g infrastructure that will allow its customer-support staff to send and receive faxes, use an enterprise resource planning system, and check their e-mail with a Web browser.
As these two examples illustrate, both companies created better communication channels by integrating a variety of messages and data into a single inbox. More and more companies are moving in a similar direction.
This concept of unified messaging might sound familiar to users of stand-alone PCs, where you can store voice mail, faxes, and e-mail as well as short messages from pager networks and GSM's Short Message Service into different folders of Microsoft's Exchange client. (For voice mail and short messages you need additional software that plugs into Exchange.)
However, companies usually experience significant difficulties when trying to implement a unified messaging environment on an enterprise level. Tying together data from disparate sources is not an easy task.
One obstacle they face is that legacy messaging applications have evolved from the separate and very different worlds of voice and data. Voice mail and faxes come from the telephony domain, while e-mail started with mainframe computers. Voice mail comes in via the corporate private branch exchange (PBX), while e-mail typically arrives on a server. The only thing that these systems share is the ability for individuals to download messages fr
om a central archive.
Faxing makes the picture even more complicated. Faxes bypass the PBX and in many cases go directly to a facsimile machine. Faxes are sent and received over direct lines, and no switching is involved. During the last five years, many corporations have installed computer-based faxing systems that saved them serious money. However, these systems require a virtual direct line such as an ISDN multiple subscriber number or direct-dial numbers; they represent another separate realm in the corporate communications infrastructure.
Many European IT managers are working to integrate these diverse communication worlds. "Integration of e-mail, faxing, and voice mail solves a lot of our communications problems," says Charles Huebler, Merck's information systems administrator.
Integrated vs. Unified Messaging
Some system vendors differentiate between integrated messaging and unified messaging. An integrated solution recognizes that messages do not have to reside on a single s
erver to make them appear in a single inbox. A software gateway between the different servers creates the unified look and feel (
see the figure
). Unified messaging, on the other hand, refers to an architecture in which Microsoft Exchange Server software hosts third-party fax, voice mail, and other messaging server software and controls the enterprise communication infrastructure. It's an important distinction.
Companies like Lotus and Lucent, for example, that represent the diverse worlds of data and voice messaging, talk of integrated messaging as a software link between voice mail and e-mail servers, but they tend to overlook faxing. Although their approaches build on existing messaging systems and allow users to continue with their familiar messaging interfaces, they do not unify these messages into a single architecture.
The same is true for communication gateways such as Advox's Omnigate Messaging Server, which is basically a gateway between messaging platforms. Omnigate
, for example, translates messages between Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Exchange, fax, and POP3 clients.
Nortel promotes an architecture that enables unification at the client side but keeps message storage distributed. This allows separation of the voice, fax, and e-mail servers and enhances reliability by eliminating a single point of failure; however, IT administrators must continue to manage and control separate systems.
"There is no clear definition of unified messaging," says Shaun Thomson, channel manager with the voice mail company Octel Communications Europe, "but our view is that there should be one directory, one administration system, and one place for all message types." The advantage is that users have only one system for voice, e-mail, and fax, and businesses have much lower administration costs.
Small and medium-size organizations can move toward a unified solution much easier than a large enterprise can because they usually have less fragmented and often simpl
er messaging environments. For large corporations, the crucial question is whether the convenience of a single in-box and lower administration costs justify the investment in a unified or integrated solution. "In many cases the answer is no," says Larry Fromm, a business development manager with Dialogic. "But if unified messaging is the baseline for sophisticated computer telephony applications that enable new business models and added-value services, the answer is a definite yes."
Computer Telephony Advances
Storage of all message types in one archive enables almost any messaging scenario that makes business sense. For example, text-to-speech functionality can be used so mobile workers can check all their messages via telephone. Applications are also coming to market that let road warriors listen to their agenda and change appointments using voice commands.
This illustrates how easy it is to add advanced computer telephony (CT) functionality when telephony is an integral part in both th
e client and the server. Call centers can be implemented on a departmental basis with clearly defined access rights to the messaging server. With unified messaging in place, telecommunications becomes an integral part of mainstream business applications, and it can encompass all media types and virtually all network services.
Unified messaging is also a first step toward Internet telephony and faxing. "Once the move to computer-based faxing and integrated messaging is complete, then Internet faxing is a viable step," says Richard Russell, managing director of Brooktrout Technology Europe.
The ability to send voice messages as e-mail attachments is a simple but very useful CT application, particularly in large enterprises. Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) is an extension of two standards: SMTP and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). VPIM allows users on different voice mail systems to forward voice messages via the Internet. With VPIM-compliant systems, some 100 million existing voi
ce messaging users will be able to exchange voice mail between disparate networks as easily as exchanging e-mail.
This represents a break from the traditional view of voice mail as a PBX application. Instead, with an open architecture, these systems could become a platform for a new generation of applications. With VPIM, instead of having an e-mail address, each user can be found through his or her telephone number. Key players in this area include Centigram, Lucent, Nortel, and Siemens Rolm.
From Faxing to Messaging
"Facsimile machines will not be removed from offices in the near future," says Martin Hannah, CEO of Topcall International. "On the contrary, faxing is a growth industry."
As a result, there is a wide choice of robust client/server faxing programs from vendors with the proven ability to develop and support customized solutions. These solutions now integrate with enterprise messaging platforms.
