Fax over Cloud Fax over IP Showcase. Special Report. Review of FoIP Middleware Providers. March By: Mark D. Malone

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1 Fax over Cloud Fax over IP Showcase Special Report Review of FoIP Middleware Providers March 2014 By: Mark D. Malone 1

2 Summary Fax Server and Unified Messaging providers recognize a growing demand for fax over IP (FoIP) technology. Because of this, the need to choose their embedded FoIP solution carefully is important. The group of vendors offering FoIP stacks is small, with most claiming to have the best solution. Regardless of the small number of solution providers however, competition prevails and that means ISVs and Service Providers do have choices to make. So, it is important that fax and UM software manufacturers and service providers are assured that a 3 rd - party FoIP stack is going to pass muster on a few fronts within their organization. These include development, product management, sales, and support all groups within a fax or UM ISV that are affected by the FoIP middleware choice. This report will examine three (3) FoIP software providers and offer comparative reviews of each vendor s FoIP solution. A product feature and capability comparison is provided along with feedback that was gathered during interviews with a handful of ISVs who have recently integrated their fax or UM servers with an upcoming contender in the industry, TE-SYSTEMS. The ISVs provide general feedback about their experiences with TE-SYSTEMS XCAPI product and how it compares against similar products from FoIP middleware vendors Dialogic and Commetrex. In addition, feedback and validation were gathered directly from FoIP/VoIP middleware providers TE-SYSTEMS, Dialogic and Commetrex. The report concludes with commentary and observations about TE-SYSTEMS and Dialogic specifically. Market Overview According to recently published research, the Unified Communications (UC) market segment will be experiencing a compound annual growth rate of 15.85% from 2012 to Contributing to this double digit growth is said to be the fax and unified messaging segments both a subset of UC. Feedback from ISVs interviewed for this report confirms modest double digit growth in fax -- mainly driven by cloud faxing and fax over IP initiatives. In addition to the market data, ISVs interviewed have confirmed that demand for FoIP is growing for a handful of reasons. A summary of market drivers that play a key role in the growth of FoIP are summarized below. FoIP/VoIP Market Driver Widespread migrations to VoIP/UM platforms from traditional phone systems (services or on-premise). Growing use of session initiated protocol (SIP)-based trunks Comments Worldwide business VoIP service revenue is forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 7% CAGR from 2012 to 2017, compared to a 3% CAGR for residential/soho VoIP services. 2 SIP trunking helps a company manage call volumes more efficiently than legacy systems and helps lower costs associated with traditional telecommunication lines. Revenue from SIP trunking services to businesses is 1 Source: TechNavio: Citing Sources: [ para.1 [Oct. 20, 2013] 2 Source: Infonetics Research: Citing Sources: [ html]: para. 3 [Oct. 23, 2013] 2

3 Need for UM server virtualization Demand for fax hybrid solutions forecast by Infonetics to grow at a phenomenal 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to Virtualization reduces cost of ownership of a UM application and helps reduce datacenter footprints. Virtualization is a hot topic and significant driver for organizations to invest in FoIP/VoIP systems that are software-based and thus can deploy in a virtual environment. This report concluded that the demand for hybrid fax systems is one of the largest drivers for growth in FoIP providers and carriers. The fax server operates on the customer s premise while the telephony systems are cloud based making the fax solution a hybrid. 4 Critical issues for FoIP integrators FoIP integrators include ISVs and service providers who develop fax and/or unified messaging systems. They face pressures to constantly evolve their products in order to keep up with changing platforms, operating systems, technology updates and competition among other things. One evolving technology is FoIP -- and acquiring FoIP middleware into a Fax or UM server application affects various parts of the ISV s business as a whole. Those ISVs or service providers that are making decisions to host FoIP or VoIP middleware in their products have business needs that must be met by their provider s solution: Internal Responsibility Product Management Developers Support Sales and Channel Managers FoIP Integration: Critical Business Issues Seeks FoIP/VoIP solutions that can go to market quickly as an integral part of their fax server or UM application or service. Need lower costs of goods for the FoIP stack via ongoing support or maintenance with costs that are reasonable. Seeks a solution that can support BRI/T1 migrations to VoIP or a SIP provider. Also look for UM solutions that offer IVR/ACD features, along with fax. Should look for a middleware vendor that offers a core solution and not a niche product in their overall portfolio. Need FoIP middleware that can integrate seamlessly. Need an easy to use SDK or API and various troubleshooting tools. Require easy to configure FoIP solutions that result in less need for development support. Need quality post-sale support, at low cost. Will demand middleware solutions that provide troubleshooting support tools. Seeks a solution that adds features without changing expensive hardware. Need to demonstrate product superiority by added value, especially in their company s choice of FoIP middleware. Remain competitive in small, medium and larger end customer deals with 3 Source: Infonetics research: Citing Sources: [ Highlights.asp]: para. 3 [Oct. 5, 2011] 4 Another definition of a hybrid fax system is using a mix of hardware (PSTN) fax boards and FoIP software fax interfaces in the same deployment. 3

