ORLANDO, Fla. -- Lotus Development Corp. is making a major push into unified messaging, with the hope that 2000 will finally be the year it catches on.
At Lotusphere, its annual developer's conference held here, Lotus executives and partner companies pounded the drum for UM and gave a glimpse of forthcoming mobile services for easing the crush of messages many business people must deal with.
One of the cornerstones of the UM strategy is Mobile Notes, which was announced Monday. Due by the end of March, it is based on Mobile Services for Domino -- it requires an MSD add-on server -- and converts Domino data into formats that can be read by a variety of mobile devices including the Palm OS, Windows CE and microbrowsers that run on Internet-enabled cell phones.
Unified messaging is an umbrella term for the maintenance of a single inbox that gives remote or office workers the ability to send, receive, forward, edit and respond to a voice mail, e-mail, fax or page from any device.
UM capabilities have been available for several years but haven't taken off in either the consumer or corporate market due to complex technologies, a serious lack of wireless standards in the United States and a general unwillingness on the part of corporate customers to adopt the single inbox notion.
But executives here said the world is ready for UM, driven in part by technologies like Mobile Notes and future support for standards like the Wireless Access Protocol.
Big backers making a difference
"Endorsement [by prominent companies] has made the difference," said Randy Ottinger, president of AVT Corp. "There's a lot more pull than push today."
Ottinger explained that such companies as Microsoft Corp., IBM and Cisco Systems Inc. are behind the UM concept, as well as IP-based telephony services.
AVT, of Kirkland, Wash., last October announced a global co-development and co-marketing agreement with Lotus. AVT's CallXpress software manages voice, fax and e-mail messages through Notes or a Microsoft Outlook inbox, and also provides access to all these message types over the telephone.
AVT next year plans to introduce WAP-based UM applications for small devices like pagers.
In the works
Later this year, Lotus will enable data synchronization between Palm-size Windows CE devices and a Domino database, according to James Pouliopoulos, senior marketing manager for messaging and collaboration at Lotus.
Companies such as Ericson will bundle the Lotus Organizer into their cell phones, he said. Lotus is also in development discussions with Nokia, Mitsubishi and others.
AVT says UM acceptance is picking up, and it touts marquee customers like the US Postal Service, LucasFilms, Cannon and Speedo.
Today, AVT released the findings of a study it sponsored by Comgroup that found users experienced a 53 percent savings in time using UM technologies to check all messages, as opposed to traditional means of checking messages.
Despite the optimistic outlook, hurdles remain. For example, customers will have to integrate software with their legacy (and proprietary) PBX systems. And third parties are working out kinks with text-to-speech software.
