Managing all those messages >BY CHRIS BUCHOLTZ, West Coast Bureau Chief

Communications technology has given end users a host of new ways to be reached, but it also means they are inundated with messages.

Important data may arrive in voice calls, voice mail, faxes, e-mail or pages, and many information-heavy consumers, also known as "high communicators," may have to monitor several phone lines, faxes and e-mail addresses. The result: Managing communications has become a chore. But that gives carriers an opportunity to offer unified messaging services to help these consumers get a grip on the flow of information.

"It isn't a question of being able to be reached anywhere at any time through one number," said Chris Landes, an analyst at TeleChoice Inc., Verona, N.J. "People don't want to be constantly available-that's completely oppressive to them. They want to be able to manage how they communicate and to manage their messages in a coherent way."

To address the dilemma, GTE offers InfoMail Express, a unified messaging system from Carpinteria, Calif.- based Digital Sound Corp. The software suite delivers users' messages-voice, fax or data-to a single box. Digital Sound, which as of yet has had this service niche to itself, is actively seeking carrier partners as competing products arrive on the scene.

Users can select a single number for voice and fax messages and-by adding the now-familiar @ symbol and server suffix to the phone number-apply it to e-mail, enabling all their communications to come through a single server. The product integrates with the Microsoft Exchange messaging application programming interface over the public switched network, so users can dial up a server and use a viewer application to scan their messages by category.

"We like to think of it as the glue for convergent strategies," said Charles Meyer, systems engineer for advanced products at Digital Sound.

The service is a useful tool in reaching the small office/home office market and, at the same time, conserves network resources by provisioning a single line for what would otherwise be a three-line office. The system also lets users access their messages by conventional phones or have a printed summary of messages faxed to a remote site.

"Digital Sound recognized that not every carrier customer has a desktop," Landes said.

This ability to manage faxes, e-mail and voice mail over conventional telephones distinguishes InfoMail in the crowded field. Octel Communications Corp., Centigram Communications Corp., Precision Computer Systems, SBC Communications, CallWare Technologies and Unisys all offer unified messaging software packages, but most focus on using the desktop as a management interface.

Lucent Technologies is also developing its own unified messaging solution, although it is likely to "stick to its knitting and base these features on premises-based servers and central office servers," said Landes.

>Ti BRIEFLY

PUTTING INTELLIGENCE TO WORK Southwestern Bell and Lucent Technologies have completed a trial of Lucent's Smart LGX intelligent monitoring system for fiber networks, the companies said at last week's National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference '96 in Denver. The telco will use the data from the St. Louis trial to help it plan for cost reductions in operations and maintenance. Smart LGX will be available in November.

TAKING ANOTHER VIEW Applied Innovation demonstrated its AppliedView software-based centralized monitoring and management system at NFOEC '96. The system, launched in June at Supercomm '96, manages multiple AISwitch units, which provide data communications between network elements and operations support systems.