4 End Customers an easy licensing and flexible selling model. Offer end customers FoIP choices based on price flexibility, appropriate feature sets and interoperability. Needs a quality product with aggressive pricing to win more business. Demand high-available, reliable faxing -- end to end. Provable interoperability and certification testing are a must to win end customer confidence. Customers will ask for choices for their FoIP and need to understand the differences of the available solutions. FoIP/VoIP Supplier Profiles As mentioned previously Fax and UM Server developers who require FoIP middleware must turn to an industry that has few suppliers. There is an established U.S. leader, Dialogic, who controls the majority of the market space. Their SR140 product line is a well known softwarebased FoIP solution and because of it they currently have the largest percentage of the FoIP market share worldwide. This is changing quickly however given current organizational setbacks and restructuring, combined with healthy competition amongst the vendors. They also grew over the past years as a result of acquisitions. To date, the list of consolidated Dialogic brands include: Dialogic, Brooktrout, Gammalink, Eicon and NMS. Another vendor is Commetrex, who is seen as a niche player that sells FoIP technology via an OEM business model. And finally there is TE-SYSTEMS, a veritable rising star from Germany who is making inroads into North American markets and offers FoIP middleware that is said to rival SR140 directly. Rising Star: TE-SYSTEMS, GmbH TE-SYSTEMS is a 20+ year veteran of telephony signaling and the makers of XCAPI software. They re a German-based company that began in 1992 developing a software-based answering machine for ISDN. They grew quickly to master Voice Mail and Conferencing systems. Today, they offer a VoIP/FoIP solution that rivals Dialogic and Commetrex. TE-SYSTEMS is a company gaining ground in the U.S. having acquired a small handful of fax ISVs already and have plans to open a support center in Florida very soon. TE-SYSTEMS enjoys double-digit growth year over year. TE-SYSTEMS Product: XCAPI Vendor Statement: With XCAPI, fax applications can be used in almost every Voice-over-IP environment, irrespective of the capabilities of the infrastructure. Scalability and interoperability form the perfect combination to integrate your fax server seamlessly into the world of IP communication. XCAPI supports fax transmission via T.38 both in H.323 and in the SIP environment. If your VoIP infrastructure does not support T.38, the XCAPI can modulate the analog fax tones over conventional G.711 voice channels. As a result, you can send faxes even in situations where it is not possible to use T Source: TE-SYSTEMS 4

5 OEM Niche player: Commetrex, Inc. Vendor Statement: For the past fifteen years, Commetrex has made Developed for OEM a way of life. With a continued focus on fax, Commetrex has become the trusted source of fax technologies for the transition from traditional fax to IP fax, featuring products such as T.38 Fax Relay & TerminatingT38, T.30 Protocol, and V.34 Fax Modem. And now, many in the industry look to Commetrex technology as the standard for T.38 interoperability. 6 Commetrex Product: Bladeware Vendor Statement: BladeWare is Commetrex portable HMP telephony platform used by OEMs as the framework for telephony gateways and servers. BladeWare s open architecture means the OEM user can add proprietary media and signaling technologies. Commetrex is known for its fax technology and BladeWare s first supported media was fax, both PSTN and FoIP. So enterprise-fax OEMs are adapting their applications to BladeWare to benefit from a robust platform with unprecedented scalability and unequalled features. 5 Commetrex is seen as a niche player since their market size hasn t grown very much over the years. Their OEM model lends itself to a user base with smaller deployments (lower volumes, low users for example). Established leader: Dialogic, Inc. Dialogic is the market leader in the fax over IP middle ware space. Over the years they ve acquired technologies from various niche players and today boast successes with the Brooktrout SR140 FoIP software product line. Dialogic Product: SR140 Vendor Statement: Dialogic Brooktrout SR140 Fax Software, a host-based Fax over IP (FoIP) engine, brings the power of the industry-leading Dialogic Brooktrout fax hardware products to software-based solutions. Brooktrout SR140 enables Dialogic s partners to focus on increasing the value of their document management and business process automation solutions while maintaining regulatory compliance with directives such as Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA, and Basel II. A softwarebased solution also can make it easier to move toward virtualized or cloud-based architectures, and create highly available and scalable platforms or services 7. Vendor Comparison The following sections bring to the forefront a concerted effort to level the playing field when it comes to technical and business comparisons between industry leader Dialogic, niche player Commetrex and a veritable rising star from Europe, TE-SYSTEMS. The following chart characterizes the landscape between them and the commentary is that of this report s author. 6 Source: Commetrex 7 Source: Dialogic 5

6 Industry Status FoIP Software Vendor FoIP Middleware Providers Headquarters Rising Star TE-SYSTEMS Wolfsburg, Germany U.S. Office: Tampa Florida, USA Longstanding Incumbent Niche/OEM Player Dialogic, Inc. Commetrex, Inc. Milpitas, California, USA Roswell, Georgia, USA T.38 FoIP Product(s): XCAPI SR140 (Brooktrout) Commetrex Bladeware Comments: German-based company that s coming on strong in North America. Impressive interoperability list. Positive feedback about graphicalbased developer tools. Clearly the market leader. Strong distribution channel. Worldwide footprint. Trusted product in large enterprise deals. Plagued by recent financial setbacks Strong in technical vision. Seen as a niche player in smaller markets. OEM business model Comparison: FoIP Middleware Product Features When looking at the core technology behind different T.38 offerings it s important to consider several functional categories such as fax transmission, signaling, and internet protocols. Other important considerations include support for image types, interoperability, security, redundancy, pricing and so on. Each vendor s product offers a variety of features; the following sections show a comparison of features that influence fax call completion; image size, modem speed, compression etc. The Ultimate Benchmark: Completing the Fax Connectivity, or completing a fax transmission, is the ultimate benchmark. Dropped calls and retransmissions do occur in fax however, reducing those retransmissions keeps a fax system more efficient documents get delivered on time. The worst scenarios are true incompatibilities with a terminating device, SIP trunk, or network, where the fax transmission will not go through. Even a small percentage of these problems are magnified when dealing with time critical document delivery. To sum it up: The focus should be on approaching 100% delivery rather than focusing on one or two particular technical features. Features that help complete the fax: Feature TE-SYSTEMS: XCAPI Dialogic : SR140 Commetrex: Bladeware Fax protocol ECM ECM ECM Transmission T.38, G.711 Fax, G.711 pass T.38, G.711 pass through, IAF T.38, G.711 pass through with through SmartFoIP, IAF configurable 6

