which late last year debuted its own platform for integrating voice into web apps; the company even went so far as to call itself “Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company.” The idea of integrating VoIP into web apps, of course, is not restricted to these two companies: Jangl, Jaxtr, and TringMe all let you add simple call buttons to your website, for example. These aren’t exactly platforms, however - for another one of these, you’d have to look at something like MyVox, Lypp, or BT’s CallFlow, which was announced very recently itself.
Like Ribbit, BroadSoft doesn’t yet have many applications built on its platform and available for consumers - as of today just an Internet Explorer toolbar called Assistant Xtended and a Salesforce “unified connector”, although we’re told a dozen applications will be available tomorrow. Among these will be a Facebook application called ClicktoMessage that will allow users to place calls from profile pages. Except for this Facebook app, users who place calls using apps built on top of BroadSoft will need to be customers of one of the company’s 300 service providers, which include 7 of the top 10 carriers in the US (such as Verizon and Sprint).
One thing that’s not clear is how BroadSoft plans to make money from its platform. Developers will be able to use it for free and license their creations to service providers and end users for a price. This scheme contrasts with Ribbit’s plan to charge developers per call, and MyVox’s system of making money off voice advertisements.
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Still love my Skype
Both Broadsoft and Sylantro had their day in the sun. These companies have raised over $100M each. There is no way that the company can survive going head to head with Web 2.0 Telco Platforms. The ONLY large company similar to Broadsoft and Sylantro that has done pretty well is Cedar Point Communications and that is because they focused on selling to cable companies ONLY (right place right time, IPO in ‘08?).
Aside from the gross amount of capital raised and burned the Broadsoft culture perhaps will act as the greatest barrier to overcome. I wish them well.
Believe it or not Microsoft with their acquisition of TellMe has the best chance of becoming the defacto Telco2.0. (yes, they have beat GOOG to the punch)
Ribbit charges by the minute for land line calls (5 cents/min for one hop.., 8 cents for two hop). VOIP calls between two online users will be free.
I was able to attend the Ribbit Spawn developer event this past Sunday.., very cool to see what they are doing.
I can wait to see what broadsoft does in this space as well.., competition is always a good thing. Especially when its competition for developers and their skillz.
Just peeped the broadsoft site.., no real info yet.., API/biz model, etc. I cant wait to see if their API is as easy to use as Ribbits.
Posting on Ribbit Spawn here:
http://kaiyzen.com/?p=95
One somewhat more nuanced point here is that there are different service definition, sales, and distribution/propagation models for the enterprise versus the residential space. Particularly in enterprise, we’ve found that Broadsoft is hard to catch up with in the space of hosted telephony application servers. The most obvious and immediate market for the “XTended” interface is in vertical enterprise applications that carriers will market directly to their existing and prospective subscriber base.
Mark,
Broadsoft is really making a significant move in the space so it is more of a real play in a shorter time frame than some of the fair haired Valley start ups can hope accomplish, since they can do it faster.
Distribution remains the key to any companies success and Broadsoft already has an that with both an installed customer base and a sales force which can showcase the apps to those customers. The annual Broadsoft event which is for their customers also provides a springboard for the developers gives them two legs up over the start ups here in the Valley.
Mark, if you are going to mention Broadsoft and Ribbit you should likely include vendors that are providing web service-based Telephony, Call Control and VoIP APIs.
Lypp comes to mind.
http://lypp.com/api
This is some more information about the Xtended initative.
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2.....technology
Thanks for posting about our new offering. We launched our Xtended Marketplace today with an initial 12 applications (http://marketplace.broadsoft.com/).
At BroadSoft, we see our role as enabling developers to build great applications on top of our market leading platform. Some developers will make the applications available for download, others will link to their own websites.
Also, stay tuned for integration with Microsoft that will be on the Marketplace soon. It provides a complete unified communications experience on a proven telephony platform.
Mike, BroadSoft Xtended
@Erik - thanks for pointing that out, adding to post
@Mark, a correction…
TringMe already offers a platform (http://tringswitch.com ) which was launched in Jan this year. It’s called TringSwitch. API and documentation is currently private and available for select companies only (who will be launching their product based on TS), we will soon open it for all:
Btw, Goebel mentioned it last month:
http://www.goebel.net/technews.....ibbit.html .
TringMe demonstrated the platform at HeadStart and has captured their experience at http://blog.tringme.com/tringme-at-headstart-2008/ which alludes to TringSwitch as well.
As of my inbox this morning at 8am, BroadSoft intends to aquire Genband’s M6 product line a.k.a. last year known as Tekelec T6000 a.k.a. previously known as VocalData VOISS.
http://broadsoft.com/Newsroom/.....server.htm