Selsius Systems
Encyclopedia
Selsius Systems was a telecommunications company in Dallas, Texas
that developed and marketed some of the first IP telephony gear. It was co-founded by Richard Platt and David Tucker. Selsius was incorporated in 1997 and acquired by Cisco Systems
in November, 1998.
system consisting of a line of IP phone
s, a server-based call control
application - the Selsius-CallManager, a line of voice over IP gateways and voice applications including voicemail
, an automated attendant
console and a softphone
.
of Intecom,
a Dallas-based PBX (Private Branch Exchange) manufacturer, with David C. Tucker as CE, Richard B. Platt as VP of Engineering and Kevin Brown as VP of Sales and Marketing, as well as numerous other important positions held by the employees of Selsius Systems including John Alexander, Paul Hahn, Dave Corley, Jeff Sanders, and Scott Veibell.
The first commercially available IP phone was the Selsius 30SP. In November 1997 the company sold five 30SP phones to the TRI lab of Southwestern Bell
in San Antonio.
Selsius Systems was born out of Incite, a division of Intecom, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardere SCA, a French conglomerate. The Incite team, led by Platt and Tucker, developed and marketed a video PBX. The Incite concept was outlined on a napkin in 1993 and formally organized as a division within Intecom in mid-1994. While Incite's distributed call control
software architecture was innovative, the market for a high-end video PBX was not responsive. At Tucker's urging, executives from Intecom and their parent company Matra Communications kept the Incite team together as Selsius was spun out into its own company. Approximately 35 engineers, marketing and sales personnel were part of the original Selsius organization. At the time of the Cisco acquisition, the Selsius team had about 55 employees. From the core call control component of Incite, the Incite Multimedia Manager, grew the Selsius CallManager, Cisco CallManager, and ultimately Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Following the acquisition, Platt and Tucker were retained as Cisco executives in the IP Telephony division, directly overseeing the product they helped to create. Nearly all of the original Selsius employees joined the Cisco development organization, except for a few Selsius employees who chose the buy-out rather than continuing on with the product at Cisco. Some original Selsius employees have left Cisco, including Platt and Kevin Brown who, as of 2006, was the CEO of IPcelerate.
(SCCP). Analog gateways, which used the Skinny Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP), have since been end-of-lifed by Cisco. Cisco Unified Communications Manager is the call processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications System. As of 2005, Cisco Unified Communications Manager and related communications products are responsible for approximately $1 billion revenue for Cisco. Pull-through revenue, i.e. revenue generate on other equipment - like switches and routers - as a consequence of selling Cisco Unified Communications Manager to Cisco (from enterprise switch
es, routers and other network infrastructure components) has been estimated by some to be as high as three times the Cisco Unified Communications Manager-related revenue. In its first year of operation, Selsius sold about 3,000 IP phones. In 2006, Cisco sold 3,000 of its IP phones - an extension of the Selsius legacy - every eight hours.
A Cisco employee, Mark Nelson, has a blog post devoted to Selsius, including photos of the key players Platt, Tucker, Alexander, Sanders, and Hahn. Nelson worked with Richard Platt and other Selsius engineering teams at Cisco immediately after Selsius was acquired by Cisco.
Nortel Networks attempted to acquire Selsius shortly before Cisco successfully acquired Selsius and its employees and technology. The Nortel bid was withdrawn, lacking Selsius employee support for the deal.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
that developed and marketed some of the first IP telephony gear. It was co-founded by Richard Platt and David Tucker. Selsius was incorporated in 1997 and acquired by Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
in November, 1998.
Products
Selsius designed an IP PBXIP PBX
An IP PBX is a business telephone system designed to deliver voice or video over a data network and interoperate with the normal Public Switched Telephone Network ....
system consisting of a line of IP phone
IP Phone
A VoIP phone uses voice over IP technologies allowing telephone calls to be made over an IP network such as the Internet instead of the ordinary PSTN system. Calls can traverse the Internet, or a private IP network such as that of a company...
s, a server-based call control
Call control
In telephony, call control refers to the software within a telephone switch that supplies its central function. Call control decodes addressing information and routes telephone calls from one end point to another. It also creates the features that can be used to adapt standard switch operation to...
application - the Selsius-CallManager, a line of voice over IP gateways and voice applications including voicemail
Voicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
, an automated attendant
Automated attendant
In telephony, an automated attendant allows callers to be automatically transferred to an extension without the intervention of an operator/receptionist). Many AAs will also offer a simple menu system...
console and a softphone
Softphone
A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons...
