Digium
Digium Incorporated is based in Huntsville, Alabama, specialising in communications technology. Since 2018 it has been a subsidiary of Sangoma Technologies, a corporation that provides CaaS (Communications as a Service) solutions worldwide to businesses of varying scales.
Mark Spencer founded Digium whilst a computer engineering student at Auburn University. Born in 1977, the American computer engineer’s parents were professors at the university whilst he attended it. His connection with the university was expensive, with another of its professors, Thaddeus Roppel, also mentoring him at high school.
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History of Digium
Perhaps Digium’s most unique product from its early days is Asterisk. It allowed phone calls to be made over the internet, a technology previously restricted to hardware-dependent PBX systems, which could cost up to five times as much. This was previously a vendor-locked business, and innovation was pretty stifled.
The impact of the technology was responsible for “ “wreaking havoc on the multibillion-dollar phone equipment business” and “disrupting the £7 billion market for office telecom (PBX) switches”, according to Forbes magazine. According to the website UCToday, Asterisk is the most widely used open-source communication software globally.
- In September 2018, Digium confirmed that it was to be bought by the publicly traded, Toronto based communications supplier Sangoma technologies.
- Amongst Sangoma’s most widely known products were their session border controllers, SIP station offering and stewardship of the hugely successful FreePBX Project.
- At the time, Digium and Sangoma were two of the world’s most enormous open-source communications suppliers, thanks to FreePBX and Asterisk.
- However, even after the acquisition, Digium was still known as Digium, A Sangoma Company, as it remained as a legal entity and undertook operations as a Sangoma subsidiary
- The deal did not mean there were plans for either side to undertake large channel structural changes or discontinue any products immediately. Instead, the deal was mainly focused on financial strength, the scale of the organisations and coming up with solutions and innovations for complimentary products and people.
The CEO and President of Sangoma said, “Our relationship and mutual respect allows us both to know that the strategic fit between the two businesses is excellent”. He added that “During a time of industry consolidation, this transformative merger is another bold step for us in implementing our strategy to scale up and increase shareholder value, by augmenting our organic growth with complementary M&A opportunities.”
While many consumers became worried that Asterisk was under threat as a result of the deal, Wignall assured people that “Sangoma recognises the value of Asterisk and is committed to keeping it open source. We will continue to invest in its development and to seek input from the broad base of developers that has led to its outstanding success.” However, it is still to be seen how long this commitment can be kept up for. It is widely argued that such open-source products are not hugely beneficial to many companies’ quests for profit, even if open-source is massively conducive to innovation.
Phone System Terminology |
CCR Tree |
Voicemail |
Auto-Attendant |
ACD |
IVR |
This refers to the part of a Voicemail, IVR or Automated Attendant system that designates the departments and extensions to which callers are routed. |
Voicemail Systems can be operated by simple devices such as answering machines, remotely operated as with your mobile phone voicemail, or added to a business phone system. |
The term Automated attendant is essentially the same as ACD |
These work by answering incoming calls that then allow the caller to choose a menu, group of extensions or singular extension to which the call is routed. |
This is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans using voice commands or tones from a telephone keypad
|
Digium Information
The combined organisation now provides phone systems with an impressive list of companies. Some of the most reputable include Domino’s Spotify, iHeart Radio, QVC, Craiglist, Grabhub, Enterprise, Telecom Italia, Brooklyn Law School, Posadas, Cinvestav and Virginia Women’s Centre.
- People turn to Digium and Sangoma from over 150 countries. Not only do large businesses use the products and services available, but it has also come in handy for developers, system integrators, small businesses, enterprises and service providers.
- Nowadays, most customers choose between Cloud and ‘On-Prem’ (premises) options.
- With Cloud communications, there is a lot less to worry about in terms of maintenance for the customer. It usually works by having your phone system hosted for a monthly rate kept relatively low.
Alternatively, On-Prem uses Switchvox. This technology is a plug-and-play business phone system that utilises advanced Unified Communications features to keep customers satisfied. It utilises enterprise-grade features, and the company proudly cites its award-winning design as proof that Switchvox isn’t a VoIP system that can be lumped in with the other options out there. The company has made scheduling a demo for Switchvox relatively easy. Go onto the Sangoma website, and you’ll see the ‘Get A Demo’ option. From here, you can fill in a form including what you’re primarily interested in and any questions you have, and someone will get back to you.
Digium – To Conclude
Several features make the significant number of customers that flock to the organisation stay. The reporting and analytics tools are viral and help customers keep on top of what they’re doing well, measure progress and adjust accordingly so that they can make the most of the service that they’re paying for. The options for customisation and integration also help make the experience seamless and ensure that using Sangoma’s service remains smooth. In the few cases where any problems are found here, the 24/7 customer support helps get things ironed out as quickly as possible.
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