OS-VoIP | Open Source VoIP » Digium

Mark Spencer on Skype and Asterisk

Aaron Rosenthal — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:15:42 +0000

Here’s an interesting video from earlier this year with Mark Spencer addressing Skype and Asterisk.

America 2009 Video: Skype and Asterisk – What it Means for Business Communications (Mark Spencer)

IBM Smart Market embraces Asterisk… building your IP PBX becomes childs play

Aaron Rosenthal — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:55:49 +0000

Well last week marked the end of Astricon 2009 where a myriad of VoIP and Open Source companies came together to showcase new products, new solutions, and make big (and sometimes small) announcements. One of my favorites and more notable announcements was between Digium/Asterisk and IBM.

You can read some specifics here, but in short IBM has brought Asterisk into its Smart Market program. IBM’s Smart Market is a marketplace for applications designed or tweaked to operate on IBM’s hardware, specifically the IBM Smart Cube. It’s kinda like the Apple App Store, take the iPhone for example which is a “ready to rock” computer with a whole slew (70,000+) of applications designed to work perfectly (supposedly) on the iPhone… all purchased via the App Store. The IBM Smart Market and the Smart Cube hardware is much like the same.

Organizations with a tendency towards Open Source or just plain ole cost savings can now simply purchase their Smart Cube from IBM, download a customized version of Asterisk designed to be managed via the Smart Desk management dashboard, and BAM… with some configuration you’ve got yourself an IP PBX. Additionally… here’s my favorite part, support is handled directly by IBM! Anyone who has worked with IBM knows that their support is one of IBM’s strong points and exactly why I’m extremely excited to see IBM extending that support to Asterisk. Support is one of those areas which I think has stifled some of Asterisk’s growth primarily because the quality of support provided by the myriad of different Asterisk re-sellers and even Digium itself has been so varied in its quality that its quite hard to truly define a guaranteed level of support when it comes to Asterisk. Of course I’m rather biased but I like to think my company has some of the best Asterisk support around, but that just can’t be said about everyone :-)

Now all this product launch hoopla isn’t what really interests me… well yes IBM is providing Asterisk support = awesome…. and yes Asterisk is tweaked to be managed via the Smart Cube dashboard = actually kinda big…. but what I’m particularly excited about is the continued traction Asterisk is gaining within the world of telephony. Acceptance by a computing titan like IBM is just one more badge on it’s sleeve of awesomeness. I myself am thrilled how common the term “Asterisk” has become in almost every discussion pertaining to telephony and IP PBX solutions. There are still some haters out there but those who criticize the technology haven’t really taken the time to fully understand it, while those who have, become its greatest advocates.

I used to be surprised when people said they were actually familiar with Asterisk, now it seems to be one of the first things someone will Google when buying an IP PBX. Now I say this… but I also say it knowing that it applies primarily to the SMB market in which Asterisk has seen the largest amount of growth… but my only interest in the SMB market is its use as a case study to prove to larger enterprises that Asterisk based solutions fit business of any size and application and should always be evaluated right alongside the big players. We’re not quite there yet, 1000+ Asterisk deployments still remain few and far between, but as Digium and Asterisk start partnering with companies like IBM, and when companies like IBM are willing to stake their reputation on supporting Open Source software like Asterisk, I think it validates Asterisk’s future trajectory as being a respected IP PBX solution amongst not only SMB’s but organizations of any size.

But enough with my soap boxing… you probably would like to know about pricing.
There are two options for purchasing Asterisk for the Smart Cube:

$2,000 for 20 simultaneous calls.
$4,000 for 40 simultaneous calls.

Check it out!

By Aaron Rosenthal

Crossroads: Free or Commercial Asterisk?

TylerM — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:28:08 +0000

Editors Note: Here’s an interesting piece by Tyler Merritt which I think should generate some good discussions amongst the OS-VoIP community. I personally believe that most Asterisk vendors wouldn’t be in this business if Asterisk wasn’t free, but what I think this article addresses well is the question of “how “free” is Asterisk really for the end user?”

I believe that Asterisk is at a crossroads and has been for some time. Asterisk stands on the Path of Life for applications and ponders a fork clearly visible: Free or Commercial? Champions of the Cause of Asterisk on either side of the path cheer for one of the two forks. Which choice will the application make? Do the creators, contributors, designers, and dreamers really have a say in the matter? Is everyone making noise for nothing?

