NetPhone takes aim at corporate intranets

NetPhone Inc. is changing course by focusing its marketing efforts for its Internet protocol phone products at large enterprise accounts, with 100 to 1400 users, leaving smaller customers to a partnership with IBM's computer telephony business solutions group. IBM has a previous agreement to act as an OEM for NetPhone's voice-over-IP hardware and software. The effort also will put NetPhone more into the carrier market.

"IBM is essentially taking over the business we have had until now," said Mike Katz, NetPhone's director of marketing. "We will also be able to market more effectively to carriers who want to add value to their corporate IP offerings." NetPhone will continue to support clients to whom IBM sells its products.

NetPhone's main products are NetPhone Connect IP telephony gateway and NetPhone IPBX, an integrated IP intranet-based PBX. Both offer a fail-over feature that moves calls automatically from a corporate data network to the public network if IP call quality falls below an adjustable threshold.

"That kind of reliability is important to big corporate customers, and therefore it's important to the carriers that serve them," Katz said. "Before air travel became reliable, the airlines used to pack parachutes on every plane. Someday, IP telephony won't need these parachutes; but that day isn't here yet."

This shift in focus mirrors a telecom trend to intranets. According to figures publicized by NetPhone in announcing the change, the FCC has found that 40% of corporate phone traffic travels among a company's proprietary locations.