Less Mess With Unified Messaging: OnState Announces Mash-Up with Zimbra and Skype
OnState announced Mash-Up with Zimbra and Skype – Unified Messaging for Skype Integrates Email, Voicemail, Call Recordings, & Business Chat with Open-Source Collaboration Platform.
Lets see what Pat Kelly, CEO of OnState has to say:
In recent Skype Journal article, Jim Courtney declares your new product “A Most Interesting Skype Mashup”. You are getting quite a lot of publicity?
Yes, the response to the article has been quite good. Today, the Skype Journal really is the only media outlet focusing on business applications of Skype, so we feel quite fortunate that they picked-up on the release.
Tell us more about this new product. In comparison with current OnState Call Center solution, what new features will be made available via mash-up with Zimbra?
First a little background on OnState and Zimbra. OnState licensed the underlying technology from our partner CrossCheck last year, and we have been using it within our current Call Center offering. We actually debuted this at the eBay Live show. In the Call Center product Zimbra is used to manage call recordings and business chat transcripts for training, quality assurance and compliance purposes. We also utilize Zimbra for workforce management – the scheduling and monitoring of call center agents.
]]>Our latest release has added Skype voicemail to the mix and we have modified the deployment templates so that the solution is well suited to the general office worker. In combination with the release of OnState UM, we have also extended many of the features of our core product to be suitable for this same target market.
What makes Zimbra a good solution to integrate with OnState?
Well, three things: architecture, quality of implementation and go-to-market strategy.
Zimbra utilizes the same Web 2.0 techniques and Ajax-based capabilities as does OnState. We both have built our products to enterpise-class requirements, but package and deliver them for the small and medium enterprise.
The quality of the implementation by the Zimbra team and community (remember, this is an open-source project) is stunning. Their Zimlet architecture (think Google gadgets) allows for deep integration and rapid mash-ups. They are exectuing quite well on a true collaboration platform and we think that adding Skype and OnState makes sense for alot of business users.
Oh, and the important bit, they do all this at an industry-redefining price point.