I don’t know the answer to all of the questions above, but I have a strong inkling that Asterisk must inevitably choose the Commercial fork. There is no future in Free. I stopped most of you right there. With that one statement you stopped reading. Your mind rejected the ugliness of the letters making up the word “commercial”, and I lost you. Perhaps Asterisk is destined to lose you when the next startup telephony switching software with a “free” bumper sticker affixed to the rear makes an appearance on the web (FreeSwitch ?). Commercial means casualty of the Open Source movement – right? Why should it?

Let me define terms. We can’t very well have an intelligent discussion about a subject where neither side agrees on standard terminology. So here is where I lay it out. You don’t have to agree with the definitions below. But if you don’t agree, then we can’t talk about the subject within the same field of reference. I think the terminology is fairly unbiased, so the playing field is level, but spin of any sort renders the discussion meaningless.

Commercial: a product or service obtained by an individual or business from another individual or business for a fee.

Free: a product or service obtained by an individual or business from another individual or business for no fee.

Future: Google has a whole list of definitions (Define:Future ) and none of them apply. In this case, when I say ‘future’, I mean of all the evolutionary choices that exist for this application, the ‘future’ marks the choice (or string of choices) that lead to the most dominant possible iteration of Asterisk. In other words, if Asterisk is a baby gorilla right now – what are the best possible combination of future choices that help the baby gorilla become the dominant silver-back in the group of telephony gorillas? Application Evolutionary Choose Your Own Adventure.

When I write as freely as I am writing now, I hear questions in my head in response to blanket statements I make. I say, “There is no future in Free” and I reply to myself, “Asterisk is an Open Source application – it can’t be closed now that it’s GPL, so what do you mean ‘there is no future in free?!’” I mean, simply, that Asterisk doesn’t scale in the long-run without commercial implementations. Asterisk isn’t Linux. Asterisk doesn’t have the same user-base as Linux. Linux was a blip on the technology radar all through the late 90s and still hasn’t gained as much traction as Linus might like. But Linux has a cult. A cult of devotees with zombie-thirst for ‘haters’. I’m actually one of them. Asterisk, by comparison, has a cult of devoted ‘integrators’ who LOVE the free ‘engine’ because they can build things on top of it and prof$t. No one loves this application enough to build it up and improve the foundations for free.

Sure, there is a community of developers who fork code back into the main Asterisk tree, and yes they have contributed modules and features and functions and we thank them for it. But I call shenanigans on any of those individuals who did it purely for the unrequited love they feel for an Open Source telephony switch. They do it to save their business money, or to make money implementing a cheap phone system for a non-technical customer. Or they do it to sell hardware.

Who is Anti-Free-Fork-Cheerleader-Number-One? Digium. Digium (Mark) did not write Asterisk out of benevolence and a desire to “give back” to the world and take away the wicked Crown of PBX from the Goliaths of telephony. Mark Spencer didn’t have enough money for a PBX, so he created one. It’s in his wikipedia article “Spencer did not have enough money to buy a PBX (private branch exchange) for his company so he decided to write Asterisk and later founded Digium.” Later founded Digium. He created an Open Source application, and later found a way to prof$t from it – by selling Digium TDM Cards that work really well with Asterisk!

Now the paragraph above might come off as negative towards ‘ol Mark. By no means should it be interpreted as disrespect. Mark Spencer is an engineering genius and did create the current undisputed champion of the open-source telephony world. He created an application that makes the incumbents quake with fear . But he did NOT do it for Free. He did it to save his company money, and then he created an auxiliary business model around this application to continue to make money.

So if we accept that Mark Spencer, a good guy, a great guy, is not Robin Hood, then we have a point in favor of the Commercial Fork.

