U.S. VAR Franchise Dials Asterisk, Open Source and Fonality

Asterisk — the open source IP PBX — has dialed up another opportunity in the IT channel. This one involves Computer Troubleshooters, a major channel player that has more than 200 U.S. solution provider franchises. The VAR Guy hears Computer Troubleshooters will increasingly promote Fonality’s IP PBX solution. Here’s the scoop.

“We started building a Fonality relationship in 2004, and we’ve steadily been enhancing that relationship over the years,” notes Chip Reaves, CEO of Computer Troubleshooters. “This year we were in a situation where it made sense for us and for Fonality to make it more official and really push the program through the entire U.S. franchise network (200+ locations).”

Fonality, which landed on The VAR Guy’s most recent Open Source 50 report — has a growing presence in the IT channel. Dell and Tech Data both have offered Fonality’s VoIP solutions to their customers and channel partners.

Although Asterisk is most closely associated with Digium, plenty of third-party software companies leverage and add value to Asterisk. Fonality is one of them. “[Fonality] is part of a program we call our Enhanced Solutions catalog,” says Reaves. “We see this as the extension of our managed services program. Managed services as it stands today probably has a limited lifespan as you know, so we use that as a foundation and then build new solutions on top of it in these other areas.”

Computer Troubleshooters, meanwhile, has been building MSP-oriented relationships with Autotask and NTGglobal, among others.

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