Version 5

[Vodia PBX]

Have gotton the SnomONE SoHo upgraded to version 5. Very surprised to find that the free license only supports 5 extensions now and not 10? Is there a different license sku for the SoHo?

 

Yes. The ten extension model was fine under the premise that at least eight of them were snom and the snom phone revenue would cover the cost for the PBX. Under the new license scheme, it does not matter any more what phone type you are actually using (snom still preferred ) so if you want you can see that as a upgrade from 2 to 5 or you can also see it as a downgrade from 10 to 5. Anyway, there are more choices now, so that you can also get a license for ten extensions which still does not break the bank. As a goodie, it includes fax2email, a feature that in some products already cost more than the whole ten license.

[Northern]

Yes. The ten extension model was fine under the premise that at least eight of them were snom and the snom phone revenue would cover the cost for the PBX.

 

My Phones are Snom...

 

 

Under the new license scheme, it does not matter any more what phone type you are actually using (snom still preferred )

 

Have to say I am now getting angry... and feeling very ripped off and lied to.

[Vodia PBX]

Have to say I am now getting angry... and feeling very ripped off and lied to.

 

Ahhm, how can you feel ripped off with something that you got for free? Nobody takes it away BTW, you can continue to use the license.

[Northern]

Ahhm, how can you feel ripped off with something that you got for free? Nobody takes it away BTW, you can continue to use the license.

 

Last I checked the SoHo was not "Free".

 

I feel ripped off because the SoHo is marketed as a full pbx and now it isn't.

[Pablo]

Ahhm, how can you feel ripped off with something that you got for free? Nobody takes it away BTW, you can continue to use the license.

 

Last I checked the SoHo was not "Free".

 

I feel ripped off because the SoHo is marketed as a full pbx and now it isn't.

 

I can see where each are you (Northern & snom ONE) are coming from. While SoHo users did have to shell out $ for the hardware, snom ONE is correct in that there's nothing forcing us to upgrade to v5. When we paid for the SoHo, we did so under the assumption that we were buying a full PBX and that's what we received. I guess there could be an argument on Northern's side (which would benefit me, as well, of course) if purchasers of the SoHo were enticed to purchase the product by the prospect of free, lifetime upgrades.

 

However, at this juncture, for the sake of making some progress towards a resolution (or simply an end to this back 'n forth), b/c I'm sure that there are many SoHo users feeling the same as Northern, I'd like to point out the exchanges quoted below:

 

 

In theory (when the build is available for the mini), you can go and just get a new license for V5. However looking at the price tag of the mini you can bet that we'll come out with a special upgrade promotion for the mini to sweeten the deal.

 

 

Will the same hold true for the SoHo?

 

From the PBX software perspective, for us there is no difference between SoHo and mini.

 

So, is it true that SoHo owners will be offered a discount if they wish to upgrade to v5, yet keep many of the (great, I might add) features that they enjoyed with v4.5?

[Vodia PBX]

For example, we also had to purchase a license to upgrade the Apple Mac mini to snow leopard, and we have to pay for Adobe software upgrades. snom ONE also needs to make some money, even if the scale is for sure much smaller than the companies mentioned before.

 

We offer upgrades to version 5 at 50 % discount if the previous version was a paid version. Offering 50 % discount from free versions is unfortunately not feasible as it would obviously open a simple path to save 50 % on any version 5 purchase. If you have an idea how we can verify that the upgrade from free to V5 comes from a SoHo/mini, we are definitively open for that.

[Vodia support]

When I have fixed office space (everyone his/her desk) I count an extension (physical phone) by user.

When I use floating desks I will need a license for each physical extension + a license for each user.

 

Or am I wrong somewhere ?

 

 

I believe each extension will have his/her own Hot desking you will not need a separate license for this.

[Northern]

For example, we also had to purchase a license to upgrade the Apple Mac mini to snow leopard, and we have to pay for Adobe software upgrades. snom ONE also needs to make some money, even if the scale is for sure much smaller than the companies mentioned before.

Yes, this is true however you did not need to pay full price for the new OS.

 

We offer upgrades to version 5 at 50 % discount if the previous version was a paid version. Offering 50 % discount from free versions is unfortunately not feasible as it would obviously open a simple path to save 50 % on any version 5 purchase. If you have an idea how we can verify that the upgrade from free to V5 comes from a SoHo/mini, we are definitively open for that.

I would suggest using the hardware serial number.