Let’s look at other evidence that Asterisk is heading down Commercial Lane imminently:

Google “asterisk” (I did it for you )
What do you see as the first two pages?
1. http://www.asterisk.org/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk (this is actually the 3rd link, but the second is another page on asterisk.org so it doesn’t count)
So far, so good – Asterisk appears to be associated with URLs in the ‘ORG’ space – which isn’t for companies pushing products and services.
How about the next links through to the end of the page?
Asterisk.com!!! <– Commercial!
Blogs about Asterisk – telling people to get involved or telling people how to use it. And those blogs run Ad Sense (or their own ads); hence, they make money.
Books about Asterisk – books cost money.
Companies offering to sell you an Asterisk-based system (for money)
Some unassociated “Asterisk” sites that managed to make it onto the front page of Google Search and have nothing to do with telephony.

Two links for Free Asterisk – the rest for prof$t.

How about looking at the right-hand side (where all the ads that we tune-out live)?

For me it reads: Fonality.com, IntuitiveVoice.com,VoIPSupply.com, 3CX.com, thevoipconnection.com, Dell.com, vnowinc.com, freshairstudios.co.uk (offering voice prompt professional services – for Asterisk!)

Sure looks like a lot of businesses are finding creative ways to prof$t from Asterisk!

Ok so you still may be holding a grudge from Paragraph #2 – you might never be able to find it in your heart to forgive my slight. However, I have a point – Asterisk can only continue to exist on the Commercial Path. There isn’t an end-user use for this application. This is a telephone system (sans the system until you add hardware). Asterisk is a business tool. Businesses have a single reason to exist: prof$t. And they should. No business should exist for altruistic purposes. If you think otherwise, you’re a teenager struggling against the angst of learning to live with “the man” – or you’re crazy.

Look at the economy. People are losing the basic ability to feed their families left and right. Asterisk is a cost-savings solution, it’s a maintenance-contract savings solution, it’s a “this never should have been so complicated in the first place” solution (i.e. time). Asterisk is as much about money as the dollar bill. It’s either making dollars for someone, or helping someone use fewer dollars and maintain a tool they need to survive.

And it’s good. It is righteous that this application generate income for all parties. It is ok that companies have taken the product, built some service or function on top, packaged and sold it off to some other company that didn’t have the time/experience/expertise/money to get the same functionality from Avaya for a lot more money. Commercial is a blessing.

Without Commercial we lose most of the Open-Source world. If there wasn’t demand for Support and Professional Services – there wouldn’t be a Ubuntu. Sure Linux is free – but I remember the first time I had to install something – I didn’t even know the right words to google in order to find the “make” command (application – call it what you want). Linux walks the Commercial Path. Oh yes it does. And if there is even a ghostly resonance of Linux walking the Path of Free, it’s too ethereal even for my imagination to detect.

Asterisk isn’t a commercial product. I haven’t said it was, and I hope you didn’t get that impression. This part goes back to the messy work of defining our terms. Commercial doesn’t mean product in this article. We both know Asterisk can’t be closed down – that’s not how the GPL works. I posture that the only future (again, please re-read my definition of future) for Asterisk is on the Commercial Path.

Some of you agree with me. You may be wondering what’s the point of the whole article if you knew from the start that companies are prof$ting from Asterisk already? Reputation. The Open-Source community harbors within its ranks some of the most aggressive, stubborn, quack-defenders of any group or association online or off. People who rant and rage in forums and on message boards about the pure evil of companies who dare to take an application created in the beautiful spirit of ‘free’ and defile it with commercial shackles… don’t get it.

Without us – Asterisk would cease to be.

By Tyler Merritt

Nortel buys Open Source IP PBX company Pingtel

Aaron Rosenthal — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:22:08 +0000

Today Nortel announced its acquisition of Pingtel, an Open Source IP PBX software company. This is some pretty big freakin news for OS VoIP… it’s BIG.. it’s HUGE.. it’s really BIG.. and here’s why…

This acquisition marks a milestone for OS VoIP as a technology because it A) shows that Open Source VoIP is a viable business model and B) it reaffirms that Open Source VoIP is finally established enough, reliable enough, and mainstream enough to warrant acceptance by one of the largest proprietary communications manufacturers around.

This move by Nortel is ballsy for their industry but mostly because they’re just one of the first. It also plays well into their plan to become a software centric company. At OS VoIP we’ve always said that proprietary companies like Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya will need to adjust their business to stay competitive in a world of Open Source VoIP, and guess what, Nortel did. Since Nortel’s image has been a few PR campaigns behind Cisco and Avaya, a move like this is exactly what they need to re-vamp their image as a cutting edge communications company, plus it makes sense considering the “open” direction the entire technology industry is heading. From the quote below, you’ll see that Nortel has positioned more than one chess piece towards being “open”.

