Local lab helped develop telco messaging system

By PETER GRIFFIN

IT giant Unisys has begun pushing locally its telco-orientated product Ensemble, which is drawing interest from telcos globally but in part came out of the company's development lab in Wellington.

The lab will be kept busy working on upgrades and new applications for Ensemble, a major open-standards messaging platform that Unisys has developed.

Ensemble was designed for existing circuit-switched networks as well as internet protocol networks, to which telcos are increasingly switching as they seek to save money running all of their services - speech recognition, voice messaging, MMS and text messaging - over one network.

The system integrates computer and telephony elements, allowing voicemail notifications via the likes of MSN Instant Messenger, voicemail to be sent via email, and calls to be automatically routed to different phones.

The system is not tied to a company's switch but is based on a Unisys server within the telco's network.

Unisys' 40-strong development team in Wellington spent two years working on elements of Ensemble, from email readers and IMAP4 mail integrators to speech portals.

"There's not one bit of Ensemble we haven't touched, whether it be adding two lines of code or the bulk of the code," said Tim Hogan, Unisys practice director.

Polish operator Centertel is using Ensemble's speech recognition for voice messaging and British Telecom uses fixed-line text messaging features.

In the New Zealand market, Telecom uses Unisys as a voice messaging provider and TelstraClear is also a major customer.