7 Modems V.17, V.21, V.27ter, V.28, V.29, V.34 V.34, V.17, V.27ter, V.29, V.21 and V.33 modulation with auto V.34, V.21, V.27ter, V.29, V.17, V.33 fallback Image formats MH, MR, MMR MH, MR, MMR MH, MR, MMR Page formats G3-fax line-width (1728 pixels); A3, A4, B4 A3, A4, B4 B4 (2048 pixels) and A3 (2432 pixels). Resolution 100 x 100 and 200 x x100 up to 1200x x100 up to 400x400 Signaling Protocol SIP, H.323, PSTN SIP, H.323, MGCP SIP, PSTN Internet protocol IPv4, IPv6 IPv4, IPv6 IPv4, IPv6 Fax Protocols/Transmission At first glance there is feature parity amongst the vendors especially with the prevalence of error correction mode (ECM), T.38, G.711, image and page formats, etc. Closer scrutiny yields a couple of elements worth mentioning however. Internet Aware Fax: Dialogic SR140 scores points for its support of IAF or, Internet Aware Fax. IAF speeds up the fax transmission when a full internet channel has been detected (i.e., no conversion to telco lines). XCAPI and Commetrex do not have such a feature, although Commetrex claims it can be configurable in Bladeware. In their own response to this, TE- SYSTEMS asserts, A PSTN/T.38 gateway will never have this flag set, as it always gates the T.38 towards T.30 / SoftFax 8 on the PSTN-side. As the vast majority of fax-calls are not backto-back T.38 but terminated via PSTN we have not seen the need to support this mode yet. That may be so, but any feature that can vastly improve transmission speeds will always be desirable. Besides, IAF is available on many fax machines and servers and the transmission speeds can increase dramatically. On the down side, as pointed out by TE-SYSTEMS, IAF works in 100% IP environments only meaning the endpoints cannot be behind PSTN/IP gateways. SmartFoIP: Commetrex s answer to reliable FoIP is called SmartFoIP - their patented technology that solves issues associated with real-time of fax transmission. SmartFoIP eliminates the problems caused by late-arriving T.38 re-invites from the receiving gateway, which can cause the call to fail if the re-invite is accepted when it should actually be rejected. According to them, their rivals TE-SYSTEMS and Dialogic do not have this technology. Modems: To V.34 or not to V.34? That certainly is the question. All three vendors support V.34. On the surface, most people look to V.34 and it 33.6 Kbps speed as a must have, however there s more to the story when it comes to V.34. First, even on traditional POTS lines for which V.34 was developed, achieving 33.6 speeds is practically unheard of as most transmissions end up at 19Kbps to 22Kbps. When adding the complexity of converting to an IP network, V.34 is rarely achievable, and when a higher speed is negotiated, the percentage of failed calls part way through the transmission 8 SoftFax is a TE-SYSTEMS G.711 pass-through solution when a gateway does not offer the T.38 protocol, XCAPI can map this functionality via what is known as SoftFax 7

8 increases, therefore, some agree that operating V.17 in an IP environment is considered overall more efficient. Since IP rates and even long distance rates are so much lower than in the past, there is little benefit seen from attempting to use V.34. It is helpful to recall that true 33.6 Kbps can only be achieved if the gateway or edge equipment on the other end of the network supports V.34, which is even less common. Up until recently vendors like Avaya only supported 9600 with T.38 anyways, but higher speed support is in their latest software version. In summary, V.34 is a colorful feature that is often misunderstood and is not a critical item for a successful FoIP implementation. Image/Page Formats It is believed that nearly 99% of all fax-documents are sent using "standard" (203x98) or "fine" (203x196) resolutions. All three vendors support these resolutions. For special applications like document management etc., higher resolutions might be beneficial but comes at the expense of longer data-transmission-times. At first glance, it would be easy to want the highest resolution, but higher resolution faxing is not always practical. In faxing, the sending fax system will only know the capability of the receiving fax system during the call set up phase of the transmission. This means that a document has to be prepared in the proper format prior to the call, and there too many different formats to have a fax file ready for all possibilities. There is a market for specialty applications using very high resolution (medical, retail, design e.g.), but for general corporate faxing it s not a practical feature to use and should be considered only for specific requirements. XCAPI s fax-layer is capable of supporting those higher resolutions, but currently the upper API-layer does not, as those modes are supported via the SDK. Signaling/Internet Protocols There are only three major signaling protocols used in VoIP/FoIP: SIP, H.323, and MGCP. H.323 is the oldest and has mostly died out, and MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) is a Cisco only protocol and no longer in demand. SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) is by far the IP industry standard. All three companies support SIP. It is noteworthy that not all SIP is created equal. Each T.38 gateway, provider or legacy PBX may have a different SIP implementation or use a different SIP stack. This is why interoperability testing and a third party certification list is an absolute requirement. XCAPI is considered the leader in maintaining SIP compatibility (also refer to interoperability section below) based on their large interoperability list. Enterprise Grade Features: Network Management, High Availability and Data Security FoIP solutions are typically deployed into mission-critical enterprise environments that demand high uptimes and thus ISV integrators need assurances of basic support for certain enterprise features that will help with management and administration of the fax or UM system. Virtualization is a very large market driver in the fax server segment as end customers can recognize significant hardware savings and achieve successful disaster recovery deployments. 8 V.34 is a colorful feature that is often misunderstood and is not a critical item for a successful FoIP implementation

