SJ Labs is taking a new approach to marketing its voice and video softphone, offering both zero-touch downloads of basic software and a premium product for service providers who want a higher degree of customization.

The company is announcing its new strategy at VON in Boston, aiming to boost its product recognition factor.

“The basic product but it has been manual,” said Vladimir Greysukh, CEO of SJ Labs, a five-year-old company based in the U.S. and St. Petersburg, Russia. “You had to track down SJ Labs and be able to negotiate a deal, and there was a lot of hand-holding to get the product up and launched. Our goal with our new product strategy is to make it possible to never have to talk to someone at SJ Labs. All the options for customization will be available on the Web. ISPs can download the product on their own.”

SJ Labs is demonstrating the video version of the softphone, which will be available later this year, at VON. It supports both H.323 and SIP protocols, and is initially available in point-to-point mode, with videoconferencing to come at a later date.

“Video is relatively new field,” said Greysukh. “There are a lot of problems with video – limited processing power can affect the quality. We are going to demonstrate quality service and have video working oevr small devices like PDAs.”

SJ Labs still expects its primary business to be working closely with service providers on privately branding its software products.

“We anticipate zero touch to as much of a marketing and ubiquity play as anything else,” Greysukh said. “The bulk of our revenue will come from larger service providers who want the customization and the branding.”