Telepost Inc, the Santa Cruz, California-based hosted communications software provider, has won Compaq Computer Corp as its first major customer for the unified messaging service it launched last month. Compaq is to offer its small and medium- sized business customers what it says is the PC industry’s first integrated suite of business-class unified messaging services, including the free Message Center Lite. Users will be able to check voicemail, fax and email messages from a single site via a web browser.
As part of the deal, Compaq has upgraded the rest of its Online Services offerings to use the same user interface. The Online Services packages was first introduced last November as a set of tools for small businesses available via subscription. They include web-initiated audio-conferencing, presentation services and callback services. There are also internet access and e- commerce services, including eZStore for small merchants, on which it has cut the set-up and credit card activation fees. Compaq hopes users of Message Center Lite will upgrade to the full Message Center product or its other services.
Compaq will integrate the Teleport-hosted services with its own through a common central membership register. Teleport uses NT- based Compaq servers for its hosting services. The unified messaging service is currently for the US market only, where Teleport offers local phone number access from 21 US metropolitan areas, but will be extended to the UK shortly, and then beyond. Compaq said it’s possible that it will end up with different partnerships in Europe. The services are available immediately.
The unified messaging services aren’t connected with the high-end corporate activities Compaq is engaged in with Lucent Technologies Inc. Under that deal, announced back in April, Lucent will integrate and sell its Octel Unified Messenger on Compaq’s ProLiant and AlphaServer platforms, providing combined email, fax and voice capabilities using Microsoft’s Exchange Server as the messaging platform. Compaq is also reselling Octel Unified Messenger.
