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Eastern Management Group Study Finds Open Source PBX Market Growth Fueled by Repeat Sales

CLINTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study by The Eastern Management Group, a veteran telecommunications industry market research firm, has found that repeat customers represent the majority of Open Source PBX sales, with undeniably negative consequences for manufacturers of conventional phone systems.

The Eastern Management Group report, Open Source PBX: Market Size, Forecast and Analysis, states that 55 percent of new Open Source PBX sales are made to returning customers, and they acquire larger systems the second time around as Open Source PBXs burrow into companies.

The Eastern Management Group's ongoing examination of 7,000 businesses finds that while first time Open Source PBX customers may test-out open source with a small telephone system installation, returning customers move beyond experimentation and turn-up larger PBXs. According to the report, first time Open Source PBX customers install 63 percent of all systems with under 10 phones, while returning customers put in 92 percent of all systems with 500 to 1,000 phones. Overall, companies with two or more Open Source PBXs install systems averaging 62 telephones, twice that of all businesses.

Eastern Management reports that fourteen percent of organizations with two or more Open Source PBXs have at least 10 corporate offices, and 10 percent employ at least 1,000 people.

"The beauty of a PBX is that every customer location needs one," said John Malone, CEO of The Eastern Management Group. "The problem is it needs only one, and returning Open Source PBX customers jeopardize conventional PBX manufacturers."

Open Source PBXs are popular because they are VoIP technology with prices up to 50 percent less than conventional PBXs. The leading conventional PBX manufacturers include names such as Nortel, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and NEC. Last year Open Source PBXs accounted for 18 percent of the overall PBX market, according to The Eastern Management Group.

The report Open Source PBX: Market Size, Forecast and Analysis is available from The Eastern Management Group.

About the Eastern Management Group
The Eastern Management Group is a global telecommunications research and consulting firm. The company operates the largest Open Source PBX market research practice in the world. For more than 30 years Eastern Management Group has proven itself the leading provider of telecommunications market research to hundreds of clients. Additional information about the report is available at www.easternmanagement.com