9 In addition, data security is of utmost importance, especially in vertical market segments such as finance, healthcare and legal. The following table highlights the comparison of each vendor s support for virtualization, redundant clusters and data security. Feature XCAPI SR140 Bladeware Network Management SNMP, WMI Redundancy/High Availability/Virtual Yes Not reported Not reported VMWare ESX, Citrix XenServer, MS Hyper-V, MS Cluster Technologies, EMC AutoStart VMWare ESX (certified),, MS Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer VMWare, but not certified. Clusters using F5 networks Data Security TLS, SRTP, X.509 None None Network Management Larger enterprises will utilize network management systems to monitor and keep track of all nodes on their network that have an SNMP agent installed. Many fax server providers consider support for SNMP an enterprise feature and will look for FoIP middleware that can support it. At the time of this writing the only vendor with SNMP support that reported in was TE-SYSTEMS and the XCAPI product. Virtualization and high availability Customer demand to operate in a virtualized environment is growing at staggering rates, and because today s FoIP solutions are software-based, this requirement is critical. All three products operate in VMWare, though Commetrex has not tested and certified this, they post a customer story that has their software running in that environment. XCAPI adds Citrix and Microsoft Hyper-V to more broadly complete the support of virtualization. XCAPI is also the only product to document support of Microsoft Cluster Technologies and EMC AutoStart. Oliver Koerber, CEO of TE-SYSTEMS, states that nearly 75% of XCAPI licenses deployed are in virtual environments. He points out rightfully that It s not a certification making a FoIP stack virtual it s having the knowledge of how to solve the real-time problems. Data security support This report finds a compelling differentiator with XCAPI and its support for data security protocols something of vital importance to many vertical industries concerned with privacy. XCAPI is the only product that offers enhanced data security using TLS, SRTP, or X.509. TLS is a signaling encryption technology, Transport Layer Security and is a protocol which is in turn based on SSL (Secure Socket Layer) version 3.0. It implements a secure, confidential channel This report finds a compelling differentiator with XCAPI and its support for data security protocols something of vital importance to many vertical industries concerned with privacy. on the transport layer. The signaling data is transmitted together with an SRTP key for the encrypted voice data. SRT, or Secure Real time Transport Protocol a profile of the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), which can provide confidentiality, message authentication, and replay protection to the RTP traffic and to the control traffic for RTP, the Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) (Source: IETF RFC 3711). According 9

10 to TE-SYSTEMS the product thwarts any attempts of eavesdropping or manipulation. X.509 is a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the Internet. Development and Testing Tools For any software development process, the need for developer s tools is a key consideration in choosing FoIP middleware. Tools like this are designed to aid in troubleshooting the integration by using line monitors, diagnostic analyses, testing routines and others. They are vital to minimize time and resources spent developing the interface between the Fax or UM system. Below is a summary of each vendor s offering: Feature XCAPI SR140 Bladeware Configuration and Test Tools Yes Yes 9 Yes 10 Controller Wizard Yes No No Graphical-based Configuration Tool Yes No No Graphical-based Test Tool Yes No No Graphical-based Diagnostic Monitor Yes No No Graphical-based Trace Analyzer Yes No No Graphical-based XFaxTune (i.e., for additional Yes No No testing) GUI-based Line Monitor Yes No No As mentioned, these tools are used during the development phases of the FoIP integration and in run times to test interoperability, debug and fix problems, and so on. Capabilities such as this drastically reduce troubleshooting times, as attested by more than one of the ISVs interviewed for this report. This means for faster times to market, less need for support and the integration has minimal impact on internal development projects. All three products supply sufficient tools, although the ones supplied by XCAPI are of special mention. XCAPI excels in this area with the most advanced and easiest to use diagnostic tools at least according to feedback from the ISVs interviewed. According to those companies using XCAPI, feedback has concluded that their GUI-driven system tools are easier to use than the programmer-style command line tools seen in SR140 and Commetrex to some degree. 11 Dialogic tools are known to be command-line (not GUI-based) operated and critics will say that they are designed more for their own internal support teams rather than their ISV customers. SR140 relies either on Wireshark or their debug program which can only be translated by the Dialogic technical support department. Moreover, Wireshark is 3rd-party software that must be installed and that may pose security risks, and is another point of failure to manage. Commetrex has FaxTap for SIP which emulates similar testing tools as those of XCAPI, but is commandline based as well. 9 SR140 uses a series of command line tools for diagnostics and testing 10 Commetrex has a fairly new developer product, Fax Tap for SIP that uses command line functions 11 ISVs interviewed only provided general feedback about SR140 and XCAPI comparatively. Little or no feedback was gathered about Commetrex tools. 10

