Press Release
February 21, 2001
Onset Releases METAmessage For Wireless Offerings; Wireless Users Can Now Read And Print Email Attachments And Receive Faxes
Newly Available ASP, Enterprise, and Carrier Editions Solve "Email Attachment Problem" and Expand Functionality of Wireless Devices
New York, NY and Cannes, France - Onset Technology today announced the availability of its METAmessage for Wireless offerings, the industry's first solutions that allow users to quickly and easily read and print their email attachments - and receive faxes - using remote wireless devices. The solutions increase productivity by letting mobile users remotely access and act on attachments - which often contain business critical information such as contracts and contact information - in much the same manner as they would from their desktop. The company made the announcements at the InternetWorld Wireless trade show held in New York and at the GSM World Congress in Cannes.
The newly available offerings include: METAmessage.com, a simple, cost-effective, Internet-based ASP solution for workgroups and individuals; the METAmessage Conversion Server - Enterprise Edition, a highly scalable solution intended for corporations worldwide for whom "behind-the-firewall" security is especially important; and the METAmessage Conversion Server - Carrier Edition for server-farm-based environments such as telcos, ASP's and ISP's. The offerings all support a variety of handheld devices including Research In Motion's (RIM) popular BlackBerry™ wireless handheld device. The product release follows a rigorous beta program that included several Fortune 100 corporations.
Features Provide First Complete Message-Conversion Solutions
The METAmessage for Wireless message conversion solutions address a full range of individual and corporate users' needs. The offerings support all of the industry's popular file formats - more than 25 in all - giving users the ability to read or print a Web page from a URL link and use Outlook calendar and contact information files (.vcf and .ics), among other capabilities. In addition to its read and print features, METAmessage.com also lets ASP users receive faxes as email message text on their wireless devices.
"Onset Technology's METAmessage Conversion Server offers a truly comprehensive and scalable messaging solution," said David D. Vande Velde, Technical Lead for Raytheon's Aircraft Integration Systems. "It lets our wireless email users read all the most common attachment types and it converts the attachments as quickly and accurately as possible. In our evaluation process it was critical that the conversion software reside inside our network. We selected METAmessage as the best product for our current and future needs."
Converts Variety of Messages
METAmessage for Wireless solutions are part of a series of offerings from Onset Technology that convert any kind of message - fax, email and attachments - into device-independent, business-ready information. In addition to its METAmessage for Wireless solutions, Onset also provides the ThruFax offerings, which can identify inbound fax addressees, turn faxes into editable text, and deliver them as email messages that can be easily read, managed, searched, revised, or forwarded to others.
"Wireless users today need and want to receive a variety of message types, including attachments, faxes and voicemail notifications. There are a wide range of devices from which they may be sending and receiving these messages," said Gadi Mazor, president and CEO of Onset. "However, not all these message tools work together. Onset's vision is to provide a full family of solutions that make any kind of message accessible on any kind of device while maintaining its original content and format."
METAmessage.com - ASP Subscription Service
This service gives individuals, small businesses and workgroups a solution for email attachments and inbound faxes. The service eliminates the need to download or install any software because users can immediately and easily implement it by simply signing up on the Web. The METAmessage.com ASP service is offered at three levels:
- Read - lets users view attachments as email text on their devices.
- Read and Print - allows users to read attachments and also print them on any conveniently located fax machine.
- Read, Print, and Receive Faxes - gives users a personal fax number that can be used to receive fax messages on their wireless email device.
METAmessage Conversion Server - Enterprise Edition
This product's open architecture and patent-pending technologies provide fast, highly reliable, robust processing power that is scalable to the largest environments. The METAmessage Conversion Server (MCS) can be installed behind the firewall in a Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000 environment for secure handling. It can automatically create and update user lists by reading LDAP-compatible corporate directories using Microsoft's Active Directory. Enterprises can implement the print service using an in-house fax server, a fax board or Onset's secure, encrypted ASP service.
Other exceptional MCS features include:
- Support for dynamic load balancing.
- Service prioritization abilities (tells the application to behave most efficiently on the network or the server).
- The ability to upgrade without bringing down the system.
- Support for Exchange, Notes and Groupwise.
METAmessage Conversion Server - Carrier Edition
The MCS Carrier Edition gives service providers, such as telcos, ASPs or ISPs, the opportunity to offer a highly scalable METAmessage solution to their customers. It is ideally suited for server farm environments with multiple conversion engines and redundant systems and it provides support for 57 languages, including all Western-European character sets. The MCS - Carrier Edition's open architecture lets developers build and customize links to their systems while maintaining the server's data integrity and protecting its processes from third-party components.
Pricing and Availability
The METAmessage for Wireless offerings are available through Onset's network of value-added resellers. METAmessage.com is also available directly to end-users at www.metamessage.com. Pricing for the METAmessage.com ASP subscription service ranges from $8 - $15 per month depending on the service level. The MCS - Enterprise Edition software has a base price of $3000 for a 20-user license and $500 for each additional 10-user license. Pricing for MCS carrier solutions is available by contacting Onset. The MCS solutions have support for 57 languages, including all Western-European character sets.
About Onset Technology
Onset Technology is the world's leading provider of solutions that convert messages - including fax, email and attachments - into device-independent information that individuals and businesses can easily and immediately access and use. The company's METAmessage for Wireless and its ThruFax solutions are available as ASP service offerings for individuals and workgroups, enterprise offerings for corporations, and as carrier offerings for telco, ASP and ISP providers. Onset's scalable solutions are built around its robust patent pending technologies and are sold by its extensive network of VARs, systems integrators and resellers. Onset partners with major industry vendors, including Lucent, Brooktrout, Intel Dialogic, and with all major fax server manufacturers, to help create market-specific Onset software solutions and to support seamless product and system integration. Onset's U.S. corporate headquarters are located at 111 Mission St., Santa Cruz, Calif., 95060, phone (831) 471-1360, fax (831) 471-1364.
