One of the most popular features of instant messaging is expanding off the desktop and into the mobile enterprise.
It’s called presence, and it allows users to determine the availability of others. An employee, for instance, can use presence to determine whether a colleague is in a car, at a job site or in a meeting, then choose the most appropriate way to make contact.
The feature has attracted the attention of cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, who is teaming with Vonage Holdings Inc. co-founder Jeff Pulver and former Apple Computer Corp. head John Sculley. The triumvirate of high-tech heavyweights is behind Tello Corp., which emerged in January after operating for more than a year in stealth mode.
Tello aims to integrate communications platforms, enabling voice calls, instant messaging and Internet-based communications from a single interface. The company was formed in late 2004 and raised an undisclosed sum in Series A financing last April. Evercore Partners, Intel Capital, Rho Ventures and McCaw’s Eagle River are leading investors.
Technical partners include Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Digium Inc.; Tello’s flagship product interoperates with systems from those and other vendors.
“Most enterprises today have a wealth of communication tools in place, but they still find it difficult to get in touch with customers and partners when it matters most,” Tello Chief Executive Officer Doug Renert said as the company came out from under the radar. “With the launch of Tello Enterprise, businesses can now turn their existing communications applications and devices into assets that drive their core of the business processes.”
Presence was a driving force in the early days of desktop IM, allowing casual chat-room types to determine the availability of others on their buddy lists simply by logging on. The feature became popular as IM moved into the boardroom as a more immediate, more conversational alternative to e-mail.
The addition of wireless makes presence more valuable, as users can opt to receive text messages while in a conference or mobile calls in the field. And unlike next-generation location-based services-which can be as costly as they are effective-presence, at its most fundamental level, requires no special hardware or new technology, and can be used across devices and carriers.
What’s more, it doesn’t broach privacy issues that accompany user-tracking technologies.
“It really fits into a broader concept called `context of the call,”‘ said Paul Fulton, chief executive officer of mobile at Orative Corp., a San Jose-based mobile software developer. Orative last week launched the latest version of an enterprise-targeted offering that includes settings for users to receive voice calls, text messages, both or neither.
The offering can alert colleagues when a user’s setting changes, and also acts as a voicemail “router,” delivering voice messages from hard lines to mobile phones and presenting a menu that allows users to check specific messages without listening to all of them. It supports more than 30 different handset models and can operate across multiple networks simultaneously.
While manual settings can be inaccurate due to user error-as anyone who’s forgotten to turn off a cell phone in a movie theater knows-Orative said its software can integrate with a phone’s calendar, slipping in and out of modes as schedules dictate.
In contrast to Orative, Tello is looking to become an umbrella encompassing not just means of communication, but service providers, acting as an aggregator of messages sent though business messaging systems and consumer services like America OnLine Inc. and Yahoo Inc.. Competitors include Convoq Inc. and Microsoft Corp. subsidiary Groove Networks.
Each of the vendors is looking to decrease the time employees spend locating each other and staying on top of messages on their PCs, hard lines and mobile phones.
“In the early days it was the best; we used to have administrative assistants,” said Fulton. “That was nice but those went away. Then we got into the technology to help us.”
