BroadSoft: Building on Innovation

摘要

Phone service has come a long way in the past decade. And it's still changing. For BroadSoft, a provider of internet voice (VoIP) application software, the wave of the future rests in the hands of the users. The new BroadSoft Xtended and its Developers Program are recent developments in the company's Web 2.0 initiative that "empowers users and third parties to develop web-based platforms," says Mike Lauricella, director of BroadSoft Xtended. The initiative lets key "innovators access BroadSoft's nearly 300 service providers in 56 countries, while making money in the process," he says. This global network reaches out to the company's 6 million customers worldwide. "Voice has become just another application," says Lauricella. "We're extending the BroadSoft program by offering users, partners, or third-party developers the option of creating new and innovative apps." End users can create mashups that can be sold through the BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace for the telecom industry, where users can download or purchase these new user-generated apps. So far, apps have already been developed for Facebook, the CRM solution salesforce.com, the WebEx web-conferencing service, IBM with Lotus Notes, and Simulscribe, a voice-to-email transcription service.