Y2K-ready Design 3000 Plus offers Unified Messaging

Design 3000 Plus (503.585.0512), a supplier of job scheduling and monitoring products for HP 3000s, has announced a Unified Messaging Server that integrates with Microsoft’s Exchange Server. The software, expected to ship in the third quarter, provides conversion of electronic messages into telephone-based voice messages, fax, e-mail, group calendars, IP-telephony and alpha pagers.

The UMS extends Microsoft’s BackOffice, working as a scalable, turnkey solution with an NT server that supports from 1 to 128 phone lines, multiple, concurrent, network connections and extensive message distribution profiling. Company president Ken Vestal said the software keeps communication options open.

“Our company’s goal is to provide a seamless interface which enables people to communicate without having to be constrained by the limitations of a single communications medium, “ Vestal said. The server can accept messages from the company’s JMS scheduler or Callback/3000 products, for example, then deliver them to staff based on a profile — regardless of where recipients are located. Messages can appear as Web pages or in calendars, for example.

In addition to the server, a Microsoft Outlook add-on is available for rapid integration into corporate enterprises which use that mail client. Also, an ActiveX control is available for development of third-party UMS solutions, such as Visual Basic or Delphi applications.

Architect Gary Moore said, “We developed this with a simple, well defined API interface. This design enables rapid integration into existing enterprise architectures, as well as providing a flexible solution for anyone who needs to distribute electronic messages across multiple media, using message profiling for intelligent routing.”

The UMS has a base price of $7,995, including hardware.