Ensuring the messaging platform incorporates specific cost, technology and applications essentials is key to unlocking the value proposition for enhanced services. Existing legacy messaging platforms can’t keep pace with the demands for cost effective, agile applications delivery.

Lower Cost Factors

A number of factors associated with the cost side of the value equation must be addressed by messaging systems. The first is a standards-based, open systems platform pervasive throughout the Operating System (OS), programming languages, and applications creation and deployment environments. Systems designed in this manner leverage common application skill sets and reuse common software infrastructure and components—reducing demands on operations and development personnel.

Solutions that utilize COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) hardware and software, are NEBS compliant, and maintain 99.999% availability ensure minimal maintenance costs. Another way to minimize costs is to deploy a VoiceXML applications environment and effective system/network management tools based on SNMP. Fundamentally sound messaging platforms incorporate these attributes in the design to make it possible to capitalize on applications that attract new subscribers and keep the costs of managing those subs low. Benefits of systems that incorporate these design values include the flexibility of utilizing standards-based vendor and/or third party APIs to get to market more quickly and a reduction of overall development costs and maintenance.

Technology Enablers

Technology factors are also key to unlocking the carrier value proposition for enhanced services. Achieving maximum value begins with a design based on an IP client/server development and deployment model and adherence to global industry standards. This IP client/server model is founded upon a standards-based VoiceXML framework to complement rich application server platforms (e.g. J2EE, Java, etc.) that leverage business component layers. Speech and multimodal applications development are vendor agnostic to accommodate SRGS, NLSML, SSML, SALT, and XHTML plus voice. Lastly, messaging systems must support existing specifications (PAM Forum, 3GPP, etc.) as well as emerging specifications (CCXML, SyncML, etc.), and integrate with disparate XML, SOAP or CORBA platforms. In addition to the cost and technology factors discussed, carriers must also look at application enablers.

Application Enablers

Fundamental application enablers include an easy and intuitive user interface, a consistent user interface design methodology and the ability to use simple commands for message navigation and disposition. Additionally, the subscriber must have access to basic applications such as voice mail as well as enhanced services such as Multimedia and Unified Communications. The subscriber must be able to personalize their preferences and content, function in a multimodal manner, and receive message notification in a number of ways.