ComputerGate, CMS BOS ally on VoIP

Melbourne service provider ComputerGate Australia has signed a heads-of-agreement with distributor CMS Better Online Solutions (CMS BOS) to sell VoIP products and services.

Mario Greco, managing director at ComputerGate, said the companies were joining forces, moving into shared premises in outer Melbourne suburb Mt Waverley and working together on sales and support.

"We now have a strategic alliance with CMS BOS and we are providing their support services around Australia," he said.

The agreement wouldn't be finalised until mid-year but the companies had already begun working together, he added.

Greco said CMS BOS distributed SMB-focused VoIP offerings, such as BOSaNOVA VoIP gateways and Quasar Cellular Gateway products. CMS BOS was a partner of Israel-based BOSCom and US-based Nlynx Technologies.

Few established VoIP vendors offered suitable product for SMBs. Yet SMBs were ready to deploy VoIP, he said.

"VoIP is the flavour of the month. Everyone's talking about it," he said.

Widespread broadband adoption was speeding SMB interest in IP telephony, especially as regional rollouts made inroads, Greco said.

BOSCom products included a gateway that users could channel voice traffic via traditional PABX to the internet. It sat between the PABX and IP network, he said.

"We've set up quite an extensive business model to introduce a number of resellers to the product and that has grown considerably. We've got new resellers starting to sell to their customer base," Greco said.

He said last year people wanted to learn about VoIP, but this year business users were actually starting to buy the products.

"We have targeted sales in the first year of about $1million. We believe we will reach that quite easily," Greco said.

ComputerGate turned over $1.1million last year and was hoping for $1.7million this year. That would be a struggle, Greco said, but he believed the company would at least get to $1.5million.

"So much has changed from two or three years ago," he said.

Greco said ComputerGate over the past year had become more services-focused. Extended warranties and support for vendor partners such as Tandberg, Exabyte, Snap and Adaptec were half the company's business.

Both companies also partnered IBM, he said.