CIOs of small and middle market companies need to check out Digium. Hat tip to Paul Brown.

I have known numerous CIOs that have gotten frustrated with their phone systems but have had to date few options to go with because costs can be so high. Well bring in open source ... growing familiarity with Skype and free calling ... now comes the open source PBX (stands for private branch exchange - basically an onsite telephone switch for businesses). From Digium's website

Digium is the primary developer and sponsor of Asterisk�, The Open Source PBX. Digium offers a variety of specially designed low and high density telephony hardware and professional services related to Asterisk.

And for a sample of intro pricing:

Small Office Support Basic includes: 15 PBX extensions with voicemail (analog phones), Three-way calling, Call transfer, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forward, plus two applications from the following: Office Directory, Meet Me Conferencing --- Digium Hardware required, Music On Hold, Message Waiting/Stutter Tone. $750

Note that Digium's Mark Spencer, also founder of the popular open-source Asterisk IP-PBX platform, is going to keynote at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo 2005.

Kewl stuff. Market perturbation for sure.

Steve Shu