11 Because of the positive feedback about their system tools, a more in-depth review of the XCAPI features is warranted. Shortening time to market: XCAPI Developer and Testing Tools This report concludes that the graphical based tools offered by XCAPI are a compelling differentiator between XCAPI and Dialogic, who uses command line tools meant for their own support teams. Feedback from ISVs interviewed confirms that the graphical tools from XCAPI help them build, test and deploy to market quickly. Interview feedback has confirmed that the ISVs surveyed find the tools useful, graphically intuitive and they recognized the benefits of less reliance on support during the development phase. In all cases, conclusions were that the tool sets were superior to Dialogic SR140. Stated with an air of levity and tongue in cheek, a representative from TE-SYSTEMS was quoted as saying, we have a graphical interface designed for end customers and not for nerds...". Below is a breakdown of the developer tools offered by TE-SYSTEMS and the XCAPI product, followed by a series of screen images from XCAPI. XCAPI Developer Tool Configuration Tool Description Offers an overview of the configured controllers, used licenses and the current trace status. Comments Wizards simplify the installation of licenses and the configuration of the controllers. The whole configuration takes place in this tool. In contrast, The Dialogic configuration takes place in the ISV application and the registry. Controller Wizard Test Tool Diagnostics Monitor Trace Analyzer Used when setting up new controllers. A diagnostic tool that allows developers or testers to make immediate test calls without a lot of installation work. Detects any malfunction during normal operation and signals it to the user. A tool that records calls chronologically and reports the time and direction of the call as well as the telephone or fax numbers involved. Depending on the used hardware, either ISDN, H.323 or SIP controllers can be set up. When using a network card, a number of VoIP environments are available for selection for a VoIP controller Developers do not need to install any fax server software to properly test the interoperability. This saves a lot of time during testing. In addition to the error signal, this tool provides the end user with insights into the technical background as well as proposals to solve the problem. An overview is provided which will be available for subsequent problem analysis. More importantly, developers do not need to install an additional tool like Wireshark. 3 rd -party tools like this have the potential of slowing down performance speeds and taking up disk space. 11

12 XFaxTune A fine tuning tool in which additional parameters can be set. Fine tune over 12 categories of items including bit rate, queue manager, headline, buffer and various timers. Line Monitor Gives users a quick overview of the installation and configuration, as well as a record of all calls with detailed information. Also provides an HTML report of the installation with all details of configuration, licenses and call history Dialogic states that they too have this functionality using additional parameters that can be set Developers can also see the quality of every call, and thus have a long term history of connection quality. This poses a tremendous advantage according to TE-SYSTEMS. It is a new feature in their 3.4 version which was released in the middle of Figure 1: New in version 3.4, the XCAPI Line Monitor Tool Figure 2: XCAPI Configuration Tool. We have a graphical interface designed for end customers -- not for nerds..." -TE-SYSTEMS Figure 3: XCAPI Controller Wizard 12

13 Commetrex: Fax Tap for SIP Fax Tap for SIP is a development and testing tool from Commetrex. According to them, FaxTap is a software product that analyzes recordings of fax sessions in a number of formats. This makes FaxTap a passive (third-party) observer of the fax session. Moreover, FaxTap for SIP picks up where Wireshark leaves off. Wireshark does have SIP and a degree of T.38 analysis, but does not support any analysis for G.711 modem pass-thru calls. Further, the analysis it does provide is not always accurate. 12 Fax Tap for Sip won Best of Show in the category of Best Service Provider Solution at TMC s ITEXPO Vegas Fax Tap for SIP includes the following features: Commetrex FaxTap for SIP Features T.38 version 0, 1, 2, and 3 with V.34 UDPTL, TPKT, and TCP sessions. G.711 pass-through RTP with V.34 Modem equalizer measurements Windows and Linux 32- and 64-bit support V.21, V.27ter, V.29, V.17, V.8 and V.34 modems included ECM frame, block, and page analysis Faster than real time Comprehensive conversion report T.38 and G.711 images Post real-time decoding DLL/SO (OEM) or end-user versions Comprehensive page analysis Bad-line repair SIP ladder diagram output T.30 ladder diagram output Analysis component available for OEMs Supports µ-law, A-law, 13- and 16-bit linear Polling Interoperability and Partnerships As previously stated, any FoIP software needs to be tested, certified, and often customized to work with a particular VoIP gateway, T.38 edge device, or SIP trunk network. This poses a challenge to each FoIP provider to keep up with the most popular equipment brands. The following is the comparison of each vendor s published interoperability list: Comparative Interoperability XCAPI SR140 Bladeware Aastra, Alcatel-Lucent, Asterisk, Audiocodes, Avaya, AVM, beronet, Brekeke, Cisco, Dialogic, innovaphone, Lancom, LG- Ericsson, Media5, Microsoft OCS, Microsoft Lync, Mitel, NET, Nortel, Panasonic, Patton, Samsung, Sangoma, Shoretel, Siemens, SIPfoundry, Swyx, Telebau, Teles, Tevitel, 1&1, babytel, Broadsoft, DUS, Gafachi, Intelepeer, nfon, Portunity, Purtel, QSC, sipgate, Speednetwork, SwissIPCom, Cisco, Avaya, 3Com, Ericsson, Alcatel, Audiocodes, Broadsoft, Grandstream, Linksys, Mitel, Multitech, Nortel, Patton, Quintum, ShoreTel, Siemens, Dialogic, Level 3, Global Crossing, Node4, Verizon, XO, BroadVox, Broadview, babytel Asterisk, Avaya, Cisco, Grandstream, Quintum, Siemens, Sonus 12 Source: Commetrex 13

