Lucent takes on outside venture

Lucent Technologies last week launched Persystant Technologies, a new venture that will offer collaboration software and services to Fortune 1000 companies and service providers. Unlike most Lucent ventures, which have been internal, this one is owned jointly with software developer Unixpros.

Persystant's BitRoom Collaboration System based on Bell Labs software, lets users connect to a virtual environment to view and listen to presentations using a computer or phone over corporate intranets or the Internet. It is based on T.120 and H.323 standards which allow it to integrate with legacy PBXs and LANs.

The key difference between BitRoom and other systems is that "whatever means the user has, they can participate," said Jay Thompson, president and CEO of Persystant.

The system runs on Windows NT and is centered around a tiered architecture that allows operators to add users in increments of 50. Persystant also is developing various Java-based applications that will run on top of the basic BitRoom architecture.

With this architecture customers can use the same infrastructure for several different applications, Thompson said. "Instead of providing one application, we have provided a suite of applications that allows them to use the parts they need," he said.

Unlike most collaboration software packages, BitRoom also has a fairly sizable price tag of $35,000. This fact may make marketing it hard. But the Lucent name may make targeting Fortune 1000 companies a little easier, said Kathey Hale, principal analyst with Dataquest.

The company also will need to create additional markets for service providers. "It will be up to Persystant to create the demand. It's not a [service provider's] job to create demand," Hale said.