.
History
Selsius Systems, Inc. was organized in July 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiarySubsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Intecom,
a Dallas-based PBX (Private Branch Exchange) manufacturer, with David C. Tucker as CE, Richard B. Platt as VP of Engineering and Kevin Brown as VP of Sales and Marketing, as well as numerous other important positions held by the employees of Selsius Systems including John Alexander, Paul Hahn, Dave Corley, Jeff Sanders, and Scott Veibell.
The first commercially available IP phone was the Selsius 30SP. In November 1997 the company sold five 30SP phones to the TRI lab of Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.-History:...
in San Antonio.
Selsius Systems was born out of Incite, a division of Intecom, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardere SCA, a French conglomerate. The Incite team, led by Platt and Tucker, developed and marketed a video PBX. The Incite concept was outlined on a napkin in 1993 and formally organized as a division within Intecom in mid-1994. While Incite's distributed call control
Call control
In telephony, call control refers to the software within a telephone switch that supplies its central function. Call control decodes addressing information and routes telephone calls from one end point to another. It also creates the features that can be used to adapt standard switch operation to...
software architecture was innovative, the market for a high-end video PBX was not responsive. At Tucker's urging, executives from Intecom and their parent company Matra Communications kept the Incite team together as Selsius was spun out into its own company. Approximately 35 engineers, marketing and sales personnel were part of the original Selsius organization. At the time of the Cisco acquisition, the Selsius team had about 55 employees. From the core call control component of Incite, the Incite Multimedia Manager, grew the Selsius CallManager, Cisco CallManager, and ultimately Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Following the acquisition, Platt and Tucker were retained as Cisco executives in the IP Telephony division, directly overseeing the product they helped to create. Nearly all of the original Selsius employees joined the Cisco development organization, except for a few Selsius employees who chose the buy-out rather than continuing on with the product at Cisco. Some original Selsius employees have left Cisco, including Platt and Kevin Brown who, as of 2006, was the CEO of IPcelerate.
Selsius Legacy
The current invocation of the Selsius legacy is Cisco Unified Communications Manager and the IP phones which still use (among other protocols) the original protocol created by Selsius engineers to facilitate voice over IP, the Skinny Client Control ProtocolSkinny Client Control Protocol
The Skinny Call Control Protocol is a proprietary network terminal control protocol originally developed by Selsius Systems....
(SCCP). Analog gateways, which used the Skinny Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP), have since been end-of-lifed by Cisco. Cisco Unified Communications Manager is the call processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications System. As of 2005, Cisco Unified Communications Manager and related communications products are responsible for approximately $1 billion revenue for Cisco. Pull-through revenue, i.e. revenue generate on other equipment - like switches and routers - as a consequence of selling Cisco Unified Communications Manager to Cisco (from enterprise switch
Stackable switch
A stackable switch is a network switch that is fully functional operating standalone but which can also be set up to operate together with one or more other network switches, with this group of switches showing the characteristics of a single switch but having the port capacity of the sum of the...
es, routers and other network infrastructure components) has been estimated by some to be as high as three times the Cisco Unified Communications Manager-related revenue. In its first year of operation, Selsius sold about 3,000 IP phones. In 2006, Cisco sold 3,000 of its IP phones - an extension of the Selsius legacy - every eight hours.
Learn More About Selsius
Richard Platt wrote the foreword to the first Cisco Press book published on the Unified Communications technology (CallManager, as it was known at that time), titled Cisco CallManager Fundamentals. The book was authored by original Selsius (now Cisco) employees John Alexander, Chris Pearce, Anne Smith, and Delon Whetten. In the foreword, Richard gives an insider's look at the genesis of the Selsius technological advancement: "This was the first time that a telephone call had been made entirely with Internet technology consisting of a true IP phone (connected over Ethernet), over an IP network, managed by an IP-controlled server appropriately named the CallManager." As Richard goes on to say, "This book represents the first book, written by the designers, of the first IP telephony solution ever!" The book's ISBN is 1-58705-008-0 and is now in its second edition.A Cisco employee, Mark Nelson, has a blog post devoted to Selsius, including photos of the key players Platt, Tucker, Alexander, Sanders, and Hahn. Nelson worked with Richard Platt and other Selsius engineering teams at Cisco immediately after Selsius was acquired by Cisco.
Nortel Networks attempted to acquire Selsius shortly before Cisco successfully acquired Selsius and its employees and technology. The Nortel bid was withdrawn, lacking Selsius employee support for the deal.