14 voxbone, SigmaVoIP, Unify 3com, Sonus, Telgo, T-Online, Toplink, UPC-Cablecom, Wabcom, Xpirio XCAPI is by far the product leader in devices and networks supported, followed by SR140 and Commetrex. All 3 support Cisco of course, the leader in corporate installations. XCAPI has the broadest support for IP-PBX switches. TE-SYSTEMS leadership here is a clear advantage and many of their supported manufacturers are seen more XCAPI is by far the product leader in devices and networks supported in European markets. North American end customers with multi-national offices especially in Europe -- should take note. Many switches in Europe for example, are never seen in the U.S. so companies with offices in both locations should consider TE-SYSTEMS because of their interoperability list. When this list was shown to Commetrex, they cast a response that suggested maybe TE- SYSTEMS supports all of those vendors but possibly had not tested all of them. After all, it is not uncommon for vendors to list supported but not tested systems to make their list look for impressive. In response to this observation TE-SYSTEMS, stated that all vendor PBXs listed above are in their test laboratory and have been tested. They noted that in some cases it was the specific vendor who may have not had a certification program for FoIP Middleware, but nevertheless, the PBXs listed were tested and are fully supported in their labs. TE-SYSTEMS will boast that new vendor equipment is always being added to their interoperability list a profound differentiator. Comparative Pricing As stated in the beginning, the ultimate consideration is running a rock-solid, reliable fax system that successfully delivers fax documents. Pricing should be a secondary consideration. For purposes of the price comparison, this report examines the manufacturer s suggested retail prices not distribution or OEM prices. Configuration Pricing 13 XCAPI SR140 Bladeware 2 Channel T.38 $675 $1,099 $273 (T.38+G.711) 4 Channel T.38 $1,350 $2,197 $546 (T.38+G.711) 8 Channel T.38 $2,700 $4,395 $1,092 (T.38+G.711) 24 Channel T.38 $5,100 $13,184 $3,276 (T.38+G.711) Security Extension $150 N/A N/A Microsoft FSP N/A $385 N/A Cold spare/hot swappable standby licenses Additional (25%) Additional (25%) Additional (50%) T.38, V.17 only N/A $384.50/channel N/A 13 In all 3 cases, prices were provided by the FoIP Middleware provider themselves. 14

15 Sales and distribution of the three products are slightly different. TE-SYSTEMS sells XCAPI direct to ISVs while Dialogic mostly sells via distribution. Commetrex licenses their product direct in an OEM model. This could imply better or at least equivalent margin values for XCAPI when compared to Dialogic margins. This report does not intend to imply which business model is better than the other, but rather show the MSRP as a means to make a comparison of their perceived street value. Note: In all three cases, pricing shown above was provided by each vendor. Interview feedback: ISVs using XCAPI vs. the others Interviews with five ISVs and one SIP provider were conducted as part of the research phase for this section of the report. Four of them are featured expressly in this report. Some of these ISVs added XCAPI to their existing fax application and provided responses to interview questions about their overall impressions when mostly compared to Dialogic SR140. In some cases comparison feedback was provided for Commetrex as well. Four of the ISVs have integrated their fax or UM server application with XCAPI while the fifth company surveyed has not done so at this time. Imecom Group, Inc. Use it Messaging Fax Server Imecom began developing and selling fax server software and image conversion/printer driver software in Imecom, together with Prologue Software and Alhambra Eidos, form a global group specializing in cloud computing, messaging, and unified communications. Currently, Imecom and its group entities have thousands of solutions deployed in over 62 countries. Imecom s Use it Messaging Fax Server released with support for XCAPI in March of They felt the need to diversify their FoIP middleware as good business practice and since working with TE-SYSTEMS has had all good things to say about the product and the company. They re particularly fond of the product s wizard development user interface and the additional tools and utilities included with the core XCAPI software. Fax Server ISV #3 (Anonymous) Fax ISV #s wishes to remain anonymous and holds a high rank amongst the top fax server providers in the world. They started working with XCAPI in Europe as early as By 2010 they started to make the transition to their U.S. markets and today have many customers using their fax server software with XCAPI as the FoIP component. The lower street price for XCAPI (versus Dialogic) affords them more opportunities to close smaller deals. However they too currently steer larger enterprise deals to an SR140 solution. The Dialogic (a.k.a Brooktrout) brand identity goes far as many of their larger customers trust the brand. Fenestrae Faxination Server Fenestrae, founded in 1990, is a global provider of innovative solutions that help organizations improve agility and reduce costs by eliminating paper from key business processes. Fenestrae s suite of flagship products consists of Udocx and the Faxination Server Source: Fenestrae 15

16 Fenestrae has offered software-based fax-over-ip support for several years with both the Brooktrout SR140 and their own proprietary FoIP stack. They performed internal testing with the XCAPI demo in early 2013 and were pleased to discover that it worked right out of the box with their existing Faxination CAPI interface. Official support for XCAPI was added to Faxination 2013, released in August of Fenestrae is now actively promoting XCAPI as a cost effective alternative to the SR140, particularly in H.323 environments which their own FoIP stack does not support (SIP only). According to Mark Warbington, Technical Consultant at Fenestrae, they were very impressed with the fact that TE-Systems developed their own FoIP stack. Moreover the sentiment at Fenestrae is that XCAPI can rival SR140 in literally any deal and they look forward to the competition and giving their customers We are excited about XCAPI and our partnership with TE-SYSTEMS moving forward - Mark Warbington Technical Consultant, Fenestrae choices for FoIP. In summary, Warbington exclaims, We are excited about XCAPI and our partnership with TE-SYSTEMS moving forward and cannot wait to see how they compete with SR140 in some of the difficult environments we ve found ourselves in over the last few years. A closer look: Solgenia, USA and XCAPI Facsys and XCAPI Solgenia is a 100% shareholder-owned company that is the maker of Facsys fax server software which is marketed as part of their Collaboration Suite of products. Facsys is a complete line of fax routing solutions ranging from turnkey appliances to enterprise-level software. In addition to offering Dialogic SR140, Solgenia began offering their own FoIP stack 3+ years ago, licensing the solution as Facsys FoIP via an OEM deal with Commetrex. At the time the Facsys FOIP (Commetrex Bladeware) was targeted at low-end opportunities, meaning lower fax volumes and smaller sized systems. Alternatively, SR140 was the high-end solution getting more recognition as the brand and technology leader from medium to large enterprises. Solgenia felt that the Commetrex solution could not scale as well as SR140 and was seeking a middle ground solution. Within the past year, Solgenia made the decision to acquire TE-SYSTEMS and the XCAPI middleware and their decision has been successful so far. They began working with the German-made product in early 2013 and were pleased to have the initial testing work completed within a week s time given them an impressive time to market. A lower street price for XCAPI allows them to steer more of their bids toward small to medium business prospects. XCAPI as a platform can scale up or it can scale down there s a lot of market breadth to cover and we re betting on it. - Bob Binns CEO, Solgenia USA Makers of FacSys However due to the newness of XCAPI, they recognize a few extra pre-sales questions may be asked and closer scrutiny of TE-SYSTEMS occurs. Dialogic and Facsys solutions are bid to 16

