About Innovation
Satisfying a Need
In 1990, our founder, Doug Schwartz started Innovation Technologies Worldwide, with the goal of satisfying a specific need. Realizing early on that the hotel industry was in the midst of a transformation, he set out to design a voicemail solution that could interface with the many disparate systems encompassing a hotel. In 1992, the first InnLine voicemail system was released.
Pioneering with Innovation
Over the course of the next few years Innovation Technologies became synonymous with the highest quality voice systems and unsurpassed support. Continually at the forefront, Innovation pioneered features like the DID server, guest programmable wake up calls, and more. The ability to lead and act quickly helped forge many strong alliances within the industry.
An Underdog Story
As an unknown startup, Innovation had to earn respect the old fashioned way. “We had to adhere to the stringent requirements of telecom giants like Avaya and Mitel. We served a very important role to their companies as we essentially provided a bridge to the hospitality world for their existing enterprise phone systems” says founder Doug Schwartz. “Also, we had to satisfy the ever-changing needs of hotel industry leaders like Intercontinental and Starwood.” Eventually, Innovation garnered the respect and recommendation of the best consultants, interconnects, hotel chains, and telecom companies, and by 2000, they emerged as a leader in hotel voicemail systems, with over 5,000 hotels worldwide, encompassing every major hotel chain.
Branching Out
With encouragement from our customers, in 2000, we began to branch out into other areas of communication technology. The InnCharge call accounting system was released and was welcomed enthusiastically. In early 2005, we began to lay the foundation for another new product, one built on the same open standards that encompassed our very first systems.
Embracing the Future
In 2006 the first ComXchange PBX was installed at a beta site that would soon be followed by several others. In 2008, we completed three years of intensive testing at these hotels, and released our first openly available ComXchange PBX. The success of our initial trials has paved the way for great success in the future. We’re expecting record sales as hoteliers begin to see the tremendous advantages we offer. With this success we remain committed to providing the best technologies in the world to the lodging industry, today and tomorrow.