Zetafax, from Equisys, is a client/server fax system that has been on t
he market for five years. It now includes an e-mail gateway that integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Mail, Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, and Novell GroupWise. "There is a trend toward mail-enabling faxing programs," comments Chris Oswald, managing director of Equisys. "More and more people are using e-mail with attachments, but some recipients may be reachable only by fax, and mobile workers may want their faxes to be delivered with their e-mail messages. In both cases, let the software worry about how the message gets delivered."
Fenestrae's Faxination fax server product integrates in a similar way with Microsoft Exchange. However, in contrast to Equisys' Zetafax, you can use the Exchange client software and don't need to install an extra client. The big advantage is lower administration cost because there is no need to install additional software on users' workstations. All the faxing functionality needed to make the Exchange client fax-capable is automatically downloaded and added to the Exch
ange client when the program installs on the server.
Faxination enables a fax message to be used on the server side so that Exchange Server can automatically use the Faxination services as the default fax transport medium. It extends the Exchange directory with additional fields, which contain the fax related user properties, and the address books receive templates to support the fax address type. Exchange then employs its synchronization features in order to extend these capabilities to other Exchange servers on the network as well as to all the Exchange clients.
Note that although Exchange on the client side is a messaging application, and can be used as such on a stand-alone PC, Exchange Server is basically a database engine that facilitates mailbox administration. Traditional client/server fax products have a dedicated server with the equivalent store, transport, and user directory and client transport services of Exchange Server. The system and directory are usually administered through a ded
icated fax administrator program, and dedicated faxing software is also required on the client side. Thus, without something like Faxination's close integration to the Exchange environment, the obvious drawback of these systems is a 100 percent redundancy, on both the client and the server.
Faxination also integrates with SAP's R/3 business application. This way, when direct inbound routing is used, Faxination delivers incoming faxes to the desktop within the SAP Office environment. In addition, Faxination supports telex and Short Message Service (SMS), enabling messages to be sent from a PC to a mobile phone or pager.
COM:ON's C3 Messenger platform interoperates with Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise. With Lotus Notes, it automatically routes incoming faxes to the Notes Server and informs the user about incoming messages by way of SMS or a pager.
The data route toward unified messaging adds a fax interface to client-oriented e-mail products. Tobit Software comes from
the opposite direction. Its strategy is based on the assumption that most companies use fax as the first communications medium and that the market requirement is for an extension of this environment at a later date. The company therefore developed a fax server product that can evolve into a universal messaging server. This universal messaging server allows organizations to set up an asynchronous, store-and- forward communications environment that incorporates all major media types.
Tobit's David is a communications operating system that manages and controls a multimedia database including faxes, e-mail, voice files, and any other kinds of documents. It stores all items regardless of format in the same hierarchical archive, which can be used for internal communications as well as for customers' projects. Users can access the information in the David database via LAN, phone, fax-on-demand, or Web browser. It is basically a universal messaging server.
David comprises several 32-bit multitasking and m
ultithreading modules that run as NetWare loadable modules. The architecture includes a service layer; a transport layer, which handles hardware-specific addressing; and the front-end layer, which enables client access to the LAN. An NT version will be available by the end of this year, the company says.
Messaging Backbone
Like Merck and the Dresdner Bank, many large enterprises have a complex mix of computing and messaging environments. They might be using Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, SAP R/3, Novell GroupWise, and Hewlett-Packard OpenMail, and they might require connectivity to DEC Mailbus as well as to IBM mainframes and AS/400 systems.
Topcall, for example, addresses these complex environments with its latest enterprise messaging solution, Vienna. At the heart of Vienna is a message server, which links a variety of clients to a heterogeneous environment (
see the figure
). This approach incorporates the message queue, the mailbox system, and a directory that is
compliant with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). A so-called line server interfaces with fax, telex, and X.400, as well as AS/400 systems, mainframes, and LANs.
Vienna links the message server to communications services such as e-mail (POP3, IMAP4) or the Web and to application platforms such as SAP's R/3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus Notes. It converts message attachments into one or multiple document formats in order to ensure that the recipients can read and process the message content immediately. Vienna also includes an archive server, which can index and archive the entire communications flow. Completing the range of supported access platforms, Vienna also provides a Java-based messaging client.
Open access to LDAP means that virtually any client can use the address services of the system's directory. Using the synchronization function, Vienna can address user directories from messaging platforms such as Notes and Exchange and make them available to all users. In this
way companies can derive the benefits of having a single, integrated address book without having to travel down the X.500 directory services road.
Unified messaging as a concept has been around for some time. But the data world has concentrated on e-mail and tended to ignore the traditional telephony-based messaging systems (faxing and voice mail). There is now a big push from users to tie together both worlds.
It will not happen overnight, however. For most large corporations, it will be an expensive and technologically challenging endeavor to embed all communication activities in a unified environment. Potential pitfalls are numerous, especially if working practices and the communication infrastructure are not in sync. But the rewards gained from establishing a unified messaging system far outweigh the initial installation pain.
Where to Find
Fenestrae
Leidschendam, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 70 3015100
Fax: +31 7
0 3015151
E-mail:
info@fenestrae.com
Internet:
http://www.fenestrae.com
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