WiredRed Software Corp. is adding support for two more network directory systems—LDAP and Microsoft Corp.s ADS—to the WiredRed e/pop 3.0 enterprise instant messaging suite.
The support, which will be announced at this weeks NetWorld+ Interop show in Atlanta, follows through on the companys strategy of enabling customers to use existing network infrastructure as the basis for WiredRed messaging systems. It will allow corporate customers to more easily manage application migration to operating systems, said WiredRed officials in San Diego.
Pacific International Marketing Inc., a produce marketer in Salinas, Calif., uses e/pop 3.0 to communicate information such as order and price changes to its salespeople. The messages queue even if recipients are not online, so they receive messages immediately when they do log on.
Bryan Searcy, MIS director of Pacific International, welcomes Microsofts Active Directory Services support as his company migrates to Windows 2000. The support doesnt otherwise affect day-to-day use of the IM system, Searcy said. But he said that e/pop 3.0 does do a better job than previous versions of getting messages to remote users.
“It allows us to communicate with all our users, local and remote, and they dont have to be using Windows 2000 clients,” Searcy said.
e/pop 3.0 is a better fit for a company the size of Pacific International than its chief rival, Lotus Development Corp.s Sametime, Searcy said. And its more secure than using a commercial IM service such as America Online Inc.s AOL Instant Messenger, he said.
“Its cheaper than [Lotus] Notes, and its my own network,” Searcy said. “We dont have to commingle with other users outside of our network.”
The e/pop 3.0 suite includes text-based chat conferencing, presence management, application sharing, advanced encryption for maximum security, voice-over-IP conferencing, and support for Citrix Systems Inc.s MetaFrame and Microsoft Windows NT Terminal Server.
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and ADS support are available at no charge with e/pop 3.0 Standard Server Edition, designed for midsize companies; and with Enterprise Server Edition, suitable for large companies with multiple, geographically dispersed offices and/or nodes of 10,000 or more.
Servers are priced from $500 for Standard Server Edition and $750 for Enterprise Server Edition. The e/pop 3.0 Basic client, which includes IM, chat and presence management, ranges from $99.75 for five users to $3,990 for 250 users. e/pop 3.0 Professional client, which includes the Basic client features plus remote control, voice-over-IP conferencing and application sharing, ranges from $125 for five seats to $4,990 for 250 users.