17 larger enterprise prospects which are not surprising - companies recognize Dialogic as the established leader and their product brand identity and noted reliability goes a long way. Despite a churning rumor mill that always seems to follow a market leader, Solgenia affirms that they get full support and cooperation from Dialogic nonetheless. At the time of this writing, Solgenia has over 20 end customers using Facsys with the new XCAPI FoIP solution. All in all, they feel quoting XCAPI as part of a Facsys deal does not hurt them in anyway and provides an ideal alternative to Dialogic SR140. According to Bob Binns, however, Solgenia USA s CEO, XCAPI is a platform that can scale up or it can scale down and according to him, with XCAPI, there s a lot of market breadth to cover and we re betting on it. Now, XCAPI can be positioned as their middle of the road solution but from a technical perspective, it challenges SR140 directly. It pushes SR140 in every deal claims Binns. Summary of feedback, ISV interviews Although a total of seven vendor interviews were conducted, six can be shared in this report particularly. The following table lists the highlights of each interview in bullet form: Fax ISV - XCAPI Feedback Summary Imecom Solgenia Fenestrae Added XCAPI as a means to diversify XCAPI is a bit more intuitive, more wizard driven, they like the product vision TE-SYSTEMS people are very proactive, and very responsive Currently there is no U.S.-based support which they feel will be beneficial once it arrives Recognize that SR140 has the market share and leads the way with particular features like V34, and fax anywhere. Quick time to market; integration was fast Great documentation Low support incident rates Steers SMB deals towards Facsys with XCAPI However XCAPI is poised to handle larger volume deals and larger enterprise customers. Already 20+ customers using Facsys with XCAPI XCAPI is more flexible in their software and support -they re more inclined to help with special deals, etc. Downloaded XCAPI demo software Worked right out of the box Excellent feedback about the interoperability drop down wizard gets you 99% done. Feels that XCAPI is on par with SR140 and looks forward to the competition Likes the testing tools you can send/receive test faxes without having to install the server ISV #3 (Anonymous) ISV #5 (Anonymous) SIP Provider (Anonymous) Interoperability is important and XCAPI delivers TE-SYSTEMS is not as rigid as Dialogic when it comes to special "outside the box" deals. XCAPI is flexible software there are, millions of things you can tweak TE-SYSTEMS is always there for support, even after hours - even though overseas XCAPI can be sold into larger enterprise deals Evaluated XCAPI in 2013 Did not choose to implement then Standardized on Dialogic SR140 products only Has their own FoIP stack for some products Will consider XCAPI again in the future Implemented support for XCAPI in 2012 Supports XCAPI with their SIP client States that Dialogic is 4x more expensive than XCAPI XCAPI has quite a bit to offer XCAPI tested for T.38 and SoftFax Pleased with the product and the company 17

18 Summary, Conclusions and Commentary The following chart depicts a summarization commentary of the pros and cons of TE-SYSTEMS versus Dialogic. Not enough feedback was gathered to offer an equivalent synopsis about Commetrex in general. However, feedback has confirmed recent technical challenges with Commetrex technology as far its ability to scale to larger volume fax enterprises. Because of their niche position in the market, a better scenario is to compare XCAPI against SR140. The charts below explore each company s business, technical and support feedback pros and cons. Overall business pros and cons summary: Pros and Cons: Overall Business Company Pros Cons TE- SYSTEMS TE-SYSTEMS is a small company at its core; and it utilizes a vast network of product and technology partners around the world. Core personnel focus on development and support and feedback from ISVs who integrate XCAPI are pleased with this company. The company has an impressive 20+ year track record in telephony signaling with a healthy business footprint in Europe that s expanding globally. TE-SYSTEMS may be misconstrued as a company that is too small to handle larger scale support issues or to adequately sustain its product line. The company offers free ISV support a bold initiative that is welcomed by ISVs who integrate XCAPI, but how long does free last and will quality metrics sustain as they grow? XCAPI may be too Euro-Centric and will need to bolster their presence in places like North America to gain more global credibility. Dialogic Have the potential to dominate deals with multi-national end customers, given their European origin. Aggressive pricing, MSRP is middle of the road amongst vendors compared. This will force competition against SR140. Owns the market currently and has recognizable trusted brand identity especially with respect to the Brooktrout SR140 brand. ISVs confirm that larger business deals tend to lean towards the global experience An in-country support team in the U.S. is much needed and is in their immediate future plans. TE-SYSTEMS will face challenges as they grow and this will need to be managed carefully. Internal company direction and vision are not clear and much street feedback claims some changes in personnel and business models that may directly affect the Fax product line. According to Dialogic s January K filing report, they are experiencing a, total workforce reduction of approximately 90 full-time 18

