The more time, money and effort an organisation needs to devote to provisioning and managing IP endpoints, the fewer resources they have to focus on growing their business. Swoop Datacom has tapped into years of experience in the IP-PBX and handset manufacturing spheres to come up with a new solution for those who need faster, more effective strategies for hardware deployment in the UC industry.
Now the leading cloud-based system for end-to-end lifecycle management, "ForgeServe" empowers users to simplify their access to complex technologies, leading to more feature-rich and accessible experiences. I spoke to CEO of Swoop Datacom, John Bennett, about this enticing new technology and what it means to the future of unified communications.
What is ForgeServe?
Designed by Swoop Datacom - a relatively new pure software company that launched in 2015, ForgeServe was designed to fill an obvious gap in the IP market. Bennett told me that the founders of the company all came from a background which involved creating IP endpoints and PBXs,
"We knew how difficult it was to deploy and manage SIP devices, and there was no established solution out there designed to serve all customer needs."
By creating a cloud-based solution that fits seamlessly into the distribution and channel partner experience, Swoop Datacom have introduced a vendor-agnostic solution that complements logistics, automates deployment processes, and supports vendors.
"Essentially, ForgeServe is about connecting any IP phone from any supported vendor, to hundreds of potential call control platforms, all the way from Microsoft Skype or Teams, to BroadSoft. Our purpose is to connect people without the need for manual intervention, with a true "zero-touch" provisioning methodology."
Superfast IP Endpoint Deployment
While ForgeServe is undeniably innovative in the support it can provide, I was keen to find out more about the responses that Swoop Datacom has received from its customers.
"It's a revelation to our customers in a lot of instances."
John noted that the manual intervention previously required to deploy an IP telephone was huge - requiring a significant amount of training and background knowledge. Engineers would have to visit customer sites, come up with strategies for rollouts based on configurations and networks, and spend weeks setting everything up.
"ForgeServe pre-automates everything in a software application based in the cloud. This means that provisioning can become effortless. There's no manual intervention needed, and resellers are free to create their competitive edge with personalised systems and services."
According to Bennett, ForgeServe gives resellers and customers the freedom to enjoy a more granular deployment and management experience. In fact, it can even remove the cost of having to send an engineer out to a business when something goes wrong, which from an ROI perspective is significant. "We reduce operating expenses so that service teams can reallocate their resources to more important tasks ."
Exploring "No More Plug and Pray"
The tagline for ForgeServe is "No more plug and pray" - an exciting concept, and a term I was interested to learn more about. John explained that the founders behind Swoop Datacom used to make IP handsets for a living, which meant they knew how difficult it can be to invest in technology and provision new communication devices. Until ForgeServe, there was no one service out there for simplifying the process.
"We're the only company that's multi-tier, multi-vendor, and designed to complement each customer at their chosen level. We allow our distributors to create value-added services for their customers that allow end-users to truly empower their teams. ForgeServe even offers a tool that allows support engineers to deliver remote support for diagnosing issues, remote-rebooting, and more."
The remote management service means that companies can set up devices in different departments, and locations, but maintain the same control from a single management space. ForgeServe allows managed service providers and helpdesk teams to dig down into the granular information they need for lifecycle management, replacing the old "break-fix" maintenance solution. "This means we can support companies with complete visibility over customer assets, allowing distributors to deliver real value to their customers."
