|
This article originally appeared in the Optical Networks Daily newsletter, March 1, 2006.
The success of MetaSwitch over the last few years, during which time it has become a major softswitch supplier, with particular strength in the U.S. where the company claims to be leader of the sector, has presented an interesting problem of organisational adaptation to the company's parent, Data Connection of London, itself a successful group, within which MetaSwitch is still technically a division.
Rather than constrain the MetaSwitch identity within its corporate culture, Data Connection has allowed MetaSwitch ample opportunity to establish a brand of its own to the extent that many in the U.S. might think Data Connection is, if anything, a subsidiary of MetaSwitch.
This relaxed corporate attitude to identity by the parent, under the umbrella of a globally unquestioned professionalism, can be contrasted with the contrary stifling style adopted by, for example, the major Japanese companies and in the U.S. by Motorola, within which units seem at times to be grotesquely subordinated to the corporate brand, with local achievements greedily appropriated for corporate use.
Whether this special corporate attitude is cause or consequence, MetaSwitch in 2005, after only a few years of existence, reported revenues of $30 million, around 40% of Data Connection's corporate annual revenue.
February 28th MetaSwitch, a division of privately owned Data Connection of the UK, a $30 million sales-level supplier of carrier-class switching and application solutions, has announced delivery of its 200th Class 4/5 switching system to BroadRiver Communication, an Atlanta-based CLEC.
The MetaSwitch solution, incorporating the CA9020 call agent, MG3510 media gateway and UC9000 application server, was selected by BroadRiver to meet a need for scalability, support for PacketCable Network-based Call Signalling (NCS) for residential applications and for long-term stability.
BroadRiver Communication is an 18-year old CLEC, having evolved from a hardware vendor and IT support company to a complete voice, data and hosting services provider, partnering with suppliers such as Cisco, Compaq, Lucent, MetaSwitch and Nortel to deliver an expanding line of services such as VoIP.
The MetaSwitch announcement, noting that total deployments have now doubled in less than ten months, quoted CEO John Lazar as saying: