UNIFIED
MESSAGING:
Turning Promise into Profitability
by David Lisbona, Comverse Network
Systems, Inc.
(Originally published in Messaging Magazine, May/June 1999)
In the rapidly evolving world of enhanced telecommunications services, no development has been more anxiously awaited than Unified Messaging. Yet, while there is no shortage of hype heralding this innovative, new messaging category, actual Unified Messaging deployments over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) have been few and far between. While it offers tremendous promise, the challenge of Unified Messaging is clear: How can network operators leverage the Unified Messaging solutions available today to deliver real value to paying customers, while building their own bottom line?
Since subscribers will pay only for those services with demonstrated utility, the challenge of Unified Messaging can only be met with a strong customer focus. Success depends on viewing Unified Messaging not as a single monolithic "service" or "application," but as a collection of flexible capabilities that must be carefully packaged in light of actual subscriber needs.
A Service Whose Time Has Come
By now, the proposition of Unified Messaging is well known to network operators: to
provide subscribers with a single "unified" network access point (mailbox) for
all their voice, fax and e-mail messages, accessible through a variety of devices. The
benefit to subscribers of such a service is clear. In a single session—via fixed or
mobile phone or PC—a subscriber can access, review and respond to all their messages.
In this way, Unified Messaging saves time and vastly simplifies the task of message
management.
A couple of broad market trends are contributing to the viability of Unified Messaging. The first is a steady increase in the number of message types and accounts maintained by individuals. It is not unusual for residential and business users to have multiple voice lines, a fax line, a mobile phone, an Internet e-mail account, and a pager. This proliferation of personal communication channels, involving multiple networks, creates a significant message management challenge for busy users.
The second important trend is a dramatic increase in mobile professionals and "telecommuters" working from home or the road. These users require fast, convenient access to all their messages, from anywhere at anytime.
Thanks to these market factors, the time for Unified Messaging seems to have arrived. Recent market research conducted in the U.S. and Europe by Comverse Network Systems indicates that a broad spectrum of users recognize the benefits of Unified Messaging capabilities and are willing to pay for them. Most importantly, these users expressed a preference to purchasing such services from network operators instead of ISPs, because of the more central relationship they have with the network operator.
Targeting the Mobile User
How, then, can network operators take the first critical step with Unified Messaging in
the marketplace? The answer lies in today’s fastest growing telecommunications
service segment: the mobile services subscriber. This conclusion is based on several
important market developments:
Mobile professionals, in particular, are likely to be attracted to Unified Messaging. These users are always searching for tools to increase their productivity and responsiveness to clients and colleagues, and can most easily justify the added expense of such services.
With mobile communications rapidly approaching ubiquity in markets around the world, the time is right for network operators to leverage the benefits of Unified Messaging to attract and retain the most profitable mobile subscribers.
Tailoring the Service
While today’s mobile subscriber market may be ripe for acceptance of Unified
Messaging, it is hardly monolithic. Subscriber preferences and usage profiles—even
among sophisticated mobile professionals—vary greatly from one region or market
segment to another. While some users might jump at a service offering unified access to a
spectrum of message types using an array of devices, others merely want single-point
access to messages for their fixed and mobile numbers. The key to success with Unified
Messaging is tailoring the service to meet demonstrated needs within a particular
marketplace, without overwhelming subscribers with costly or complex features and services
they neither need nor want.
In today’s evolving marketplace, sensitivity to market realities is critical. While visual smart phones may set the standard for mobile communications in coming years, they are few and far between today. Therefore, offering Unified Messaging capabilities that target high-end smart phones users would greatly limit a network operator’s chances of success in the short term.
A more effective approach is to select those Unified Messaging capabilities that have immediate value to a broad cross-section of subscribers. As subscribers evolve and adopt more sophisticated access devices and usage patterns, more sophisticated services and features can be introduced.
This "building block" approach to deploying Unified Messaging services enables network operators to establish profitable, new revenue streams, while minimizing their risk.
Unified Messaging for Today
As with all cutting edge technologies, Unified Messaging is a moving target. There are,
however, a number of capabilities currently available that can unlock the potential of
Unified Messaging for network operators and their subscribers:
Multi-Number Mailbox
This service provides a single mailbox for multiple numbers, with different message
greetings for each number. It’s an ideal solution for fixed/mobile integration,
enabling subscribers to access messages to their landline and mobile numbers in the same
mailbox session. Alternately, the service could combine voice and fax numbers, or any
other dedicated numbers. The result is increased convenience and timesavings.
