Toshiba thinks small for IP
Telecoms division changes business model to focus on IP telephony
Toshiba's telecoms division has changed its business model to focus on IP telephony in the SME market and will sign more VARs in the next few months.
The firm recently launched a range of IP-enabled PBXs supporting 544 extensions or 670 ports aimed at the mid-market, known as the CTX.
Toshiba also offers a soft switch, SME systems, unified messaging and call-centre capabilities. Its six-year-old DK280 switch can also be upgraded with an IP card.
"Our model has changed over the past 18 months," said Tim Webb, general manager of Toshiba Telecoms in the UK.
Webb sees the firm's main competitors as Samsung, Panasonic, Siemens, as well as more traditional voice and data players such as Avaya, Cisco, 3Com and Mitel.
Mike Hancock, managing director of reseller Bistech, said the vendor had offered, and continued to offer, a smooth progression path for its products.
"We are pretty excited by the CTX because it seems to be the best compromise [between legacy PBX and pure IP systems]," said Hancock.
"It's mostly to do with Toshiba's attitude towards resiliency. The product can soft-fail, so if something goes wrong, it doesn't just leave the users without a dial tone."
Toshiba currently distributes through Nimans and SAS. It will also offer site surveys and training as incentives to VARs.
However, the vendor faces an uphill struggle against more entrenched hybrid PBX offerings in the UK, as well as relative newcomers such as Zultys, Quescom and Altigen, all of which have set up sales operations in the UK within the past few months and have announced plans to attack the SME market.
The firm must also contend with established vendors such as Avaya, Nortel and Alcatel, which have larger channels.
Despite the growing number of pure IP telephony vendors, however, the market for hybrid phone systems using both legacy architecture and IP telephony is almost 10 times the size of the pure IP market, according to research firm Canalys.