January 23, 2013, Today we launch a major new product in the FreePBX ecosystem. For the first time FreePBX will have a commercially supported and developed End Point Manager PBX End Point Manager allows administrators to auto configure and provision over 150 different devices from 15 different manufactures all from the FreePBX GUI interface. FreePBX has always given you the Freedom to build your PBX with the devices you choose, Compared to the proprietary PBXs that support only their developers views of which devices are supported, now you can do it all easily directly in the FreePBX GUI.
The PBX End Point manager supports Desk Phones, Wireless Phones, Door Phones, Overhead Paging Devices, Gateways and Specialty devices from the following manufacturers: Aastra, Algo, AND, Audiocodes, Cisco, Cyberdata, Digium, Grandstream, Mitel, Panasonic, Polycom, Sangoma, Snom, Xorcom & Yealink. For a complete list of supported phones and devices click here.
How Does it Work?
The EPM will allow you to create templates based on Brand and Model, these templates can then be applied to single users, or multiple devices to create configurations files that can then be provisioned by your choice of FTP, TFTP or HTTP (if supported by the device). Once your template is created if you need to make changes you can do so quickly using the drag and drop button assignments within the templates. You can map your template to a user and device on your network, and the system will load the config files onto your server, and auto provision the phone. The module also allows you to control global settings such as internal and external IP’s, and provides for firmware management of your devices.
The initial Commercial Module release is classified as BETA, However Schmooze Com Inc has been using the Commercial EPM for over a year with their commercially supported PBXact platform. Bug fixes will be pushed out on a weekly basis as they are reported.
What does it Cost?
The BETA PBX End Point Manager is being released at a license cost of only $25 per server.
How do I purchase it?
Instructions for purchasing and license the module can be found in the FreePBX Wiki- Purchasing Commercial Modules.
View the User Guide, Supported Devices & Sales Information – Free PBX Wiki End Point Manager
What about the OSS End Point Manager?
The free OSS End Point Manager is not going away, in fact the developer of the OSS End Point Manager has been hired by Schmooze Com Inc, and just recently fixed up the FreePBX dahdi config module, in fact he is even being paid to continue his work on the Free OSS Endpoint Manager as well as other core modules inside of FreePBX. So the free one isn’t going anywhere. But if you need a commercially supported endpoint manager that gets ongoing updates and support you should take a look at the Schmooze EPM.
“If you want an endpoint manager that is maintained by a developer who gets paid to maintain it then go with the commercial version. It’s far superior. The free one will always be free and still gets updated.”
Andrew Nagy, Developer OSS Endpoint Manager
“Schmooze Com’s new EPM is hands down the best SIP device provisioning utility available today – I still can’t believe it’s only $25!”
Mike White, 8774e4voip.com
“For Asterisk and PBX in a Flash to continue to grow and meet the needs of a broader audience, we’ve simply got to integrate some parts of the puzzle better. I spent a long time in the commercial and government sector, and I continue to measure what we’re missing that would have caused me to balk at an Asterisk solution assuming it had been available in the Nortel days. This is one of the pieces where I think a commercial solution makes sense for a lot of folks because it’s addressing integration of commercial products anyway. Tony would be the first to tell you that I beat him up pretty badly on the pricing. This is as close to free as something like this can be… if you still want to eat! … $25 is a steal. To be honest, any corporate or government customer would laugh at the $25 pricing. This isn’t per phone. It’s per server. And, again, this takes nothing away from Andrew’s Herculean efforts with the open source Endpoint Manager. It’s certainly matured to the point that it can meet the needs of many in the VoIP community. Unfortunately, pure open source doesn’t keep the lights on for many of us so there’s just got to be a reality check and an appreciation that we all have families to feed… even though this still can be fun.”
Ward Mundy, Nerdvittles.com, PBX in a Flash
“The Commercial End Point Manager was written from the ground up and designed after years of feedback from users of our commercial PBXact product. It is vastly different in how you use the product compared to the OSS End Point Manager. Each of the devices we support we have in our offices and test against them so we have made a serious investment in the application and can provide real hardware support of devices. We have full time developers dedicated just to supporting this module”
Tony Lewis, CEO Schmooze Com Inc
“We announced at Astricon 2012 that we would be launching our Commercially supported End Point Manager as a FreePBX commercial module. During the session in which the announcement was made I was covering our exhibit booth, before the rest of the Schmooze Team could make it back to the booth I was surrounded by a huge crowd of about 50 people asking about Commercial EPM, all ready to start using it that day. I spent the next several hours showing excited event attendees the capabilities of EPM, this is going to be a big thing for FreePBX”
Preston McNair, VP of Sales, Schmooze Com Inc