By Khali Henderson

Digium Inc., creators of the Asterisk open-source telephony software, today announced the release of Switchvox SMB 3.5 and the AA60 Switchvox Appliance. Both will be available March 31.

The introduction is in line with Digiums efforts to reach a traditional reseller channel, including the release of its first appliance, the AA50, last summer; the acquisition of Asterisk developer Switchvox in fall 2007, and the inking of a distribution agreement with Westcon Group Inc. today.

As a follow on to the AA50 Asterisk Appliance, Digium is releasing the AA60 Switchvox Appliance, which weighs about 10 pounds and can be wall-mounted. Its SIP ready and support one to eight analog ports or a T1/E1 line.

A primary difference between the AA50 and the AA60 is the latter includes Switchvoxs improved GUI. The AA60 appliance, which is designed for smaller business customers, replaces the previously available versions of Switchvox SOHO and SMB that ran on a PC towers. Switchvox SMB also is available on redundant and non-redundant servers for larger businesses.

Switchvox IP PBX products deliver the functions typically associated with proprietary systems, but also provide features that bridge the gap between the business phone system and the power of Web 2.0. For example, integration with CRM applications Salesforce.com and SugarCRM, as well as Google Maps, enables users to create custom mashups in seconds using the Switchvox SMB Switchboard interface. In this way, when individuals receive calls, they can have useful information from internal company databases or external Web applications automatically displayed: a real estate agent sees the properties his caller has expressed interest in, a hiring manager sees the blogs and Facebook page his caller has created and a doctors receptionist sees insurance information for his caller all in real time.

Tristan Degenhardt, Switchvox product line director at Digium, said one of the improvements in Switchvox SMB version 3.5 is the ability for resellers or administrators to set up large systems more quickly. For example, she said there is an ability to define schemas to automatically map extensions to DIDs, a process that previously was handled one extension at a time.

In addition, she said Digium added multilevel support to the Switchvox administrative console. It now allows for super administrators, sub administrators and users. Previously, it was only administrators and users. Each level can include defined permissions on an individual basis. Resellers are particularly interested in that, Degenhardt said, noting it enables them to define customers as sub administrators in the system and maintain control over more technical settings.

Another improvement concerns phone configuration, said Degenhardt. Version 3.5 allows for self-discovery of IP phones connected to the system. Administrators simply need to confirm that a phone is a legitimate end point, type in the user info and it is automatically added to the system. The admin can also have users key in their info in large deployments.