airCRM

[sirhc]

When I was first told about airCONTROL v3 and it being a cloud based install only which became airCRM almost a year ago I threw a fit and explained that WISPs "want" a LOCAL install and I was told there were reasons but was not told what they were even though I asked MANY times.

My "guess" as to possible reasons:
1) UBNT will then be able to see which WISPs are profitable and cherry pick purchasing them thus creating a world wide media distribution company. Go ahead and laugh if you want time will tell. But it all makes sense with UBNT World Net and required branding, giving the impression of 1 company, 1 network.

2) Mine data, the money today is in data, better read the fine print on the airCRM TOS.

3) Monthly fee as of yet undisclosed. Do not get me wrong I have no problems with a fee to insure software development but if this is the plan just say so.

I am not always right so maybe I am just crazy and none are correct. But Robert is a visionary and is looking deep for the long pass here, the question is what is he looking for exactly?

I warned Matt a long time ago that if they pursued a cloud based only and the community as a whole does not like it I will re=write my old management software to be web based and of course update it and put billing in it. As it was my idea to Robert 4 years ago to do billing and I gave Thomas my old code and access to my original management software to help in the development of AC1. You can see my OLD management software which is OLD but the core idea and structure is solid. http://www.hydrosoft.net/dmm

Also keep in mind that my partner Eric help develop one of the larger billing software packages used by the cable and telecom industry so we have the ability. He used to work for Logisense http://www.logisense.com

But if the community is happy with cloud base CRM/Billing then I have no desire to compete with them but I am tired of Ubiquiti thinking they know more about what their customers need than their customers want. So in closing I hope they are correct and this is the best thing since sliced bread and people are OK with a cloud based solution but if not I "will" step in, I warned Matt about this almost a year ago demanding a local installed version.

[wayneorack]

There is something about this that bugs me. It makes sense that Ubiquiti software only manages Ubiquiti equipment. But now this is a CRM system (The Ultimate ISP Management Platform). UBNT-Matt mentioned that current firmware already has the support for AIR-CRM built in. That is great, but it makes it very clear that this is a Ubiquiti only product. So now, if I want to do a build out with the equipment of a different vendor (because they have DFS certs?) I have to change my entire billing system? And, I have to hang on to AIR-CRM to manage my Ubiquiti devices. I guess the only vendor lock in is if you use the billing package. At this point, it is just wait and see...

[Magician]

Chris I agree with so many of your points as per our conversations and time will tell :)

I like the concept but I am so anti cloud its crazy!!

[josh]

If you guys haven't seen this, I'll just post this here...
https://github.com/esseph/groundcontrol

We just put this up yesterday, but we've already received about 7 people who volunteered to write code and submit existing code snippets. People have given us development and database VMs with plenty of resources free of charge.

We were also offered a spot at AFMUG if we wanted it.

[turtles2]

Josh I have been working on private PHP projects for kicks for a few years and would also like to help out let me know how I can. I also have been working on a radius based billing system powered by stripe that I could throw in the mix if it was something that was wanted.

[sirhc]

Hi Guys --

Thanks for all the feedback. Here are some quick thoughts from our side:

1. The goal behind our CRM solution is to level the playing field between Tier 1 operators and you guys. We have invested significant R&D resources over the past couple years towards providing powerful business software technology which would allow your businesses and networks to scale faster and more efficiently. Our goal has always been to accelerate the growth of our entire Industry and make you guys more successful.

2. We have some powerful features planned that take advantage of the centralized hosting and that is why we decided on a cloud framework

3. A significant piece of Ubiquiti's DNA is about listening to our community. We hear the message about the local hosting requirement loud and clear. We have started on it now and will have solution for local hosting

Consider what we have available now as an option to try out. For those of you that will hold off until the local hosting option is available, please feel free to try out the UI and direction and let us know what you think.


Thanks,
Robert

http://community.ubnt.com/t5/Ubiquiti-A ... 20474#M303

Well victory is ours I guess!?

I wonder if the shear amount of push back by the community and the fact that I threatened to write one if they did not compromise helped persuade Robert on this just a little?

I threatened the switch and they laughed at me last year, well my good friend Matt did - LOL.......not so funny now I guess?

Anyway I am glad Robert has seen the light and I can remove the need to write one now which would have been to support all devices which would have loosened their grip on WISP's which was NOT my plan but would have been an unfortunate side effect.

Sometimes to affect change you have to do things like this.

Let's just hope this is not a ploy of Robert to get you to try and hopefully change your mind about the cloud but if that is the plan then he is mistaken.

Anyway let's assume he will make good on his promise, as of yet I have no reason to not believe him at his word!

[Ant]

Everyone was only complaining about airCRM and it was just repeated over and over a stand-alone was not going to be produced. Once it was posted how it would affect the first quarter fiscal reports, then posts were removed and Robert jumped in. You can complain about something all day long, but unless you act and talk money, a business rarely will take action.

Personally IMO, UBNT needs to fire all their Alpha testers because either UBNT is not listening to them, the testers are only saying "yes", or they are not diverse enough to test new ideas multiple ways to find the real gotchas.

My take away from Roberts post. We will back track on AirCRM give us some time but we are planning on building something we can sell to the big dogs such as AT&T etc. as well as WISPs.

I bet Dilbert would feel right at home at present-day UBNT.

[josh]

Ant,

We told them we didn't want it 2 years ago. It's not their alpha testers and super users, trust me on this.

That said: https://plus.google.com/communities/112 ... 4769508481

Also, after tonight's work we have found we should be able to run airview remotely on CPEs for X amount of time (or until memory is close to being full), then stop the scan and export the data to rrdtool for graphing. There's other stuff we want to do with groundcontrol of course, but there's some neat things we are realizing we can do/expose as we go along.

[Ant]

That's what I thought on Alpha testers but I had to leave the possibility open it could have been either side.

GroundControl is looking good! Nice tag line. I don't know php or mysql but I do know some asp.net/C# if that is ever needed.

[JimBouse]

We warned them about the cloud. As everyone has.

Time will tell.

GroundControl has some serious promise.