Universal Messaging Service

At this point, all of the elements are in place. It is now up to the users to drive the vendors into simplifying their lives!

The objective of universal messaging is to allow people to track their key business and personal information through a single device. The device alternates, however, as the executive moves from place to place. It provides a unified view of all message and information services chosen by the executive. It offers telephone and data access; also summary & complete views.

For mobile executives it provides summary information and access to personalized information through a telephone or Personal Data Assistant (PDA) wireless connection. Full data delivery can be requested for any item.

When Dialup, ISDN and xDSL access are available it gives (if desired) full access immediately.

The services include:

1. Email,
2. Voicemail,
3. Facsimile,
4. SMS. Numeric & Voice paging,
5. Customized information lists:
    Stock quotes,
    Trading access,
    Weather,
    Flight schedules & delays,
    Location and directions (GPS).

How does it work? - The Telephone, PDA and PC views are setup at a specialized WEB site that is customized for the individual’s services and his device & carrier capabilities:

Telephones use menus to select the information. For data listings like email and stocks a prechosen portion of the data, like the subject and first two lines of an email, are converted to speech and read over the phone. Calendar asks for date choices and interacts on the day’s activities. FAX receipts and originating ID (phone or person) are read. Action choices like “read the whole email” or “forward the FAX” to another number are available.

PDA’s provide listings and selected portions of large blocks of information with a choice to ‘get it all’. Voice mail is sent as MPG and all or portions are ‘spoken’ to the executive. When desired, Fax’s are displayed as graphics. Stock charts and histories are available.

When personal computers connect they synchronize/load all of the data that has changed since the last connection. The software knows what has been observed but not fully viewed or read; what has been acted on and what discarded/saved. Based on this knowledge, it updates its files. If the PC is permanently connected to a network, it (optionally) continuously updates itself even while the executive is traveling.

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Passwords and 128bit SSL services insure security for the PDA and PC access. Also for security and data consistency, (By default) only one device at a time may access the personal information service. Timers will provide an automatic disconnect/logoff