 

For future versions of the SoHo and Mini you can give them a license number with the unit that you can then use for upgrade paths.

[RoadRunnR]

if you want you can see that as a upgrade from 2 to 5 or you can also see it as a downgrade from 10 to 5.

 

We have 10 Snom's, so yes, I choose to see it as a downgrade and yes I am very unhappy.

 

Most of them are 360's and therefore not really new ones, so snomONE was not the driver for getting them,

however the availability (or rather the price when adding the snomONE license into the mix) will

be a driver for locking elsewhere when the next phone is needed.

 

What about an incentive for existing snom customers? The serials and MACs of the phones should be simply enough to verify?

[Vodia PBX]

What about an incentive for existing snom customers? The serials and MACs of the phones should be simply enough to verify?

 

We'll do upgrades for snom ONE mini or SoHo customers who paid for the device. But because now a separate company, snom ONE does not get any cross-subsidies for selling snom phones, and consequently free upgrades from free V4 to V5 "ten" is not possible.

[Northern]

We'll do upgrades for snom ONE mini or SoHo customers who paid for the device. But because now a separate company, snom ONE does not get any cross-subsidies for selling snom phones, and consequently free upgrades from free V4 to V5 "ten" is not possible.

 

I don't want to be purchasing my products from different company's, that was the point of going with Snom in the first place.

 

You keep using the word Free, our hardware was not free. Stop implying that we are getting something for nothing.

 

 

There is an old proverb that applies here; 50% Something is better than 100% of nothing. Right now you are getting nothing and loosing customers who would transition into the larger products as their business and needs grow.

[Kraken]

Northern: The point the administrator is trying to make is that while you might have paid for the hardware to run the snomONE, you did not pay for the snomONE Free software. While this arrangement was fine when snomONE was part of snom, this does not make much sense now that snomONE is owned by an independent company. Vodia Networks now owns snomONE, and we are solely focusing on the PBX business.

We are encouraging all our existing customers to upgrade to v5.0 as it comes with a lot of improvements and add-ons like Fax-2-email, MS Lync Presence and Attendant Console function. I'm sure you will find the upgrade to be your moneys worth.

[Northern]

Thank you for the upgrade Path. This is all I wanted and am greatful for it.

[Lucadef]

Yes. The ten extension model was fine under the premise that at least eight of them were snom and the snom phone revenue would cover the cost for the PBX. Under the new license scheme, it does not matter any more what phone type you are actually using (snom still preferred ) so if you want you can see that as a upgrade from 2 to 5 or you can also see it as a downgrade from 10 to 5. Anyway, there are more choices now, so that you can also get a license for ten extensions which still does not break the bank. As a goodie, it includes fax2email, a feature that in some products already cost more than the whole ten license.

 

Is this the reason why the now paid 10 user, limited feature set version costs almost as much as the old snom one blu wich was unlimited?

I really don't know what to do in the future, i liked that snomone was sort of directly supported from snom, I understand that an indipendent company has to charge a little more since doesn't benefit from selling the phones but I think the new price is way too heavy.

There are a lot of other pbx out there, to have decent functionality i should now pay 5000$ for snomONE and just as much for lync (which is getting better and better as a pbx..)

[Kraken]

Lucadef: snomONE pricing was subsidized on purpose when snomONE was part of snom. The idea was to push the phones and throw in the PBX as an incentive. While this model was ok earlier, it does not make sense now that Vodia is independently running the PBX business. Also i disagree with you on the pricing point. Yes there are a lot of other options out there like 3CX, Brekeke etc. but each comes with its own quirks. Not to mention that you will not find such a huge price difference between these products. It really depends on what you are looking for, e.g. 3CX charges for call licenses while snomONE charges for user licenses, but for a certain size of deployment the prices would be round about the same. On the topic of Microsoft Lync, i am not sure you can deploy Lync for $5000. This might be the cost of the server but you are overlooking the client CAL licenses which add up to $100 plus per user.

[Lucadef]

Lucadef: snomONE pricing was subsidized on purpose when snomONE was part of snom. The idea was to push the phones and throw in the PBX as an incentive. While this model was ok earlier, it does not make sense now that Vodia is independently running the PBX business. Also i disagree with you on the pricing point. Yes there are a lot of other options out there like 3CX, Brekeke etc. but each comes with its own quirks. Not to mention that you will not find such a huge price difference between these products. It really depends on what you are looking for, e.g. 3CX charges for call licenses while snomONE charges for user licenses, but for a certain size of deployment the prices would be round about the same. On the topic of Microsoft Lync, i am not sure you can deploy Lync for $5000. This might be the cost of the server but you are overlooking the client CAL licenses which add up to $100 plus per user.

