Infratel Launches Cloud Calling/Voice Solution for SMB
Posted on August 11th, 2011
Infratel, a provider of call center and telephony services, announced the launch of a new hosted voice solution for the SMB market at HostingCon 2011. The new offering features the ability to create unique inbound calling paths, rule based call routing capabilities, setting do-not-distrub statuses, and separate mailbox creation for business and end-users. This cloud based option would bolster the company’s appeal for small and medium sized businesses that would not typically be able to pay for large scale infrastructure and installation for a traditional voice solution.
Jim Southwell, general manager of Infratel’s North American operations commented on the new offering and the opportunities it could open:
“Cloud computing has created an amazing opportunity for SMBs to immediately level the playing field when it comes to accessing phone systems equivalent to the ones used by their larger competitors. We’re currently selecting top web hosting firms to partner with us in distributing the service and hope to make a major impact in the market during 2012.”
This announcement comes on the heels of its recent partnership announcements with Parallels, a provider of virtualization and automation software, and SugarCRM, a CRM software provider with social media capabilities. With the technology offered by Parallels virtualization/automation software integrated into Infratel’s call center platform, the hosted offering could offer much in terms of functionality and power. SugarCRM’s notable social media relationship management capabilities might also be leveraged in this new cloud based solution to provide a robust multimodal/multichannel contact center solution.
Spearhead
With the new cloud offering and partnerships with complementary software companies, Infratel appears to be getting serious about its North American market push. The company established its presence in America only 7 months ago as it opened its Seattle headquarters. Southwell has publicly stated that the company is looking to grow its North American base dramatically in 2011:
“Our expansion into North America marks a major step towards our goal of becoming a truly global company. We’re just beginning to get set-up here but already have some new U.S. customers on-board and look to grow that base dramatically in 2011.”
Infratel launched in Europe in 1999 and the company has historically been strong in the European and Asian markets. If Infratel is successful in integrating the CRM, social media, virtualization, and automation technologies of its partners into its cloud offering then the company could become a powerful player in the contact center software industry. Combined with its focus on the SMB market, a large and rapidly growing segment, Infratel looks to be betting on massive growth.What do you think about Infratel’s new cloud calling and voice solution? Will it be adopted by SMBs with open arms? Can Infratel break into the call center software market with this offering? Share your thoughts in the comments below.