We design, develop and sell software and services that enable enterprises
and telecommunication service providers to deliver Unified Communications (UC)
services, including voice, video, messaging and collaboration functionality,
over their Internet Protocol, or IP, based networks. We are capitalizing upon
numerous industry trends, including the rapid adoption of mobile technology,
the proliferation of bring-your-own-device to work programs, the need for secure
business communications, the need for centralized provisioning, the migration
towards cloud-based services and the migration towards all IP networks. We are
also capitalizing on a trend where communication services such as Skype and
WhatsApp are becoming more available over-the-top (OTT) of the incumbent operators’
networks or enterprise networks (a.k.a. Internet OTT providers). We offer our
solutions under perpetual license agreements that generate one-time license
revenue and under subscription license agreements that generate recurring license
revenue. We sell our solutions through our own online store, through third-party
online stores, directly using our in-house sales team and through channel partners.
Our channel partners include original equipment manufacturers, value added distributers
and value added resellers. Enterprises typically leverage our solutions to increase
employee productivity and to reduce certain costs. Telecommunication service
providers typically deploy our solutions as part of a broad strategy to defend
their subscriber base from competitive threats by offering innovative new services.
Our original equipment manufacturers and value added resellers typically integrate
our solutions into their products and then sell a bundled solution to their
end customers, which include both telecommunication service providers and enterprises.
Our business model is based on winning new customers, expanding sales of new
and existing products and services to existing customers, and renewing subscriptions
and software support agreements. We target business customers of all sizes and
across a broad range of industries, including call centers, financial services,
government, retail, technology and telecommunications. We have sold at least
$10,000 of software and services to more than 636 different customers in over
71 countries, including some of the world’s largest businesses, global
financial institutions and leading telecommunication service providers.
The telecommunication industry is undergoing a fundamental transition from
legacy circuit switched networks to packet switched networks that are more flexible
and economical to operate. At the same time, consumers and businesses are rapidly
adopting new mobile technologies. We believe enterprises want to capitalize
upon these trends by launching innovative OTT services to increase employee
mobility, increase employee productivity, and reduce certain costs. At the same
time, telecommunication service providers are facing a number of threats, including
the commoditization of their legacy voice businesses, the decline in short message
service (SMS) revenues, regulatory changes that increase competition in certain
areas and reduce certain revenues, and the proliferation of third party OTT
services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber that are intermediating customer
relationships and reducing certain revenue streams. Given these factors, some
telecommunication service providers are looking to defend their businesses by
launching their own innovative OTT services to counter some of the threats they
are facing, and to possibly create new revenue streams. In addition, both enterprises
and telecommunication service providers are looking to simplify their IT operations
by procuring cloud-based services rather than purchasing systems outright and
running them independently. The migration towards cloud-based services typically
reduces up-front capital expenditures and simplifies IT operations.
Our solutions range from software products to cloud based services. Our software
products include applications for smartphones, tablets and desktop computers,
a Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers seeking to add voice,
video and messaging capabilities to their existing applications, and server-based
software solutions for provisioning, managing and supporting softphones and
for deploying advanced messaging and collaboration services. Many of these software
products are also available to customers in the form of cloud based hosted services.
Softphones
Our softphone applications support voice, video, messaging, presence and collaboration
services over IP networks. Our softphone applications have undergone rigorous
interoperability testing against leading PBXs, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
application servers and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) cores, ensuring that our
softphone applications can be readily deployed in our customers’ networks.
In addition to maintaining certification with leading SIP infrastructure vendors
(such as Cisco, Avaya, BroadSoft and Genesys), our softphones are tightly integrated
with solutions from Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Oracle, AirWatch (a VMware company),
and Blackberry (formerly Good Technologies), to name a few. We have performed
integration with leading USB headset and Bluetooth device vendors, including
Plantronics, Jabra, Logitech and Sennheiser, to provide advanced levels of functionality
when deployed in conjunction with CounterPath products.
Bria Desktop (Windows, Mac), Bria Tablet (iPad, Android) and Bria Mobile (iPhone,
Android)
The Bria softphone suite enables consumers and business users to make VoIP audio
and video calls, send Instant Messages and manage their presence, share their
screen and collaborate with other users, all in an easy-to-use software application.
The product suite works on desktop computers and laptops, smartphones and tablets
(including Windows 2.1 tablet devices such as Microsoft Surface Pro), using
various operating systems.
Using the latest technology and SIP standards, our softphone applications provide
business users with carrier-grade communication solutions that can be tailored
to meet the needs of any size organization. For larger customers, we offer the
ability to customize our softphone application by allowing our customers to
include their corporate logos and branding, as well as to select specific features
to be included. We have developed our on-line Branding Portal to allow customers
to efficiently customize their applications.
X-Lite
X-Lite is a standards-based VoIP softphone application that runs on desktop
computers. X-Lite interoperates with enterprise and carrier infrastructure equipment
from major vendors, but excludes some key functionality offered in our commercial
products, such as the ability to: brand the product, support multiple languages,
import contacts, centrally provision the softphone, utilize premium codecs,
or support multiple accounts.
X-Lite is offered free of charge, is available for download on our website and
may not be redistributed to third parties. We believe that offering X-Lite for
free is an effective marketing tool for our company, as it allows potential
customers to test and evaluate our software. We also believe offering X-Lite
for free supports our business by encouraging companies that develop SIP compliant
equipment, such as phones, video phones, network gateways, multipoint conference
units and conference servers to test their equipment against our softphone.
