Adomo Announces Voice Messaging for Exchange -- Only Multi-Vendor, Technology-Independent Solution Fully Integrated With Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory.

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- New Voice and Unified Communications Appliance Provides Freedom of Choice During VoIP and Wireless Deployments, Reducing Risk and Saving Costs

Today at VoiceCon, the forum for business IP telephony, Adomo Inc., provider of a new generation of multi-vendor and technology-independent voice and messaging solutions for the enterprise, announced general availability and first deployments of Adomo Voice Messaging for Exchange. Designed as a universal voice messaging platform, deeply and seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, Adomo Voice Messaging for Exchange efficiently addresses the increasingly disparate mix of telephony components -- legacy PBXs, new Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies/IP-PBXs, and smartphones/PDAs. A stable, reliable, feature rich environment, insulated from changing technologies, Adomo voice messaging is critical to mid-size and larger enterprises planning to upgrade telecom infrastructures to support VoIP and/or wireless technologies. Adomo minimizes risks and lowers costs of deployment, by delivering voice messaging and unified communications applications that bridge from legacy technologies to the next generation.

The VoIP Migration

Enterprises are in the midst of a significant upgrade cycle for telecommunications, driven by: the need to replace aging PBX and voicemail systems; the desire to benefit from converged networks using VoIP technologies; and the opportunity to increase productivity via wireless/mobility initiatives. With the thrust to change, it is imperative that business-critical telephony services continue uninterrupted and with minimal user disruption; yet the dynamic nature of these emerging technologies makes it difficult to accurately forecast what enterprise deployments will look like in 5 years. Most organizations can anticipate management of multi-vendor, multi-product scenarios dictated by economic choice to stagger new technology adoption or dictated by unforeseen mergers and acquisitions.

"There is no doubt that corporate migration to VoIP is well underway, but there are still a variety of issues that organizations will have to solve in order to make their VoIP transition successful," said Michael Osterman of Osterman Research. "The flexibility to be able to use products from several vendors, instead of being locked into proprietary solutions, coupled with the ability to migrate from legacy PBXs to new IP-based systems on their own schedule, is a real advantage."

Whatever telephony changes occur and however they may vary, with Adomo, all users get voice messaging that remains consistent and stable. Since Adomo delivers voice messaging as part of the existing Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure, administrators as well as end-users are insulated from underlying changes.

Managing Now for the Future

"Multi-site companies typically have a mixture of PBXs and IP-PBXs already, and they are rolling out VoIP over a 5-10 year horizon," said Adomo CEO Jeff Snider. "They can't know how IP-PBX technologies or products will evolve, but they do know that the voice applications platform they choose today is what will determine their freedom of choice in IP-PBX products in the future."

First deployments of the Adomo Voice Messaging system went live in production earlier this summer. At one customer, Intermountain Health Care headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, the driving factor in selecting Adomo was flexibility during a VoIP migration that will take place over several years. In the process of moving to Exchange 2003, the 25,000-person organization wanted to avoid creating pockets of users left without integrated voice messaging capabilities because their PBX hadn't yet been upgraded to VoIP. With Adomo, all users get access to advanced features, and the telecom team has complete freedom to roll out VoIP on their own schedule from whatever IP-PBX vendors best fit their requirements at a given point in time.

All Messages in the Inbox

For users, voice messages can be accessed as before from their phone, but now can also be reached from their Outlook inbox, making them simple to scan, prioritize, forward, or file. Users can listen to voice messages directly on their computer or click "Play on Phone" to have the message played on the phone of their choice. Since voice messages are now email messages, they can also be directly delivered and accessed from wireless devices, including the smartphone, Pocket PC, Treo and BlackBerry. While in the past it was only possible to forward a voice message within a user's own voicemail system, as an email message, voicemail in the Adomo world can be sent to anyone with an email address, inside or outside the company.

Andrew Feit, vice president of marketing for Adomo notes, "Historically, unified messaging was impractical for larger enterprises, because it required separate Exchange integrations for every site or PBX added, and because it had a separate administrative interface for each telephony product on the network. Every integration with Microsoft Exchange required days to accomplish, and ongoing administration and maintenance had to be performed for the life of each additional telephony source. These factors, and the fact that every integration threatened the stability of Exchange, prevented many organizations from deploying unified messaging, despite user demand."

In contrast, Adomo, a Microsoft Gold Partner, is an enterprise solution that integrates seamlessly and non-intrusively with Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, delivering the full range of voice services to all users regardless of the particular PBX or IP-PBX they are connected to. With a single platform to support, and out-of-the-box integration, enterprises need not face multiple, complex, costly, and risky Exchange integrations. Adomo users have one messaging source fulfilling the need across the enterprise, no matter how telephony services and environments change.

Adomo -- Secure, Reliable, Scalable, and Economical

Adomo Voice Messaging for Exchange is run on a hardened appliance optimized for real-time voice applications and secured from attacks by viruses and hackers. Traffic handling capacity can be increased by simply adding more Adomo appliances into the network. Additionally, the product's distributed architecture provides a high level of resiliency. If an appliance were to fail, no messages or users would be lost. And, in the event Exchange experiences delays or the network becomes unavailable, Adomo's caching architecture allows callers to continue to leave voicemails and subscribers to continue to retrieve voicemails by phone.

Adomo presents a new, cost-effective, and practical model for voice messaging, now utilizing existing administrative and management processes for all messaging, including voice, saving administrative overhead. Through Microsoft Exchange, Adomo utilizes common resources, sharing and leveraging rather than replicating them. Messages and greetings are stored in Exchange, and user profiles and preferences are stored with all other user information, in Active Directory. No longer is there a requirement for separate storage and management of voice messages or users. All routing of voice messages is accomplished via the infrastructure already in place, the corporate IP network and Exchange, without requiring a separate, parallel network scheme or dialing plan to administer and manage.

About Adomo

Adomo, Inc. provides a new generation of voice applications and unified communications solutions that enable organizations to more smoothly migrate to VoIP and wireless technologies. The company's open, hardened appliance platform gives customers freedom of choice in selecting the appropriate technology, vendor, and timing for their VoIP rollout. By integrating with Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, the Adomo solution eliminates the costs of supporting and integrating multiple systems from multiple vendors, while providing easy access to voice messages from any Microsoft Exchange compatible device or client. Adomo is a privately held company backed by Menlo Ventures, and is headquartered in Cupertino, California. For more information, please visit www.adomo.com, or call [phone].