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From the article:

"While Asterisk and the SIP protocol lack some of the more extensive features on the Cisco CallManager..."

This may be true for vanilla Asterisk, but there is an extensive community adding a wide range of additional features and services to Asterisk. For example, <plug>our Enswitch product</plug> provides a layer of billing and commercial services on top of Asterisk and SIP Express Router. Having work extensively with both Asterisk and CCM, I would claim that with Asterisk plus all the applications that work with it already surpasses the features of CCM, and Asterisk has the momentum behind it. Over the next few years, CCM will fall further behind, and before long Asterisk will be the dominant telephony platform in the same way Apache is the dominant web server platform now.

For those who are interested in VoIP for business, I've written some online guides:

VoIP for business

How ISPs can sell VoIP services to their customers

For those who are interested in VoIP for business, I've written some online guides:

VoIP for business

How ISPs can sell VoIP services to their customers

This is exactly what my company does for VoIP, including Asterisk and SER. Our customers are mostly ISPs and companies replacing PBXs. It can be a tough sell at times, but getting easier as these products mature and more and more ISPs want to offer VoIP to their customers.

However, we still have a quite a customers who want something commercial, such as Cisco Call Manager.

I'm very hazey on VoiceXML and your Integrics glossary doesn't really cover this - is the voice data for the menus actually stored in the XML in some binary form, or does it just link to audio files that are expected to be available?

More importantly, how useful are TtS and VR technologies these days? Does TtS still sound like Steven Hawking? Seriously, I can accept that it could be recognizably machine created, but IMHO it's fairly useless for the mass market unless it's clear. The TtS I've been trying out lately has been fairly inaudible when calling up services over VoIP. Dammit, I want to be able to listen to fortunes being read out to me!

Xain

What's particularly interesting with this product is that it includes a VoiceXML browser.

For those who aren't aware, VoiceXML is a cross platform markup language, visually similar to HTML, for writing IVR applications. VoiceXML pages can be served from any web server, and converted to voice on an VoiceXML browser. It interfaces seamlessly to Text To Speech and Voice Recognition servers.

My company, Integrics Ltd, does Asterisk, Cisco Call Manager, and SER installations. Up to now, we've done IVRs using Asterisk AGI for smaller systems, and VoiceXML on Cisco 2800 routers for larger systems. Being able to run VoiceXML on a free platform on Linux is going to be very interesting our customers. Needless to say, we're getting up to speed on sipX, and will be offering installation and development services as soon as it's mature.

What's particularly interesting with this product is that it includes a VoiceXML browser.

For those who aren't aware, VoiceXML is a cross platform markup language, visually similar to HTML, for writing IVR applications. VoiceXML pages can be served from any web server, and converted to voice on an VoiceXML browser. It interfaces seamlessly to Text To Speech and Voice Recognition servers.

My company, Integrics Ltd, does Asterisk, Cisco Call Manager, and SER installations. Up to now, we've done IVRs using Asterisk AGI for smaller systems, and VoiceXML on Cisco 2800 routers for larger systems. Being able to run VoiceXML on a free platform on Linux is going to be very interesting our customers. Needless to say, we're getting up to speed on sipX, and will be offering installation and development services as soon as it's mature.

What's particularly interesting with this product is that it includes a VoiceXML browser.

For those who aren't aware, VoiceXML is a cross platform markup language, visually similar to HTML, for writing IVR applications. VoiceXML pages can be served from any web server, and converted to voice on an VoiceXML browser. It interfaces seamlessly to Text To Speech and Voice Recognition servers.

My company, Integrics Ltd, does Asterisk, Cisco Call Manager, and SER installations. Up to now, we've done IVRs using Asterisk AGI for smaller systems, and VoiceXML on Cisco 2800 routers for larger systems. Being able to run VoiceXML on a free platform on Linux is going to be very interesting our customers. Needless to say, we're getting up to speed on sipX, and will be offering installation and development services as soon as it's mature.

Are you perhaps falling into the trap of doing fixed price work that takes many more hours than expected? There's no faster way to bring your effective rate down...

What percentage of the time do you have work? Are you always marketing, especially building contacts? Having a wide range of contacts is the surest way to a steady revenue stream.

Are you underselling your skills? Remember the old marketing adage: Never compete on price. Instead compete on features and service. As any retailer will tell you, the top end of the market is a much more pleasant place than the bottom, simply because the margins are so much better. Only Wal-Mart can compete at the bottom. If you don't have the skills or experience to compete at the top end of the market, get them!

Blatent plug: I run Integrics Ltd, doing software consulting, mostly VoIP and databases. If you're looking for Cisco Call Manager / Asterisk / PostgreSQL / MySQL skills, remote or onsite worldwide, give me a call.