Imagine if lawyers in a courtroom could access all of the legal resources, such as the Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw research sites, from their wireless phones through their firms Web portal. Consider the potential time that could be saved in the over-burdened courts if lawyers didnt have to break for recesses to check documents.
Just such a scenario could soon be a reality, due to a new portal server option released on Monday from iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions.
The Mobile Access Pack is just the latest product in iPlanets portal server line. The portal server products are part of Sun Microsystems Inc.s Open Net Environment offerings, which are designed to promote rapid deployment of robust web-based services.
Enterprises using the Mobile Access Pack are not tied to any particular wireless carrier. It works with any mobile network that operates at a 2.5-generation to third-generation capacity, ac-cording to John Fanelli, director of product marketing at iPlanet, an alliance between Sun Micro-systems, Inc. and Netscape
iPplanet, of Palo Alto, Calif., also announced that it is integrating its portal server with Lu-cent Technologies Inc.s AnyPath Messaging System and Suns Netra servers. The companies are targeting the integrated product to service providers that want to offer enhanced unified communi-cations. End users of the combined offering will be able to browse the Web, check and send voice and e-mail messages, make calls from address books via voice command, and attach e-mail to voicemail messages.
With the iPlanet Portal Server, AnyPath can aggregate personalized content and services from many different data sources, including voice, fax and e-mail messages, calendar entries, or Internet channels, based on user preferences. “Think of the portal server as an aggregation mechanism,” Fanelli said. “Maybe next to my email and my calendar I want to see weather information. Maybe I want to get driving directions to my next appointment.”
Lucent is iPlanets first OEM customer for the portal server, but the company sells it directly to service providers and enterprises as well. Business customers include financial services, the De-partment of Defense and insurance companies, which typically use it for an employee portal or consumer portal.
Lucent isnt the only manufacturer promoting new unified messaging technologies. Erics-son Inc. upgraded its OneBox product offerings, now available in the United States. With OneBox 2.0, users can access electronic messages via a phone, Windows-based PC or Web browser.
The Swedish vendors software supports unified fax, voice and e-mail messaging; text-to-speech conversion for remote access to e-mail; remote access to faxes; Voice Intercept Messaging support; Short Message Service support for text message notification.