The VAR Guy

Move over, Digium. You’re not the only poster child for Asterisk and open source PBXes. Rival Fonality has scored another $12 million in financing from Intel Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson — and some of the money could be earmarked for acquisitions. Impressive, but what does it mean for VARs and solutions providers?

Glad you asked. Rather than hyping itself as an Asterisk-focused company, Fonality positions itself as a “leading provider of open source telephony and communications systems” for companies with five to 500 people per location.

Translation: Fonality wants to disrupt closed source VoIP hardware and software providers. New investment money will allow the company to accelerate its growth and acquisition strategies, according to Fonality CEO Chris Lyman. And Intel Capital isn’t the only big name along for the Fonality ride.

As Fonality notes:

“The company’s phone systems are sold direct to businesses at fonality.com, through a global network of resellers, and by Dell.”

Yes, Dell. The VAR Guy has covered the Dell-Fonality relationship multiple times. And it’s easy to explain Dell’s infatuation with Fonality. Indeed, Fonality’s software ties together instant messaging, landline calling, mobile calling, chat, voicemail, customer relationship management (CRM), e-mail and more.

Sounds great. But is Fonality for real? Apparently so. Fonality says it has generated 16 successfive quarters of revenue growth, and is targeting the $7 billion domestic telephony market and $25 billion global telephony market, with an emphasis on affordability and mobility.