 

Dear Karen, i'm concerned about the price for a small deployment, i'm just saying I don't think It's a good idea to remove features in a commercial solution. If you think snomone is strong enough to compete with other solutions like for example swyx, 3cx or callmanager express, ok put the same price, but if you want to spread snomone I think you should consider re-lowering the price or not removing features (or the counting of features like acd, hunt groups, ecc..)

I think you do can deploy lync with $5000, at least for the small workgroup I was considering even using enterprise cals.

[mattlandis]

@Lucadef

 

To answer the question of cost of Lync: as of Dec 2012, a Lync Server License costs $3700 plus CALS. See details:

http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2012/11/microsoft-lync-2013-availability-and.html

 

Also, remember that this cost doesn't not include implementation, which can easily be as much as licensing for a small setup.

 

The question immediately comes up, what about Lync Standard Edition (that used to be $699). The short answer is it now costs $3700, below are details:

http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2012/12/can-i-still-buy-install-lync-server.html

 

 

@snomONE (admin)

Since I've been busy with Lync implementations I've been a little sidetracked from snom ONE. I need to say (as someone else did on this thread) that technically snom ONE is an excellent product (so kudos there), but company stability of pbxnsip/snom ONE/vodia is extremely dissappointing, very confidence undermining and I'm sorry to see it.

[djanjic]

I have been reading this "Announcement" with an amusement and interest since our company was and early adopter of your PBX, PBXnSIP version 1. We have witnessed all of the changes your company went through. The company has gone through several models of business only to change each model after several years. Each time the change had brought the confusion, questions and in many instances angry-confused customers since it always included changes in pricing models. The marriage between SNOM phones and PBX didn't last that long and here we are with yet another model and yet another company, more questions more confusion. From the beginning we adopted the hosted PBX version model since we believed that future will most likely show that model as a winner. After visiting vodia.com site I cannot find an answer to my questions regarding hosted PBX, or is that another company? So my question is this: where do we find out about the future of hosted model? I will still call it PBXnSIP since that was what you guys were using to distinguish between Snom ONE and hosted model at least partially. If there is no one on this forum who can address this issue would you please direct me to the proper contact/forum/person who can answer some of the questions regarding the future of the hosted PBX. Thanks.

[Vodia PBX]

We will address the topic of the hosted PBX in the new year.

[Vance]

I think it is worse than 'confusing'. For those of us who commited to this company and built our businesses based on the model that was promulgated, the change this time is fatal. Worse, the statement that 'you dont have to change to 5.x we are still supporting 4.x' has proved to be somewhat untrue. Every request for a bug fix is replied with 'move to 5'. I wonder if in fact Vodia even have the code base running for the previous version based on some of the support I am getting.

[Vodia PBX]

I think it is worse than 'confusing'. For those of us who commited to this company and built our businesses based on the model that was promulgated, the change this time is fatal. Worse, the statement that 'you dont have to change to 5.x we are still supporting 4.x' has proved to be somewhat untrue. Every request for a bug fix is replied with 'move to 5'. I wonder if in fact Vodia even have the code base running for the previous version based on some of the support I am getting.

 

Hi Vance, we did not promulgate the business model that you pursue. Sorry if you feel you got bumped into economy class.

[Vance]

Well, yes you did. We purchased Snom One products at a promulgated one-off price and subsequently, certainly in my case, a lot of Snom phones. This was the stated model. The PBX was at a price that encouraged the purchase of the associated phones. In fact, third-party phones were restricted.

 

Now, the model has completely changed. The cost of the PBX is vastly higher so anyone who was working under the original model can no longer justify the upfront costs against their original business plan.

 

What might be considered 'class' is a company that spent some time working communication with their loyal clients before rushing into a completely different model illustrated by the constant changes in pricing since you first went into this.

 

If you were that sorry you would fix it.

[Vodia PBX]

If you have any business with snom, then this is the wrong forum for you. This includes the decision to discontinue snom ONE as a cross-subsidized product. Thank you for your understanding.

[Vance]

Could I invite you to read your original post in this thread!!!!!!!!!!

 

The topic is only about the move from version 4 to version 5 and the change in model.

 

Are you suggesting that you start a thread with a subject and now want to stop everyone from discussing it?