MESSAGING VENDOR GLENAYRE PUTS ITS MOBILE FUTURE ON ICE

Glenayre Technologies, a name that evokes the wireless industry's past, is marketing a new enhanced messaging platform aimed at making the firm's name more synonymous with mobile messaging's presumably rich future.

The Duluth, Ga., vendor already has installed its new Versera Intelligent Communications Environment (ICE) voice messaging platform in two markets for a large U.S. wireless carrier, according to Bruce Bales, CEO of Glenayre. The platform has been supporting commercial service in one of those markets since May, and was scheduled to begin supporting service in the second market this month.

The company also has deployed Versera ICE for a mid-sized U.S. carrier, and has other domestic and international deals in the works, Bales said.

Versera ICE is a multi-service applications platform using Intel telephony server hardware, and an open Linux operating system with Java application server and VoiceXML media server support. The Glenayre platform also offers centralized message storage, which differentiates it from other solutions that are essentially forwarding services.

Glenayre's Versera ICE platform also has successfully passed interoperability testing with Nortel Networks' GSM/GPRS wireless equipment.

Bales acknowledged that Glenayre currently possesses only about 6% to 7% of the messaging server market, with Comverse as its top competitive target. “We've not been too visible in the industry for the last two or three years, and we're going to change that with our new deployments,” Bales said. He also said the company is launching an aggressive marketing campaign.

Bales pointed to Fletcher/CSI research commissioned by the company that shows its market advance is a timely one. “[According to the research,] about 66% of companies are ready to upgrade to a next-generation messaging system, and 47% will conduct that upgrade in the next 12 to 18 months,” Bales said.

Bales joined Glenayre last April after stints with Lucent Technologies' messaging unit and elsewhere. Debra Ziola, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Glenayre, has been with the company for 10 years, and admitted that the company is trying to bounce back from difficult times.

Glenayre actually was one of the first companies to embrace enhanced messaging for wireless during the 1990s. The company had been focused on the paging business for many years but sold its paging unit when it saw that market begin to crumble. It invested deeply in enhanced messaging, but also carried out a series of acquisitions in other areas, including purchases of wireless OSS developer Cnet and prepaid application developer Open Development Corp that never fulfilled expectations.

“During that period, enhanced messaging was the stepchild that didn't get much attention,” Ziola said.

Ironically, part of the plan for the company's resurgence likely will involve acquisitions, according to Bales. This time around, those deals will be more focused on messaging capabilities that can be integrated into Versera ICE, such as presence management and text messaging integration.

Glenayre is getting some pressure to show results. In its recent second-quarter earnings call, it reported that it had narrowed its $5.9 million loss from the first quarter to a loss of $1.2 million in the second quarter.

The company also touted a 20% increase in revenue from the previous quarter, but revenue actually came in lower than expected because product delivery dates on a “few significant orders” were delayed past the close of the quarter.