Digium and Polycom announce a high-quality VoIP solution for small and medium-size businesses that simplifies the technical aspects of purchasing, configuring and deploying a complete VoIP phone system. The integrated solution, featuring the Digium AsteriskNOW software appliance and Polycom SoundPoint IP desktop phones can significantly lower the time and technical expertise needed to deploy a high quality VoIP solution; enabling more small and medium businesses to enjoy the cost savings, enhanced quality and productivity benefits of advanced IP telephony.

The simplified purchasing, configuration and deployment process is enabled by new capabilities in the Digium AsteriskNOW software appliance, including a one-click function called BuyNOW that enables customers to purchase Polycom SoundPoint IP phones, and an intuitive configuration process that automatically provisions the phones for immediate customer use. In addition, Digium's Asterisk software now supports Polycom HD Voice technology that enables calls with twice the clarity and sound quality of traditional analog calls.

"This expanded offering with Polycom makes it even easier for SMBs to deploy and manage an Asterisk-based solution -- from the beginning stages to deploying the phones," said Mark Spencer, president and CEO at Digium. "This development is part of our overall strategy to offer an easy, rapid migration to VoIP in an enterprise environment. Partnering with Polycom further emphasizes our commitment to providing users with a simple Asterisk installation, based on only the best quality products."

"Many small and medium businesses want an advanced, high quality and affordable VoIP solution, but the technical challenges can be a barrier," said Sunil Bhalla, senior vice president and general manager, voice communications at Polycom. "We are working with partners like Digium to deliver unique capabilities like Polycom HD Voice and to simplify the deployment process. As open source continues to play an important role in the evolution to VoIP, we look forward to working with Digium to provide innovative, cutting-edge solutions that help customers make this important transition."

The BuyNOW feature, within AsteriskNOW's Digium-designed GUI, greatly simplifies the phone purchasing process by immediately connecting users to NETXUSA, a recognized leading distributor of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products and services. With regional distribution offices and in-house certified engineers, NETXUSA assists business customers with the entire Digium-Polycom implementation. Polycom's full line of award winning and industry leading standards-based phones are available through BuyNOW including: the SoundPoint IP 650 with HD Voice, SoundPoint IP 601, SoundPoint IP 501, SoundPoint IP 430, SoundPoint IP 301 and SoundPoint IP Expansion Module. The line also includes the SoundStation® IP 4000, Polycom's market leading SIP-based conference phone.

The AsteriskNOW GUI also includes a simplified process for configuring and provisioning Polycom's full line of SoundPoint IP phones. The interface provides a step by step process that helps the user select from the broad array of features that are available in a combined Asterisk and Polycom solution. Once the selection process is complete, the configuration is automatically downloaded to the phone which immediately becomes active on the system.

In addition to the updates in the AsteriskNOW GUI, the Asterisk open source software (release 1.4.0) now supports Polycom's breakthrough HD Voice technology delivering the ultimate communications experience. Polycom's HD Voice includes wideband audio, enhanced signal processing, Acoustic Clarity Technology (which includes next generation technologies for transparent full duplex, echo cancellation, dynamic noise reduction, automatic gain control and microphone management) and specialized system design to deliver unrivaled clarity and richness. This enables significantly better voice clarity and improved intelligibility of information, which significantly improves comprehension and productivity while reducing listener fatigue. Polycom HD Voice is currently available on the SoundPoint IP 650 telephone.

These new capabilities are the result of collaborative efforts between Digium and Polycom and follow the recent announcement of their partnership to supply Polycom SIP-based phones as the exclusive phone in Digium's currently available Asterisk Appliance Developer Kit. Combined with Digium's Asterisk Business Edition, SMB customers benefit not only from a rich feature base capable of rapid deployments; but also, from a more affordable telephony solution as compared to proprietary systems