OnState Communications' Story

In 1998 Pat, Jerry, and Wayne saw business communications starting to change in ways that defied conventional phone systems. “Companies we spoke with were looking into all sorts of collaboration platforms – IM, web conferencing, and video; VoIP was drastically cutting telephony costs, and yet call centers and corporate offices were still stuck with the same old, monolithic call center and PBX infrastructure,” says Pat Kelly.

So the three began working on a new kind of business communications platform, one that combined the power of a full call center solution with the affordability of Internet applications; one that would work over any network, giving callers a better indicator of availability than the usual ring, busy signal, or waiting. “How much did a ringing sound tell you when people might busy talking on Skype?” says Pat. “They might not be free for a phone call, but available on IM.”

The result became OnState’s virtual call center solution. It’s build in the cloud, like Internet applications, so it’s inexpensive. It uses patented Business Presence intelligence to track the availability and activity of everyone in the call center, regardless if they’re available on the phone, via Skype, GoogleTalk, their mobile, or a SIP phone. With Onstate’s virtual call center solution, callers always connect with the best person available every time. “Fewer missed calls or call backs means less money spent on voicemail, less money lost because of misplaced calls, and overall a better return on your investment,” says Jerry Gechter.

Since then we’ve expanded our offerings. We added our popular virtual PBX package to put all business users on a cloud-based communications platform, and virtual call center options, such as our automated outbound dialer, live chat and call recording. We’ve also integrated our software into numerous applications, such as SalesForce.com, Skype, and Google, to name a few.

Through it all we continue to be led by the same seasoned, executive team. With Charlie Davis, the vice president of engineering, our executive team holds scores of industry patents on telephony applications your phone system probably uses right now:

• Automatic Call Distributors (ACD)
• Intelligent Call Routing
• Network Call Routing
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
• Voice Response Units (VRU)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Quality Assurance and Employee Performance Management

We use that expertise to continue to push the boundaries of business communications. OnState serves people, not phones. We deliver a solution that exploits the convergence of advanced Internet, voice and networking technologies to create value-driven collaborative environments – at the lowest cost possible anytime, anywhere.

Pat Kelly
Co-founder, CEO

"OnState is not another voice over the Internet solution – we are delivering voice as an Internet application."

Pat Kelly's distinguished career has focused on improving the customer experience. He holds a variety of patents in areas such as Intelligent Call Routing and Performance Management. Prior to OnState, Pat was a board member and executive with Performix Technologies. He has led call center and telecommunications groups at forward-thinking companies including Fidelity Investments.

As a former executive with GeoTel Communications and Cisco Systems, Pat was instrumental in the success of these companies in the enterprise and service provider markets. At OnState, Pat leads the drive for new-generation call centers that use voice as an Internet application to improve profit margins and create high-value customer management.

Wayne Andrews
Co-founder, CTO

"We're giving businesses the opportunity to provide the highest level of customer support at the lowest operating cost possible."

Wayne Andrews has devoted his career to developing innovative companies, products, and marketing strategies in the ACD and call center markets. A recipient of Call Center Magazine's Pioneer and Most Influential People awards, Wayne holds over ten hardware and software telecommunications patents. An industry thought leader in call center technologies, Wayne has been a featured speaker at a number of industry events.

Prior to OnState, Wayne was founder, CTO, and director of GeoTel Communications where he redefined call center products and carrier network services. By integrating enterprise data and voice to call centers over the Internet, GeoTel pioneered a network-centric approach to connecting every customer to the best available customer service representative, regardless of their physical location. Under Wayne's leadership, GeoTel become one of the most successful companies in the call center market, was publicly traded on NASDAQ, and in 1999 was acquired by Cisco Systems for $2 billion. During his tenure at Cisco, Wayne helped to spearhead Cisco's entry into the call center market.

Dr. Jerry Gechter
Co-founder, Vice President of Product Management

"We're taking the 'center' out of call centers giving customer contact agents easy-to-use business communications tools that always put the customer first."

Jerry Gechter is passionate about developing communications products that meet business user needs. With a PhD in mathematics from MIT, Jerry started his career at Bell Labs in the early days of digital switching technologies, and he brings to OnState an extraordinarily broad industry perspective touching all parts of the product lifecycle.

Prior to OnState Jerry had responsibility for product management and worldwide deployment of the network carrier version of GeoTel Communications' contact center product line. Earlier Jerry was a cofounder of Unifi Communications, a developer of one of the first network-based ACDs. A recognized industry thought leader on skills-based routing and presence-enabled communication, Jerry is breaking new ground in customer contact management at OnState.

Phil Cantillon
Chief Financial Officer

"By placing the intelligence in the network as pure SaaS, OnState is able to offer an industry re-defining price point in a flexible, pay-as-you go model."

Prior to joining OnState Phil was a Senior Vice President at Fidelity Investments. During his career at Fidelity he held numerous finance and operations positions including Director of Finance for Fidelity Telecommunications Company, Vice President of Finance for the Retail Contact Centers and a Senior Vice President of operations for the Telecommunications division of Devonshire Investors. His offshore experience includes managing Fidelity’s telecom interest in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Prior to joining Fidelity he was the assistant controller for the Winfield Brooks Company.

Mr. Cantillon received a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and a Master’s of Finance from Babson College.

Charlie Davis
Vice President of Engineering

OnState's independence, from an architecture, device, and network standpoint, allows us the freedom to innovate and deploy rapidly.

Charlie has over 30 years of experience developing and deploying mission critical software. Over his career he has concentrated on the disciplines of operating systems, data communications, and fault tolerance, giving him a unique perspective on delivering OnState's cloud based services. He was a contributor to the Multics operating system, and held key development positions at Stratus Computer, Banyan Systems, GeoTel Communications, and Unisphere Networks.

Mr. Davis holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.