Rating: location and context condensed into single icon
Following on its success with Wi-Fi handovers see here, Agito's latest release of RoamAnywhere (3.0) with major on users' 'presence' based on both location and 'context'.
By context, Agito with differentiate between for different 'context states'. These depend on whether the user is physically located within the enterprise; on the road; at home; or in a custom location.
As Agito's co-founder, Pejman Roshan, explained to
me, the previous release of RoamAnywhere was almost
exclusively voice orientated.
Now it ties heavily into enterprise style unified
communications (UC) offerings - such as Microsoft's OCS (Office Communications
Server); Lotus' Sametime and similar products from Cisco and Jabber.
In all RoamAnywhere can now run on 40 plus handsets – either Nokia's E and N Series handsets or Window Mobile 6.0+ devices.
Across six different mobile operators in the EU, that means the potential users have the choice of over 70 handsets which attract an operator subsidy.
Add in support for all the major brands of PABX, then RoamAnywhere enables enterprise users to view the same UC information – including IM – on both the desktop and a mobile device.
The most powerful feature of version 3.0, Roshan maintains, is that all the relevant information about presence is condensed down into single icons on the handset.
Not only can the handset's owner gauge from the icon's colour that a colleague is already on a call, for example, but the symbol inside the icon also indicates their 'context state'.
Hence, a user could decide that given the icon shows the colleague is on the road, the most intelligent action would be to send a text message rather than an IM or email.
The other benefit to these intelligent presence icons is that they enable users to pick the least expensive means of calling a colleague – an advantage in these credit crunch times.
Agito didn't stress the facility but RoamAnywhere also has an Automatic SIM Swap facility.
This enables those who wish to use prepaid SIM cards while roaming to do so without worry of lost calls and voicemails thanks to the handset using a country specific phone number.
Truphone might want to look into that. Meanwhile Agito
claims that its existing customers can wait for 3.0. "We have Marquee names
champing at the bit for betas," Roshan claimed.
The product should be available by May 1st 2009.
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