The Clyp Case

Essentially, it needed to be developed from ground up in order to enable the connection of the software with modern communication hardware and to improve scalability of the system beyond the typical customer size Clyp was currently serving, which did not include enterprises with more than 500 IP extensions

Mark was concerned that Clyp was focusing too much on the software and its features and too little on business advantages and user experience.

But times had changed; CIOs in most businesses today knew VoIP and were demanding it. In fact, any new sales in the industry were IP-based, with old legacy solutions being replaced step-by-step. Also, the telecommunications landscape had changed: Many telco carriers were offering fixed cost plans for corporate customers, so that the cost for placing phone calls had dropped significantly, eroding the direct cost advantage of VoIP.

Mark knew that these soft facts needed a different communications approach.

All in all, why not stress the productivity gains companies might realize through integrated media management or frame the product’s reliability differently?

Siemens was able to give away their software almost for free, as they could subsidize it via the phone sales. Clyp, however, with its two-tier distribution structure had three parties tapping into the margin for the phones and was thus often not able to match the prices.

Having learned that most products in the market for IP-based telephony solutions were more and more similar, at least on paper, and having realized that the market was increasingly competitive in terms of pricing, Mark was keen to explore new options for the future.

For quite a while he had had an eye on neighboring markets and had realized that another major development was in the making. After the market had seen convergence of data and voice on the infrastructure level, the next step in convergence was imminent, namely the convergence of telephony and business software under the...