Unified Messaging

Last year we introduced eGen, a fast-growing (but fictional) company looking to replace its traditional PBX with a VoIP (voice over IP) solution. Today, many real-life enterprises are looking to move beyond VoIP to unified messaging. Why now? First, standards, technologies and infrastructures have matured to the point that offering users access to voicemail, e-mail and faxes from a single source is a realistic goal. Second, companies are looking to work more efficiently; often, budget cuts mean fewer employees having to do more with less. Key to productivity is having the ability to manage the landslide of information coming at users 24x7, from all sides and over a range of devices--landline phones, cell phones, PDAs and notebook computers.

When we set out to sort through the raft of vendors staking claims in the unified-messaging space, we found that raft about ready to founder under the weight of companies looking for their pieces of what Frost & Sullivan estimates will be a $5 billion pie by 2005. Cut back to eGen: We decided to trim the field by revisiting the companies that answered our RFP for a VoIP system: Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks (see "RFP: VoIP Invasion -- Are You Ready for It?"). Cisco and Nortel answered the call this time around, and for good measure we added CyberTel, which provides SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based unified-messaging software to service providers.

Nortel's CallPilot won our Editor's Choice award thanks to its extensive e-mail client support. Cisco's Unity is a one-trick pony in this respect -- if you have Exchange, you have the option to go with Cisco; otherwise, sorry, maybe next year.

Finally, we ambled on down Texas way to visit with a Houston-based telecom integrator, Advanta Technologies, which has been working since 1999 to offer its customers a unified-messaging service. It took some detours along the way, but the company has taken advantage of TAPI to put together an inexpensive yet comprehensive offering.