CopperCom bought Switchmaxx for its capabilities in customer portals, which is viewed as a competitive advantage at a time when IOCs are starting to get competition from both the broadband voice providers and cable companies. “Independents are starting to realize, as they put together bundled services, that they need to create a distinct brand and drive people to their services rather than a cable company or Vonage (Holdings Inc.),” says Chuck Harris, vice president of marketing at CopperCom.

While the addition of Switchmaxx will not greatly expand CopperCom’s addressable market the way its host-remote capabilities did, says Joe McGarvey, principal analyst of carrier IP telephony at Current Analysis Inc., it may well tip the scales in a sale. “Service providers might be swayed by things like the self-care and Web portal capabilities, so there might be differences in selling one piece of hardware over another,” McGarvey says.

Also, CopperCom customers might not be offering broadband telephony to all customers, but with the addition of the CopperCom switch with Switchmaxx software next to a legacy TDM system, all customers can use a Web portal to manage their services and the portal will not change if they are migrated to VoIP. “That was one of the selling points, the fact that it was also compatible with (Nortel Networks Inc.) DMS 10s and other legacy equipment,” says McGarvey.

Competitors in the same space as CopperCom, such as Tekelec and MetaSwitch, also have worked to maximize the application capabilities of their hardware offerings. MetaSwitch has taken advantage of its parent firm, Data Connection Ltd., while Tekelec acquired hosted PBX software company VocalData. Although there are distinct differences in the hardware offerings of all three companies, they all target similar markets, namely IOCs, CLECs, ISPs and cable companies adding voice.

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