Over a year ago Nortel joined the open source community established by SIPfoundry** as an active contributor to the sipXecs open source project (led by Pingtel Corp), providing more than 300 new applications and features to date. The acquisition of Pingtel Corp by Nortel will further accelerate the development of a global open source ecosystem and reinforce Nortel’s direction and leadership in the development of interoperable and open unified communications solutions.

So on this day, August 13th 2008, mark Nortel down as the first large proprietary telephony company to take the leap into offering their own Open Source telephony solution. I don’t expect it to be very long for other proprietary businesses to follow Nortel’s lead but I don’t expect Cisco or Avaya to be scrambling for their cash in an effort to puchase an Open Source VoIP company. What I do suspect is that these proprietary companies will either begin to Open Source parts of their own software (doubtful), or partner with an Open Source VoIP company like Digium.

3Com partnered with Digium to re-sell their SMB solutions, Dell partnered with Fonality/Trixbox for their own small business solutions, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for more proprietary vendors to take the same approach.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think this Nortel/Pingtel acquisition is great for the overall evolution of Open Source VoIP and its acceptance in the market place, but it’s not like Nortel is all of a sudden going to be the next big Open Source VoIP company. There are too many established players like Digium, Switchvox, Fonality, and many more for Nortel’s newfound openess to eat away much of their business. If anyone should be threatened by this move it’s Microsoft. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server ‘07 is a software based unified communications solution which although sexy, costs a queens dowry and doesn’t play very well with others. With an Open Source UC solution offered by a billion dollar corporation, Nortel should be able to (with some development and good marketing) compete rather well against Microsoft’s OCS.

So if you take anything from this blog, I’m not saying you should go run off to a Nortel vendor for your next OS VoIP system, because you should run off to me :) but what you should do is realize there are plenty of reasons why an Open Source IP PBX or UC solution might suite your company just as well as any proprietary option. Nortel obviously thought Pingtel’s Open Source UC solution was good enough to buy the whole damn company, so why wouldn’t your organization at least look at Open Source VoIP as an option for your next IP PBX.

Exactly 1 month left to submit for Digium Innovator Award

Aaron Rosenthal — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:37:49 +0000

The second annual Digium Innovation Award is coming up folks! The deadline for your submissions is August 1st so don’t forget.

This award was created last year to showcase all the “innovative” applications for which Asterisk can be used. Those eligible for the award are all Digium|Asterisk customers and partners world-wide with solutions that are live or in production. This is nice and broad so if you’re working on something that warrants an “innovative”or “never done before” title, then I encourage you to make your submission.

Winners from each category will be announced at AstriCon 2008, in Arizona. Aside from the recognition Digium will give you via numerous press releases, you’ll be blogged like crazy by people like me, plus you’ll be able to brag about being one of the who’s who in the Asterisk world.

The four categories are:

Pioneer Award: Most innovative implementation
Big Biz Asterisk: Largest enterprise class installation
ROI: Best measurable ROI from implementing Asterisk based solution
Inside Out Award: Best use of Asterisk in a business outside of telecommunications

For more information and your own application, visit:

http://www.digium.com/en/company/awards/innovation.php

Consider this your friendly reminder from OS-VoIP to make your submission.

Choosing Open-Source Telephony

Aaron Rosenthal — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:46:36 +0000

I stumbled upon this article on eWeek which was written by Sangoma CEO, David Mandelstam. This short paper discusses a few things that I consistently have to re-iterate to every client when selling an Asterisk based PBX. Hopefully now this article should save me some time.

It is articles like these that truly help out the sales process because they provide the consumer with a no-bull-shit explanation about things they’ll need to consider when purchasing an OS PBX. I think those who understand the technology intricacies are always the best equipped to help consumers make an educated decision about their purchase but unfortunately most sales tools are a product of marketing departments and therefore lack some of the necessary yet less-than-glossy truths behind Open Source telephony. One example is the widely marketed myth that there’s no problem converging voice and data over the same network when all us telephony geeks know that this is typically a last resort for any mid sized organization who requires a stable and secure network.