We believe this testing improves interoperability, facilitates our sales, and
helps build positive brand recognition. The X-Lite graphical user interface
supports advertising that could potentially be used to generate revenue in the
future. While we advertise our commercial products on the X-Lite softphone user
interface, we do not currently generate revenue from third-party advertising
on X- Lite.
Software Development Kit (SDK)
Our SDK is targeted at developers that are seeking to build a unique communication
application or incorporate advanced unified communications capabilities into
their existing applications. For example, there is strong market demand within
the healthcare vertical for adding unified communication capabilities to healthcare
applications that were originally designed for managing prescriptions and tracking
appointments for patients. We are targeting a number of industries, including
the healthcare, finance and government verticals.
Our SDK delivers standard-compliant voice, video and messaging capabilities
for desktop, tablet and mobile devices, and can be integrated into existing
customer applications with a minimal amount of development effort. Our SDK can
also be deployed with our Stretto Platform for customers seeking to leverage
Stretto capabilities such as centralized provisioning or other advanced softphone
metrics. Our SDK is used in our own softphone products, thereby delivering the
benefit of our experience in deploying millions of SIP softphone clients. As
an important differentiator, we provide customers with direct access to our
engineering team, to ensure technical issues are quickly resolved.
Stretto Platform
The Stretto Platform (Stretto) is a carrier-grade software platform for enterprises
and service providers; it is also a key component of our Bria X and Cloud Solutions
products.
The Stretto Platform is agnostic to existing network elements, enabling deployments
to be made on top of existing session border controllers, IMS components, VoIP
switches, PBXs and cloud communication services.
The Stretto Platform includes a number of modules that can be separately purchased
by customers, including:
Provisioning: The Provisioning module enables the IT or operations staff of
an organization to deploy, provision, and manage ongoing configuration upgrades
to Bria softphones. The organization can control over 250 settings, including
default codec selection, NAT traversal settings and keep-alive timer values
as specified by IT or operations staff. This module is responsible for authenticating
end users, and includes integration with the enterprise’s existing directory
services using protocols such as LDAP and OAuth.
User Experience Metrics: The User Experience Metrics module enables the IT or
operations staff of an organization to record and analyze critical analytics
and Voice Quality Monitoring (VQM) data that summarizes service quality, device
usage, feature usage, and device characteristics.
Help Desk Assistant: The Help Desk Assistant module enables the IT help-desk
staff of an organization to directly access an end-user’s Bria application
for trouble shooting.
Push Notification: The Push Notification module enables our Bria mobile applications
to eliminate high battery drain during daily use, while ensuring that users
never miss incoming calls or messages. The Push Notification module wakes our
Bria softphone applications on the end user’s mobile device when an incoming
call, message or voicemail is pushed from a network to the client. Push Notification
is becoming increasingly important to our customers, as both Apple and Google
become more aggressive in managing power consumption by applications.
Call Continuity: The Call Continuity module provides a seamless handover of
active calls between the user’s various devices (e.g. a call started on
a desktop client can be seamlessly moved to the user’s mobile device)
and can also move calls between WiFi and cellular networks.
XMPP Messaging and Presence: The XMPP Messaging and Presence delivers standards-
compliant secure messaging and presence services, including the ability to synchronize
messages across all of the user’s devices.
Bria X and Cloud Solutions
CounterPath Bria X and Cloud Solutions products combine the Bria Stretto™
client suite for desktops, smartphone and tablets with our cloud-hosted Stretto
Platform™. Bria X was launched in 2016 as a subscription service, delivering
centralized provisioning, messaging and screen sharing from the cloud, along
with up to three Bria Softphones per user; this solution is available exclusively
through our on-line store. For medium and large businesses, we offer Cloud Solutions,
which is sold through channel partners and our direct sales team.
Bria X is a solution targeted at small businesses allowing them to cost effectively
extend the benefits of unified communications softphone technology to all employees,
across all devices and networks with the aim of increasing the productivity
and responsiveness of every employee. By simplifying the provisioning process,
enterprise IT specialists can quickly and easily configure all employees via
the cloud; users simply download our Bria X application to each of their devices,
enter their credentials and within seconds, can start collaborating with fellow
employees, partners and customers. Bria X delivers a suite of hosted collaboration
services including Instant Messaging / Presence and Screen Sharing to broaden
our value beyond traditional softphones. Bria X was the recent recipient of
Corp America’s North American Excellence award for “Best Unified
Communications Provider – North America & Unified Communications-as-a-Service
(UCaaS) Product of the Year.”
Using our Cloud Solutions, enterprises, operators and telecommunication channel
partners are able to leverage the Stretto Platform for procuring, distributing,
provisioning and managing Bria Stretto clients from the cloud, as well as offering
hosted messaging and collaboration solutions. The Stretto Platform provides
customers with an easy-to-use system accessible through either the Stretto Admin
web interface or an API. Most softphone settings, outside of some user preferences,
are hidden; instead the softphone relies on our Provisioning Module to provision
these settings remotely. This enables administrators to centrally manage all
of their communications across all device platforms.
The softphone clients in our Bria X and Cloud Solutions offerings are updated
with the most current release and available as a free download from the Apple
iTunes store, Google Play, or direct download links (for desktop). Our softphone
offers high-quality VoIP communications, delivered in an intuitive user interface,
and include premium features such as video calling, messaging and presence and
premium audio and video codecs, where available.
Our Cloud Solutions also provide customers with access to hosted messaging
and hosted collaboration services.
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