AudioCodes Reviews

Pros

great products and great market

Cons

new leadership and new model

Pros

Very good technology with variety of products in different level of the food chain (DSP chips,SoC,boards,residential GW,enterprise GW and carrier GW).

Cons

Started to act in 1993 when the VoIP was still at the beginning,but did not success to became a gorilla in this field and burned more then $130M to buy companies(Nuera, Ai-Logic, CTI2, Netreke) but after a short period actually closed their activity and did not be smart enough to leverage on the technologies of these companies.Don't have a real focus and changing the strategy and target markets frequently. Most of the sales veterans left the company (including 3 VP global sales) and the targets are very challenging and not realistic vs actual market situation.

Advice to Senior Management

2-3 guys can't manage a 600+ employes.Most of the new PM and Biz Dev directors,that was upgraded from the R&D have no field experience to deal with real customers.These guys needs understand customers and markets ,not only technology.At the end of the day the biz is done person to person and these guys don't have the basic skills to deal with customers ,competitors and partners issues.

Pros

Some of the best reasons to work at AudioCodes is to learn VoIP technology. The technology is good and some products with time in the field are excellent.

Cons

People are overworked. No work/life balance, and working level employees are abused or mistreated. People in high positions in the US are incompetent and lack the credentials and necessary educational backgrounds to provide leadership and manage the company. These peoplel are ruining the company in one of AudioCodes biggest markets - North America. The company will continue to struggle since hard working highly qualified technical people are not treated with respect and professionism. If a company will treat employees fairly and create an environement where people want to work, it carries over in all aspects of how customers are treated and how work is accomplished including higher company revenues and profits. The corporate culture is one of criticism, politics, and covering ones bad end. People in positions of authority are doing what is good for them and not necessarily in the best interests of the company. Some of the current management are from coming from failures in previous companies. This points back to incompetent management and leadership. There is no mission and long-term goals outside of the next quarterly results and revenue targets.

Advice to Senior Management

The corporate culture needs to change and some staff changes are needed in positions where people have management and leadership authority in the US. These changes will cost the company nothing in the short term and will make the company a better place to work. The company needs to foster a corporate mission and promote a work environment built on trust, respect for the individual, cooperation, and teamwork. These things cost nothing but require work, leadership and good management.

Pros

Excellent codec development and inventory skills

Cons

extremely poor internal communications between corporate and the field

Pros

Good place to start if you are a fresher.Losts of opportunity to learn the voip technology and pick up key skills.

Cons

Very bad pay and no pay increase.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to appreciate their employees with good recognition and pay.

Pros

VoIP Veteran Company
Don't get fired for being mediocre
You get to make your own schedule
You get decent insurance

Cons

No management direction
too many products
Poor customer focus
Mediocre employees get promoted
If you aren't from Israel there isn't any career path.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees as if they are assets instead of a money sink. DOn't hire deadbeats or allow incompetance to reign.

Pros

Learned a lot here about software development etc.

Cons

This isn't a stable company(with layoffs galore) and the upper management(Israel) don't have a clue how to run a company and are not ambitious at all. It was and will remain a mediocre company without much to look forward too.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know where Audiocodes stands, it seems to me that they're not ambitious and are just following the crowd. They're a lot of good people here who can be very creative.

Pros

So far their paychecks clear at the bank. they allow a flexible work schedule. Most of the people there are very nice to work with.

Cons

They are an Israel headquartered company so there is a large language and cultural divide. They made some pretty bone-headed decisions that led to the demise of several product lines. True to their culture they are penny wise - pound poor, they try to save money - and kill employee moral - by cutting back on drinks and food in the break area yet allow large cash holes go un-attended. Apparently their due-dilligance prior to acquisitions wasn't what it should have been.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people in "the trenches" not just managers. Spend some bucks on marketing. Try to figure out what the customer REALLY wants, make the decision, and STICK WITH IT!

Pros

Pros: The company has been able to be profitable in times of economic downturns to the economy and the industry. The ability to focus on sales per quarter is primary and has enabled the company to be profitable. AudioCodes is a recognized leader of the VoIP and MediaGateway space.

Cons

Cons: The focus on a per-quarter basis prevents the ability to effectively anticipate the market for strategic products and plan accordingly. Communication between corporate headquarters and remote sites is lacking. The benefits packages between divisions of the company are different between sites and sometimes within the same location. Communication with HR is lacking for remote sites. The sales staff and engineering departments are disjoint. At times the success and survival of a engineering organization is determined by the sales organization with little input or visibility to the engineering staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Although, profitability is important and critical in this economic environment. It is also important to have a strategic vision that is communicated to the entire company, with a process in place to ensure that all aspects of the company are achieving both the short-term and the long-term goals. This includes a process to ensure that strategic products get sold and accountability is maintained for both the sales and the engineering staff. I believe that there is such a vision but that this vision is not communicated downwards by the senior management and that often this lack of communication results in various missed steps.