So anyway, the key points of Davids article are:
> Understand what Open Source means.
> Be sure your VAR knows what they’re doing.
> Don’t skimp on hardware.
> Be careful about being your own OS/VoIP/Linux savvy expert.

On the topic of useful tools to help businesses understand what they’re getting themselves into when purchasing an IP PBX, take a look at this Baseline Mag article by David Strom titled “Is Your Network ready for VoIP?“. There’s lots of good points in here, including why you should re-think converging your voice and data network.

Polycom SoundPoint IP 670 – now available for order

Aaron Rosenthal — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:41:25 +0000

So I just heard from my Polycom guy today that as of yesterday the Polycom IP670 phone is available for order. I had a few things to say about this phone in a previous blog here, but now that it’s available I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get one to play with at which point you’ll see a full review.

I’m quite surprised that the release of this phone has gone by almost entirely unnoticed. The fact that I’ve heard very little about this phone leads me to believe that there isn’t whole lot to this phone other than a color display. It seems like Polycom is really pushing theirApplications for their SoundPoint IP line which I haven’t found to be all that groundbreaking other than providing a more intuitive phone based interface for things like conferencing… nothing groundbreaking.

This is what I call groundbreaking interface>

not this>

You’ll probably see me write a blog reviewing these new Applications as there’s a lot more to talk about here than the IP670. Has anyone been working much with the Polycom SoundPoint Applications? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I hope Polycom comes out with many more pictures of this IP 670 because the only picture I could find on their website is EXTREMELY lackluster. I don’t get why they released their first SoundPoint color phone with a picture of a color screen that looks more like a DOS prompt. I’ve seen the color screen on the Polycom Microsoft Communicator phones which is quite sexy and assuming Polycom is using the same LCD screen, it should look pretty nice on the IP670. I honestly think Polycom is overdue for a re-design of the SoundPoint IP line.

I really hope the Polycom CX700 Microsoft Optimized Device will ultimately adopt the same open’ness of the SoundPoint phones once Microsoft releases their exclusive rights stranglehold on Polycom. I certainly hope that’s the case cause these phones are HOT!

Regardless of the IP670 not hitting the news hard, it should still be a great piece of hardware. The SoundPoint IP phones are rock solid and work swell with Asterisk. Polycom still has a few things to sort out with Asterisk (call barge anyone?) but overall these phones have proven more stable than other SIP phones we’ve tested like Grandstream, Snom and Aastra.

The color expansion module is a nice touch too. But seriously!!.. who took these pictures?? Polycom almost has me convinced that these color displays are only green. Something tells me they haven’t even photographed the new phones yet and just had someone photoshop some color.. aka green.. onto the IP650.

Digium releases new AA300 Appliance to replace AA350NR

Aaron Rosenthal — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:34:57 +0000

Digium has just announced the release of their new AA300 Appliance. This new appliance replaces the AA350NR and have a few additional advantages over its predecessor. According to Digium, here are some of the highlights:

* More Versatile: The AA300 can be rack mounted or wall mounted. Please note that the AA300 ships with rack handles only. Rails and wall mount kits are sold separately.
* Less Expensive: The AA300 & Switchvox SMB bundle price remains the same, but the extended warranty and cold spare costs are lower.
* Capacity: The AA300 has a smaller form factor but can still handle the same number of calls and users as the AA350NR.

The AA300 will retail with the Switchvox SMB 10 user license at $4,240…. no change here over the AA350NR.
The big price change is with the cold spare which dropped from $2,295 for the AA350NR to $1,895 for a AA300NR.
As of this date, you will no longer be able to purchase the AA350.

I’m probably a bigger fan of Switchvox than any other Asterisk based IP PBX…. partially because they’re owned by Digium and partially because it’s a very solid product for the SMB market. We’ll still keep deploying our raw Asterisk systems to large enterprises but when that SMB pops by every now and again, Switchvox it is.

Botanicalls – use Asterisk to water your plants!

Aaron Rosenthal — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:33:40 +0000

One of the things I want to do with this blog is explore all the wild applications in which Asterisk is being used under-the-hood. Rarely do people advertise the use of Asterisk in their VoIP products so here’s one business where Asterisk was just right for a very unique application.

