FreePBX joins forces with Bria Cloud to let freedom ring anywhere

Jim OBrien

Jim OBrien

A guest blog from Jim O’Brien, Vice President of Server Engineering for CounterPath.

A little while ago, we got together with our friends at Schmoozecom and hatched a plan.

The goal was clear: Let’s make it very simple and straightforward for FreePBX end users to communicate with Bria clients on any device using their company’s phone system.

And what was born was a brand new capability we are offering to Bria Cloud Solutions customers, effectively bringing enterprise mobility to millions of FreePBX users worldwide.

Behind the scenes, Schmoozecom and CounterPath have worked together to make our products and services very complimentary. By making it simple for managers of FreePBX systems to connect their systems to Bria Cloud Services, they can provision users into FreePBX and for these users to be auto-magically provisioned into Bria Cloud Services.

So what does this mean for SMBs and enterprises using FreePBX? It means employees can communicate on any device they may have access to at any time, from any location.

Do you generally work from the office? Load Bria on your office computer. Going on a road trip? Load Bria on your smartphone. Working from the beach? Load it on your tablet. With FreePBX and Bria, employees can stay connected like never before.

Now, I’m a technical guy, so I can’t talk about this without going into a bit of detail. In a nutshell, the solution comprises:

  • FreePBX has a new module called Bria Cloud Solutions.
  • CounterPath has released a Provisioning Interface (based on our Stretto Platform) to the Bria Cloud Service for this FreePBX Module.
  • This module supports an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows FreePBX to provision users into CounterPath’s Cloud Service.
  • IT Managers [or System resellers or even Normal Humans J ] running their own FreePBX phone system add this new module to their FreePBX installation.
  • IT Managers then purchase subscriptions to Bria Cloud services for clients their organization will use (or purchase some and add more later).

The great part about this is, though, that end users see none of the above.

They are told “Go download the red Bria client and install it on your device (from iTunes for iPhone/iPad, from GooglePlay for Android smartphones/tablets, from BlackBerry World for Blackberry 10, and from CounterPath for Windows and Mac). Then login with a username and password that matches your FreePBX credentials.”

And it’s as easy as that!

The solution is also an IT manager’s dream. IT managers can see the usage of devices across their population and purchase more subscriptions. They can set limits for users and if someone gets a new computer or phone, the IT manager can remove an old device and the employee can then use Bria on their new device.

Another key feature is that the IT manager controls the configuration of the device(s). End users have access to preferences, but not the real settings that connect their Bria clients back to Free PBX for Voice or Voice, Video, Presence and Instant Messaging. The normal end user will have a much harder time breaking things, which means less time spent supporting end user configuration issues and typos, etc.

We hope that this first collaboration with the FreePBX team provides value to our mutual and newly-mutual customers.

For more information please check out our Press release, our Product Page, our Knowledge Base, and the Free PBX wiki.

This post originally appeared on blog.counterpath.com

About Jim O’Brien

Jim O’Brien is the Vice President of Server Engineering for CounterPath and directs his team in architecting, building and supporting server solutions that work closely with CounterPath softphone applications. Jim designed, launched, and supported wholesale and enterprise VoIP networks for GTE, Genuity, and Level(3). Jim joined CounterPath with the acquisition of BridgePort Networks in 2008.

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