19 and track record of Dialogic. ISVs provided positive feedback about comarketing efforts positions, or approximately 16 % of the Company. 15 Their stock was delisted by NASDAQ in July 2013 after being suspended from trading a few months earlier. ISV integrators are starting to look for choices at par with SR140 and are finding them in XCAPI from TE-SYSTEMS. Product pros and cons summary: Pros and Cons: Product Company Pros Cons TE- SYSTEMS/ XCAPI Their interoperability list is unrivaled in this report s comparison. Most of their features sets are at parity or exceed their competitors in areas such as virtualization, SDK/API access, and data security. Being a small company, TES resources for Development could risk being stretched and this reflects in some of the feature sets that are lacking when compared to Dialogic. High resolution support is limited to 100x 100 and 200 x 200. They boast a strong set of developer s tools that have been said to be very proactive and highly regarded by the ISVs who use them. XCAPI has yet to be proven in very large, highvolume enterprise environments. Dialogic/ SR140 Has security features like TLS, SRTP, and X.509 Their technical leadership is still trusted around the industry trusted by ISV, VARs, and larger enterprise end customers. Supports Internet Aware Fax (IAF) and V.34 which can help speed up call times. Has a longer product release cycle Uses command line test and configuration tools that must be entered into the registry of the host fax or UM application Relies on 3 rd -party Wireshark software 15 Source: Dialogic form K-8, Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities filed with SEC, 17 January

20 Support pros and cons summary: Pros and Cons: Support Company Pros Cons TE- SYSTEMS/ XCAPI ISV support is free from XCAPI and much feedback has been gathered confirming TE-SYSTEM s go the extra mile service; including direct contact with end customers. Costs for software support are covered with a modest software upgrade service that provides maintenance updates. No in country support in the U.S. although after hours there is support. Eventually support commitments could have the potential of overwhelming a smaller company. Expansion is needed to face their growing base. Dialogic SR140 Excels in presales support and will work closely with integrators and customers. Feedback has suggested that Dialogic Support for documented products is considered to be industry standard and ISVs don t need to worry about interoperability issues in those cases where documentation confirms support. Feedback confirms that Dialogic doesn t have the flexibility to go the extra mile as TE- SYSTEMS or Commetrex. Being largest established player they move slower and stay within known bounds. They re not known for supporting ISVs in presales special deals (end customer with an untested switch or PBX for example). This report concludes that all three FoIP solutions offer solutions to the above issues across the board; some having greater strengths than others in certain areas. Overall, the report finds that all three are at close feature parity with some significant exceptions. XCAPI reigns supreme with an impressive and growing interoperability list that exceeds 30+ vendors and are known to be very flexible when a new switch, PBX, etc. is presented to them. From a support standpoint, they have a go the extra mile attitude which is directly contrasted by a more rigid, established incumbent Dialogic. Another proof point is in the development tools. XCAPI raises the bar with a complete set of graphically intuitive tools including a wizard based controller tool. XCAPI users always get a positive experience not seen before in this niche technology. All in all, ISV considerations for FoIP middleware should be easy: Integrate with XCAPI as a direct alternative to SR140. Commetrex serves a niche OEM market and remains small yet has some technical credibility in which to hang its hat - claiming patent ownership to various FoIP enabling technologies. Doing OEM business with them may or may not be part of a fax or UM ISV s business models. Pros and cons of OEM versus 3 rd -party integration should be weighed. 20

21 Their development tools are GUI-based and intuitive to use and this gives XCAPI users a positive experience not seen before in this niche technology Still, there are choices, based on the three comparable products reviewed in this report. If you wish to build your own FoIP stack, consider licensing your technology from Commetrex. Dialogic will continue to excel in market share due to -Mark D. Malone the shear momentum of its product distribution provided that their strategic plans for the product line are advancing forward in light of the present situation. Current events make it unclear where Dialogic is heading and this will pose a risk to their FoIP business especially with TE-SYSTEMS coming on as the rising star in this space. And, they ll most likely lead the pack - at least for the short term, in enterprise deals according to feedback. Support for v.34 may be a superfluous check box feature given the realities of fax transmission. Nonetheless, SR140 maintains strength in enterprise environments but caution when a deal comes to a non-standard, nondocumented integration. In those cases, companies will find working with the more nimble TE- SYSTEMS refreshing to say the least. About TE-SYSTEMS Since the company was established in 1990, we have been specializing in the development and sale of software for ISDN and VoIP in the audiotex and telecommunications sector. Our major focus is speech dialogue systems for call centres and service platforms as well as the migration of CAPI-compatible applications to various VoIP environments. Due to a high level of quality, constant innovations and technology-based partnerships with Alcatel- Lucent, AVAYA, Broadsoft, innovaphone, Panasonic/Allnet, Patton, SIEMENS, ShoreTel, Tobit and Swyx, we can ensure the optimum functionality of our software and, thus, rank among the market leaders in the Computer-Telephony and VoIP Middleware sector. Our company is based in Wolfsburg - a modern, dynamic town situated in technology-affine surroundings. Since 2001, we have been operating as a "GmbH" (limited company) in the relatively new Vogelsang industrial area. On the other hand, our sales partners can be found worldwide: Germany, Europe, China and in the USA. About Mark D. Malone Fax over Cloud was created by Mark D. Malone, a long time participant and contributor in the Fax and edocument Delivery industry segment. He has held positions in Senior Product Management for two global companies which developed and distributed enterprise software and data products. His overall experiences embody a 24+ year period of dedication in the software application industry. His fluency spans technology practices such as Enterprise Fax Server Software, Fax Software Integrations, Geographic Information Systems and Weather software applications. During his career he has made contributions to many published works in journals of science, and engineering, as well as numerous product articles, white papers and research reports. 21