FirstHand Technologies has OEM go-to-market business model which allows it to pre-integrate with PBX systems. Integration and provisioning is a big issue in enterprise FMC. Another unique feature about Firsthand’s approach is the fact that it is not that excited about the dual mode handover type FMC. It is more focused on extending PBX features to cell phones over cellular networks. Extending PBX features over WiFi phone is an easier task in comparison. If on the other hand you have to extend them over the cellular cloud you have to deal with slow speed packet data of cellular. The technology piece is explained towards the end of this post.
In terms of the business update Firsthand has so far signed up three main OEM partnerships: NEC, Nortel, and 3Com. The three of them ship about 25% of the PBX lines worldwide. Firsthand supports both IP PBX as well as traditional PBXs, the latter being carried out through CTI interface. These OEMs are in various stages of product introduction including beta testing. Firsthand expects full product launches in Q3 and Q4 this year.
Nortel, the biggest OEM potential partner, has completed some FMC deployments through its MCS platform. Both MCS 5100 (sold direct to enterprises) as well as 5200 (sold via carrier channel) use Firsthand client product and both are in commercial FMC deployments. Many carriers – such as Verizon - use both 5100 as well as 5200 since many carriers are also resellers into the enterprise. Nortel has announced that it will be bringing solution to market shortly and also announced that France Telecom trial has turned into a commercial deployment. Nortel will integrate FMC capabilities into it higher end CS series products as well.
Firsthand has also done some interop testing with Cisco, Asterisk, and Avaya. The one interworking with Asterisk is a generic product and Firsthand will be bringing that out within the second half of 2007.
Handsets support: Firsthand supports handsets based on Symbian such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets; handsets based on RIM OS; handsets based on Windows Mobile 5 and 6. The company is working on enabling access to lower end phones as well.
Trials: Total number of trials through OEMs has reach 27, with most of them being in North America and Western Europe. The vendor signed up 4 new trials during the recent quarter (2Q07).
The Technology: So how does FirstHand extend PBX features over to cell phone over the cellular cloud? Well, its server is tightly integrated to the PBX, so when a call comes via pbx it rings your desk phone as well as your cell phone. How does the cell phone ring simultaneously? Along with the deskphone, there is a gateway (assigned as end point for the user) in the IP cloud which receives the call. This gateway sends a message over packet cellular network to your smartphone and causes the Firsthand client to ring the phone and emulate incoming cell call on the cell phone with full call detail info pulled from pstn/corporate database into the cell phone. In that window you can decide to ignore the call in which case it goes to your enterprise voicemail because technically the call has not been sent over at this stage. It is just a packet containing information that was sent out to your cell phone. If you decide to take it your cell phone sends a packet back to the pbx and back to the gateway which causes the call to be extended to cell phone. Or you can even route the call to pbx extension or a pstn number. And it is all transparent to the calling party who hears a brief message that their call is being connected. When the call is over everything is undone via pbx.