Craig Herret, from VoIPon Solutions interviews Vytas Lenkutis, Director of Sales for Grandstream. 

Craig Herrett speaks to Vytas Lenkutis about the new Grandstream GXP2140 and GXP2160 VoIP Phones, the UCM6100 IP PBX Series, 3CX Interoperability and more. 

You can Listen to the Grandstream Podcast and see the full transcript below:

Craig Herrett: Broadcasting from various countries around the world using Voice over IP Technology, this is VoIP Uncovered, a VoIPon Solutions UK Podcast, I’m Craig Herrett. Today we are interviewing Grandstream, and here with me is Vytas Lenkutis, the sales director for EMEA. Thank you for taking our podcast today. 

We are excited about Grandstream’s next generation IP Phones, namely the GXP2140 and the GXP2160. Could you tell us more about them?

Vytas Lenkutis: Sure, it was our pleasure to introduce the products last week, at various exhibitions in Europe, Germany, France and the IPEXPO in the UK. They are first generation, Grandstream colour, GXP, Linux phones. So, feedback that we have received from the exhibitions from the customers that have reviewed them has been very pleasant. These two new colour phones will consist with the same features that were offered with the existing GXP series, with the addition of a colour LCD display, bluetooth and USB ports and also an SDK. Additionally, the 2140 will also support the GXP 2200 Extension Keypad with LCD display, so customers will be able to connect up to 4 keyboard extensions. Our internal plan is to announce these phones by the beginning of December and the distribution channels should be able to accept pre-orders by late November/beginning of December. So customers can contact local Grandstream Distribution Channels or resellers for details.

CH: That’s fantastic. We also know that Grandstream used to have a PBX solution which was then dropped. However, you have returned to the IP PBX market with the UCM6100 Series IP PBX. Tell us what caused Grandstream to bring back their IP PBX and how has this been working out for you?

VL: That’s a very good question. We have received a lot of global market requests to offer the entire all-in-one unified communication solution by Grandstream, which obviously cannot be fulfilled without an IP PBX. As you know, Grandstream networks offers a wide range of products consisting of telephone adapters, gateways, IP desk phones, video/multimedia phones and IP video surveillance product lines. So, an IP PBX is allowing us to connect voice, mobility, data and video features that are needed with daily functions for consumer and small to medium sized businesses. We have launched the IP PBX series for the EMEA region in July of this year (2013) and are very pleased with the results. The company has invested a lot of resources into developing UCM, and the results obviously are paying off right now. We will continue to strive and establish ourselves as one of the leading companies for the consumer market. For the customers that have not tested the product yet, we encourage them to contact the sales channels and obtain the demo kit that we are offering for testing.

CH: Excellent, so Grandstream really can provide the entire solution. There’s also been some confusion over interoperability between Grandstream and 3CX. Could you please clarify some of the issues and confirm compatibility between Grandstream and 3CX products.

VL: We have great respect for 3CX. They have been and still are our recommended business partner and we have done a lot of mutual business with 3CX throughout our global channels and you know we are hopeful that things will remain the same way going forward. We’ll provide full support for the integration of the Grandstream product range including our new products into the 3CX Platform. At the end of the day its up to 3CX to implement it. However as any other vendor on the market they have to make the decision about what is good for them the company and for their customers. By not officially supporting the latest Grandstream products it’s upset a lot of our mutual customers worldwide and they are forced to look to the alternative solution which is very unfortunate for the Grandstream client. Grandstream all-in-one unified communications IP PBX series offers voice, mobility, data and video features without any licensing and support fees, at a very competitive market price. The UCM IP PBX demo kits could be obtained from one of our local channel partners worldwide and its a great option to consider for those customers that are being affected by it. So customers can test the demo kit IP PBX and use it not only with Grandstream products but also with products offered by other VoIP hardware manufacturers.

CH: That’s a great option, thanks for that Vytas. With the uptake of soft phone use, which is being pushed further into the hands of users via Google Android and Apple iOS, do you think this could ever replace the desktop VoIP Phone?

VL: I think there are markets for both softphone and VoIP hardware industries. Softphone offers more flexible mobility features. Whereas in the office and business environment, VoIP Phones are still the preferred solution that does not rely on Wifi signal, 3G, 4G signal and also battery usage. Grandstream’s new product innovations will offer built in Bluetooth capabilities where the customers can pass a phonebook from their mobile phone or even the call from the mobile device to the VoIP Desk Phone. This mobility feature will be very convenient for the remote, global business centers, so I suggest to look forward to the new 2140 and 2160 GXP series announcements at the beginning of December so customers can experience it themselves.

CH: Grandstream are used to reinventing themselves into new, but complementary markets such as IP Surveillance, use of the Android operating system with the GXP2200 and most recently IP PBXs. Perhaps you could give us a sneak peek into some of the plans for the future?

VL: Absolutely. Grandstream are always looking to benefit the customers with their new innovations on the IP voice and video side of business. We look forward to expanding our product range for IP desk and multimedia phones, video surveillance product lines and also the UCM IP PBX series as well. So, I encourage a lot of our customers, if they can, to visit us at CeBIT exhibition next March and experience it themselves. We always appreciate and value the business and also feedback and support. It will be a great opportunity to review our roadmap and our new innovations going forward.

CH: I look forward to seeing you at CeBIT then Vytas! I’d like to thank you for your time today and for bringing VoIPon listeners up to speed with the developments within Grandstream. This has been a VoIP Uncovered podcast. For more information, please visit www.voipon.co.uk

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