E-Mail Notification
Integration between the messaging platform and e-mail servers enables network operators to
deliver notification of e-mails received to a subscribers’ mobile handset or pager.
Notification could consist of distinctive rings or beeps or, for subscribers with
text-capable phones, notification could include the name of the message sender or the
e-mail header. This is a major benefit to e-mail users, overcoming the key limitation of
e-mails—lack of notification. Subscribers are no longer required to spend time
logging into their Internet e-mail account to see if any messages have arrived.
E-Mail Text-to-Speech
Advanced text-to-speech technology now makes it possible for subscribers to log into their
regular voice mail and have also their e-mails read to them by the messaging platform.
Recent deployments by Comverse Network Systems provide multi-lingual capability,
automatically recognizing the language of the e-mail message and reading it in that
language. E-mail-to-Speech frees e-mail users from their PC, enabling them to access and
review their e-mail messages right from their mobile handset. The service can even be
configured to enable users to respond to e-mails with "voice e-mail" messages,
which are sent back to the sender for review by phone, or via their PC. This
text-to-speech capability offers network operators a significant market advantage,
allowing them to offer e-mail integration to all mobile users, whether or not they are
smart phone equipped.
E-Mail-to-Short Message
Integration of a Short Message Service (SMS) platform with the messaging system enables
network operators to deliver truncated e-mail messages (limited to 100 characters, for
example) directly to subscribers’ smart phone handsets. Subscribers can respond via
voice e-mail. This service adds tremendous value to mobile communications for on-the-go
professionals with heavy e-mail use.
E-Mail-to-Fax
This capability enables subscribers to direct e-mails in their Unified Mailbox to a fax
machine for delivery. This service is ideal for professionals on the road, enabling them
to receive hard-copy printouts of their e-mail, wherever they happen to be.
Web-Based Unified Messaging
This capability enables subscribers to log in to their Unified Mailbox via the World Wide
Web, using their desktop or laptop PC and a standard browser. This visual mailbox
interface provides a complete listing of all voice, fax and e-mail messages received,
greatly simplifying the task of sorting through, reviewing and saving, forwarding or
deleting messages, or configuring mailbox options. Web-based Unified Messaging is an ideal
complement to mobile handsets, offering visual access from home, office or the road.
Message Notification via E-Mail
This service is targeted to corporate users with multiple messaging accounts, providing
notification of voice and fax messages via e-mail over the corporate LAN. This is ideal
for serving corporate professionals with mobile handsets, alerting them to incoming
messages to their mobile phone right at their desk in the office.
These Unified Messaging capabilities, ready for deployment today, suggest the possibilities for serving a variety of subscriber needs. Other capabilities—such as Voice-Activated Dialing and Voice-Activated Voice Mail—while not specifically "Unified Messaging" services, may also add value to a service package targeted to busy mobile subscribers.
Again, the key to market success lies in identifying those capabilities that offer a practical benefit to subscribers, based on actual usage patterns. Additional services and features can be deployed over time, as market acceptance of the basic Unified Messaging capabilities grows.
The Right Platform
A key element of any Unified Messaging strategy is selecting a network services platform
with an architecture flexible enough to integrate with a wide variety of networks and to
accommodate a range of sophisticated functionalities.
To deliver on the promise of Unified Messaging, a platform must support multimedia message storage, i.e., voice, fax and e-mail messages. It must be able to interoperate with disparate platforms and networks (including the Internet), providing subscribers with multiple access methods to their messages. It must have the capability to deliver notifications to a variety of access devices, according to pre-determined user preferences. The platform must support media conversion, enabling text-to-speech, and other capabilities that realize the benefits of Unified Messaging to mobile subscribers. Finally, the platform must be flexible enough to accommodate standards and technologies only now emerging, to ensure a migration path to the Unified Messaging solutions of tomorrow.
For network operators focused on a growing Unified Messaging business, investing in platforms with the greatest possible flexibility and scalability is a decision of strategic importance.
The Time is Right
To assure their success tomorrow, network operators must make the right business decisions
today. Timing is everything—and all indicators suggest the time is ripe for
introducing subscribers to the benefits of Unified Messaging.
The stakes may be higher than you think. While offering some Unified Messaging capabilities may provide a competitive advantage today, it may soon become a prerequisite to competitiveness in the fast-moving mobile services marketplace. Establishing a Unified Messaging "beach head" today with one or more carefully selected service offerings could be the key to higher initial user acceptance, lower churn, greater revenues, and an exciting, new era of value-added service profitability. MM