swyx

Waterland Private Equity Buys Swyx

The associated company Waterland has acquired Swyx Solutions, a pan-European manufacturer of unified communications solutions for medium-sized companies. Waterland is thus strengthening its software and IT portfolio. For Swyx, this opens new opportunities for European expansion.

Swyx is a leading manufacturer and developer of software solutions that not only offer companies the complete functionality of PBXs, but also optimize communication and accelerate business processes. Swyx integrates and links all communication channels such as telephony, messaging, video and e-mail with business-relevant process applications. The solution can be operated at the customer's site, from the partner cloud or based on Swyx's own cloud service SwyxON.

Growing internationally with Waterland

“In 1999, we started to make the classic telephone system superfluous - and at the same time to enable companies to communicate more efficiently and make their processes more productive. One year before the 20th anniversary, we are now on our way with the new shareholder to become Europe's market leader in IP-based corporate communications," says Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus, CEO and co-founder of the Dortmund-based company with branches in Great Britain and France.

The advantages of unified communications are already being used today by almost one million users in 24 countries, who are supported by over 1,200 authorized local specialist trade partners.

Solutions from a medium-sized company suited for medium-sized businesses

With its solutions, Swyx concentrates on the midmarket and offers the award-winning software solution SwyxON as its own cloud service. The company is thus increasingly focusing on the growing demand for cloud solutions. The international share of sales is around 10 percent. “Outside Germany, Swyx has great growth potential," says Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus. "Together with Waterland, we will now be able to exploit this potential."

Partner with extensive IT expertise

The associated company Waterland is already successfully managing various companies from the IT sector in its portfolio, such as the internationally operating Hanse Orga Group (financial software) or the Intelligent Group in the Netherlands, which specializes in hosting.

“With Waterland, we want to breathe new life into this experienced investor's buy & build strategy and further expand our dynamic organic growth in recent years, and become the European brand for IP communications. The team is looking forward to new markets and customers," says Ebbinghaus, explaining the expectations following the signing ceremony on 12 January 2018.

This is confirmed by Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Waterland's partner: "The investment in Swyx is a perfect fit for our strategy of investing in fast-growing, high-quality companies that want to take and expand leading market positions.”

In the acquisition process, Swyx was exclusively advised by Q Advisors, a global investment banking boutique in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) segment, based in Denver and San Francisco.

Vox Rocket add reporting for IVR DTMF choice to VoxVision

IVR, sometimes known as an auto attendant or call menu, can be invaluable to small and large businesses alike.  A well planned IVR will save time and frustration for you and your callers by directing them to the right person or department.  Knowing that your IVR is well thought out and delivering benefit to your business though is difficult to measure.

The Vox Rocket team have spent the past few weeks designing and building a new report to help do just that.  We record IVR choice at multiple levels and have created a new report with clear and simple navigation that allows you to follow a call as it passes through your IVR configuration.  Two pie charts visualise the quantity and percentage of calls that make each choice and each call outcome.  We also highlight calls that have hung up without making a choice helping you ensure your IVR menu process is optimised to minimise lost callers.

All of this is only possible because our reporting software is built specifically for Swyx.  By leveraging closer integration we can build better more accurate reports.

If you would like a demo of the new report or feel one of your clients would benefit from a trial of VoxVision then please get in touch. 

1000 Companies to Inspire Europe

Swyx has been identified as one of London Stock Exchange Group’s ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Europe’. The list is a celebration of high-growth small and medium-sized businesses across Europe and recognises their critical importance to future economic growth, innovation and job creation. To be included, companies needed to show consistent revenue growth over a minimum of three years, significantly outperforming their country peers. 

New "Swyx Mobile for iOS" unified communications client

iPhone users can now download an updated and improved version of the UC mobile client "Swyx Mobile for iOS" via the App Store. The new version of the app offers additional features and allows iOS smartphones to be integrated even more easily into a company's communications system.

With the new version of the app, users are given further options to customise the client: for example, they can assign alternative call signaling for their own groups or enable user-specific organisation of favorites. Users who wish to hide their phone numbers for an outgoing call can easily set this up.

Within the call journal you can now also edit users and delete individual or all entries. The dial screen has also been improved. If the user is currently in a meeting or does not want to be disturbed, the new version of the app allows you to stop ringing or vibrating by pressing a volume button on the iPhone.

In addition, users can benefit from the 3D touch feature of the app icon in the enhanced version of the Mobile Client: it provides fast access to frequently used app features such as dialing the last number or displaying your own profile. If the user applies the function to a favorite, their contact details can be seen immediately.

