The number of RIM Blackberry users continues to grow, as more and more workers become hooked on their “crackberries.” While these devices provide many benefits to end users, there are still some ways in which they can’t provide the enterprise experience to mobile workers. For example, Microsoft OCS has not been supported on the Blackberry – until now. WebMessenger, which provides mobile real-time presence, VoIP and collaboration products for enterprises and mobile workers, announced WebMessenger Mobile for Microsoft OCS. This new product lets enterprises “extend their investments in the Microsoft UC platform out to BlackBerry and other mobile devices.”
One of WebMessenger’s targets has been persistent group chat users, such as in the financial industry. Persistent group chat “enables people to carry on topic-specific, multiparty instant messaging discussions that persist over time.” Group chat users may have alerts set up so they can act on new information or requests quickly and efficiently, and using WebMessenger’s Message Alerts Enterprise Edition, rules can trigger alerts and notify users when they get an important message or messages with specific words, for example. One of the main persistent group chat vendors is Parlano, which was acquired by Microsoft, which now provides this functionality in OCS as “Group Chat.”
WebMessenger built WebMessenger Mobile for Microsoft OCS, a gateway or connector to OCS and the Group Chat platform (the company claims that it is currently the only vendor delivering a solution that provides access to OCS on the Blackberry). WebMessenger Mobile for Microsoft OCS can also be used with and integrated with other WebMessenger Mobile solutions. In addition to the OCS product, WebMessenger has gateways to IBM Sametime, Microsoft LCS, Jabber, and Reuters Messaging, providing access to mobile users on a range of devices and clients including BlackBerry, Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices.
A current limitation is that the WebMessenger OCS product only provides IM presence, and telephony presence is not available yet, although the company is talking with several switch vendors about providing access to those platforms from within the WebMessenger OCS client.
Instant messaging is becoming an important way in which enterprise workers communicate with each other, and workers need and want access to IM even when they’re not at their desks. WebMessenger provides a way for mobile workers to access IM, persistent group chat, and other UC capabilities from mobile devices. But hopefully not when they’re behind the wheel driving down the highway.