Although they’ve been around for over a year, Botanicalls have designed a product that lets your home plants call you whenever it gets parched or has something to say. Sounds crazy but completely true… and a brilliant use of Asterisk for a completely absurd application. By using moisture sensors that connect to the internet via a chipset and radios, Asterisk is used to dial your phone and play a message from your plant. Imagine being on vacation and getting a call.. “Hi… this is your Jade Plant calling and I’m disparately in need of a drink, please send someone over RIGHT NOW to ensure my health and safety”. The whole premise of Botanicalls is to foster the personal relationship between humans and plants by giving each plant its own unique voice and personality… keeping you in-touch with the “inner” being that is your plant/Asterisk.

I could see my grandfather getting something like this. He would go decades without a single vacation simply because he never trusted anyone but himself to determine when to water his plants/garden. Not sure how he’d feel about forming a personal relationship with his talking plants though….

What other wild and crazy Asterisk based business plans are out there?

Asterisk in the hospitality industry

Aaron Rosenthal — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:33:00 +0000

As more and more organizations wise up to what Asterisk could mean for their communication needs, I’ve noticed that the hospitality industry is one that is coming to surface with some unique requirements (like many industries) which I’d like to discuss and get some feedback.

First and foremost, unique billing requirements is one of the most prevalent characteristic necessary in a hospitality PBX system. Integrating with an existing billing system is usually the most common solution for satisfying these requirements but what if the customer additionally needs a complete billing solution? I’ve found that a smaller hotel won’t mind simply breaking down the necessary information from the stock excel sheets that Asterisk spits out with its CDR details. But for a larger hotel that needs a complete solution there are open source alternatives like A2Billing (not the best piece of software we’ve worked with, be careful) which is really designed for the telecom industry but can be tweaked for hospitality billing. Other OS options include AstBill and StarShop. I’d love to hear from the community what your experience with either of these two billing applications has been.

Features are another important element to a hospitality IP PBX but we all know Asterisk can satisfy almost any feature requirement. What I’m more interested in are the capabilities Asterisk can offer that may not be at the tip of your tongue. Hotels can no longer justify the expense of an IP PBX by the revenue stream generated by customers placing calls since almost everyone uses their cell phones these days. What should not be underestimated is the value-add an effective IP PBX system can have on a guests experience. Everyone still prefers to speak with a real person when at all possible, but things like scheduling a wake-up call, checking the weather, getting the hotel address, and seeing whether the pool room is open for a late night hot tub can all be automated through room phones. The key is making these features easy to access by using soft keys. You could even program the system to display the customers name while they’re checked in… imagine walking into your room and the phone is scrolling “Welcome to the Marriott Marquis Mr. & Mrs. Jones”. I’d give my hotel major points for that!

The next and last component of a hospitality PBX that I’d like to discuss are the phones. Phones are what every patron sees sitting on their bed-side table and as higher-end hotels continue deploying new electronic devices in their rooms, phones should not be overlooked (but I think quite often they are). Sure most people won’t use their phone to make personal calls but a room phone should display relevant information on its screen. By using a phone with a large and sexy color display, each guest room phone can serve up information like the weather, scrolling stock quotes, and even advertising. Advertising is an excellent way to justify the additional expense of purchasing a color phone. Advertising this way can be an excellent revenue stream.

Teledex, a manufacturer of phones specifically for the hospitality industry, released last year a line of IP/SIP phones. Although we’ve never used these phones with Asterisk, Teledex claims that they work well with Asterisk. Now I don’t know how Teledex has avoided the Apple Inc. hammer but their IP phones are named the iPhone series. Perhaps the best feature on these phones is that they use a touch-screen color display. Watch the Teledex iPhone demo and you’ll get an idea of how awesome a properly configured IP PBX system can be a huge value-add for guests. The color Cisco 7970 is another nice color phone which is used by the hospitality industry and I’m hoping that the new Polycom IP670 with its color screen will also be a great guest room phone.

You don’t hear much about Asterisk being used by large hotel chains but hopefully this changes and I know we’ve been seeing many more opportunities in this industry over last year. In addition to what’s already been discussed here, what other features and functionality has this community seen or worked on for the hospitality industry?