Swyx adds support for SIP trunks services from SFR

Unified communications vendor Swyx has announced that its SwyxWare range now fully supports SIP trunking services provided by SFR, extending the choice of suppliers for voice termination for its French channel partners.

"We are delighted to announce that the SFR Trunk SIP in France has been tested and recognized as compatible with our SwyxWare range," commented Michael Landin, Director of Business Development at Swyx Solutions AG. "This offers even more choice to our French partners, who in turn can offer the combined benefits of our unified communications platform with SFR's SIP connectivity services."

Vincent Poulbère, Marketing Director at SFR Business confirms: "The test campaign has been successfully completed and Swyx’s solutions are now fully compatible with the SFR Trunk SIP platform which becomes a new available solution for Swyx partners. This supports SFR’s Business strategy to offer its customers the widest SIP interoperability with unified communications and telephony solutions on the market." 

Swyx Cloud or On-Premise

Whilst this is likely to be a question asked by clients for some time, Swyx are focusing heavily on cloud solution development.  Swyx CTO Martin Classen who joined in November is to focus the company’s attentions on developing innovative communication solutions based in the cloud. This will ensure Swyx meets the large growth in market demand and that cloud becomes a key foundation and strength of the Dortmund based company in the long-term.

"Over the next year, the market for cloud solutions will grow faster than for on-premise products. This is why we are constantly expanding our product portfolio based on 'communication solutions from the cloud'. At the same time, we will also meet the needs of our customers with regard to on-premise solutions and further expand the products of our core business. Both resellers and customers will benefit from this: we will help our partners to offer their customers an innovative and individually tailored communication solution." says Martin Classen.

A key factor is enabling cloud telephony solutions is the switch to SIP from ISDN.  ISDN will be switched off in the UK from 2025 and from next year in Germany.  Without the hindrance of physical lines, the adoption of Swyx Datacentre is all the simpler and accelerating all the time.

VoxRocket products are designed to work with both on-premise and cloud versions of Swyx allowing you to enjoy the flexibility of either.

PCI compliance and Swyx

For those companies who take credit card payments over the phone PCI compliance isn’t just a suggestion, it’s a requirement enforced by the credit card companies.  The trouble is that most companies don’t know what’s required in order to adhere to PCI DSS or that they could be fined thousands of pounds each month for non-compliance.

What is PCI DSS?  The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is an information security standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB. The standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud. Validation of compliance is performed annually, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor that creates a Report on Compliance for organizations handling large volumes of transactions, or by Self-Assessment Questionnaire for companies handling smaller volumes.

Whilst we would always suggest getting an expert to evaluate your particular situation here is our beginners guide on PCI compliance to help get you started.

 

  • Don’t record and store credit card details!

If at all possible, the preferred option is not to record or retain credit card details in the first place.  This means there is much less chance of someone obtaining the information necessary to commit credit card fraud.  Quite often Swyx monitor is set to record all calls on all trunks meaning that details are recorded without choice.  With a few tweaks to Swyx and the GoConnect tool bar from Vox Rocket, an agent can pause the call recording whilst credit card details are taken.  Recording automatically starts again ensuring the remainder of the conversation is recorded.

  • Stop eves dropping with Swyx encryption.

Swyx has the inherent ability to encrypt call communication.  Set this to mandatory in the Swyx configuration to prevent the ability to use a packet sniffing software on the network to listen in on phone calls.

  • If you have to record credit card details then prevent access to the data.

Storing credit card details is frowned upon but if don’t have a choice then it is critical that the information is protected.  Ensuring that staff can’t just access the recordings and freely search them is a must if you don’t want to risk heavy financial penalties.  Using VoxVision with VoxVault call recording archive in conjunction with encrypted file system from Microsoft locks down your important data.  The file encryption prevents anyone without the appropriate access from being able to playback Swyx call recordings.

For more information on PCI compliance have a look at www.pcisecuritystandards.org

VoxVision, The most integrated call reporting tool available for Swyx

Get the insights you need to exceed your customer’s expectations.

VoxVision is a ground up developed call reporting tool for Swyx.  Its clean and modern user interface makes it simple to get the business intelligence you need quickly and easily.  Developed solely for Swyx, our close integration results in lower user administration and more accurate reporting.  VoxVision continuously synchronises agents, groups and their membership information directly from the Swyx server.  This ensures that your reports are accurate and contain the information you need to manage your staff and your business.  VoxVision’s dashboard view provides you with a real-time activity feed, and a high-level overview of call activity for a choice of pre-defined periods helping you to identify trends with ease.

VoxVision is available in English, German, French, Dutch and Icelandic.  Get in touch for a free trail.