asterisk users - Mar 2011 - Single vendor for IMAP VM storage

I am interested in IMAP Voicemail storage for some of my customers. Does anyone
know of any vendors of asterisk appliances (physical PBXs) that provide this as
a "standard feature" (or an optional standard feature)?

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to have a single point of accountability for
the system as a whole. I would like an intuitive & powerful configuration
GUI (such as FreePBX), good endpoint configuration provisioning (and possibly
management), good reporting with usage graphs over time.

I would like to be able to position an asterisk solution with this feature (IMAP
Voicemail storage) as a viable competitor against Cisco, Avaya, etc. However one
challenge I see is that we have so many "cooks in the kitchen" with
the asterisk solution.

With Cisco & Avaya, just about EVERYTHING comes from a single vendor who
serves a single point of accountability & support. This includes the VoIP
system (PBX), endpoint handsets, network switches, routers, etc.

With the asterisk solution, we have several vendors in the picture:
- Digium for the asterisk core + DAHDI interface
- Rhino, OpenVox, Sangoma, Digium or whatever other company that makes the PSTN
cards
- Rhino, Dell or some other company who makes the actual server box we use
- Elastix, Trixbox, Digium (AsteriskNOW), Debian, etc. depending on the OS
distribution that we use
- FreePBX for the GUI
- Some company providing the endpoint configuration management (FreePBX 2.9,
Elastix, Trixbox, Digium, etc)
- Polycom, Aastra, Snom, or whatever company we use for the phones.

The best case scenario I can see is 4 vendors:
1. Rhino for the PSTN cards & physical server box
2. Digium for AsteriskNOW (and of course the Asterisk core)
3. FreePBX 2.9 for the PBX configuration GUI + their new endpoint configuration
management
4. Polycom for the phones

Of course I realize the fact that the interoperability of asterisk is not a
weakness, but rather a strength. However, from a management perspective it
certainly is much more complex than a single vendor solution. I have personally
had experience where I've had a little bit of a run-around in the past were
I went to asterisk-users mailing list & they told me I either needed to
recompile asterisk from the pure Digium sources, or they couldn't help me
(this was because I was using Elastix, which has some degree of customization in
their asterisk). Then I've been aware of asterisk bugs which if I approach
Elastix support, they say, "Sorry this is an asterisk bug which we have no
control over. We can't help you". Then we have different vendors whose
implementations or interpretations of various standards differ. And you wind up
with occasional issues, or more work upfront to get them all configured in a way
that they are happy together (I know I am exaggerating this a little bit, as it
generally isn't that bad at all).

Still, I would like it if there were a simple solution from 1 company that gave
us the asterisk system as a solution that they stand behind, so that I don't
have to build something custom that "I" stand behind. I have enough
irons in the fire that I question whether it would be a wise decision for us to
start to act as a VoIP vendor (meaning the company that is the face of the
system, and the single point of accountability to customers).

I would be interested in a single company that I could use AT LEAST for the
asterisk PBX. I can handle the switches and the endpoints/phones. But it would
be nice to have one single point of accountability for the rest. Specifically
again the features I am after are:
1. Intuitive & powerful configuration GUI (such as FreePBX)
2. Good endpoint configuration provisioning (and possibly management)
3. Good reporting with usage graphs over time.
4. IMAP VM storage
Additionally I would want a company who provides good support when needed.

Switchvox seems very compelling for all of these requirements + many advanced
features. The only thing I can see that it really lacks it the IMAP VM storage.
Instead, they store the VM locally in the Switchvox, and give an IMAP interface
to access it from PCs + a mobile app to access it from the iPhone &
BlackBerry (android is said to be in the works). This really is great, and I
think satisfactory for most users.

But for those certain customers who just want to see their VM show up in their
Exchange mailbox, as well as their MWI lamp light up, and then have the MWI lamp
go off when they open the VM in Outlook, the Switchvox solution just doesn't
cut it. They're close, but not there. Managing this in a larger network
would be especially challenging. It is also more difficult for me to grow my
business when we have much complexity in our product. If I piece together my own
custom solution using products from 4-6 different vendors, then each technician
I hire is going to have to be an asterisk guru to be able to implement new
systems & troubleshoot issues without having to involve me. This is more
expensive for me. Either I have to train them more which costs me money, or I
have to hire someone with the advanced skillset which costs me more money, or I
have to train them more and then seeing that they're worth more, then they
ask for more and that costs me more money too.... :-)

I haven't really looked much at Fonality for a few years. I don't know
whether they specifically have this. But really I'm interested in any
company who will say that they provide the required features & stand behind
all of them. Even if they are using more than 4 vendors' components. I
don't care if they use 10 vendors' components as long as they all work
really well together & I have only 1 company who fully stands behind the
product.

To me, this is no different from a computer motherboard (or entire PC) or a
mobile phone or a more recent tablet device (iPad, Android tablets, etc). If you
look inside most of these devices, you'll see that there are components from
a LOT of vendors (Intel, Samsung, Hitachi, Texas Instruments, LG, nVidia, etc.).
However, the product is sold from a single company who brands it as their own,
and sells & supports it that way. You can't really tell by using  one of
these devices that everything inside doesn't come from 1 company. It sure
feels that way.

That's what I'm looking for from asterisk w/ IMAP VM storage. I can sell
Switchvox to the masses and like that we have one single company who serves as a
single point of accountability and support. But when I come across the customers
who have used Cisco Call Manager, they really like the true voicemail-email
integration with the BLF synchronization, etc. Cisco has probably had this for
10+ years (I know they've had it at least since 2002). Asterisk has had it
since asterisk 1.4, but it's not a standard feature. Instead, you have to
recompile asterisk to get the feature. As soon as I decide to start recompiling
asterisk, it no longer becomes a standard system from Elastix, etc. Instead, now
I am responsible for maintaining the asterisk core components of the system.
That's what I'd like to avoid.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
-
Doug Mortensen
Network Consultant
Impala Networks Inc
CCNA, MCSA, Security+, A+
Linux+, Network+, Server+
.
www.impalanetworks.com
P: (505) 327-7300
F: (505) 327-7545
.