SkyMail delivers voice mail to inbox

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 AM, By Mary Rose Roberts

Enterprises may have a new tool for communicating messages from headquarters to field-workers and vice versa with Pacific DataVision's SkyMail voice application, a software suite that runs on a network server and supports voice message transmissions over the Internet and into an intended receiver's e-mail account.

The software supports wireless dictation that enables mobile workers to send a voice message to an e-mail account using a cellular phone. Users can scroll to a specific contact in their handheld device's address book, speak and hang up. SkyMail then e-mails the voice message to selected contacts, said the company's president and CEO John Pescatore. Each message can be tagged and categorized, allowing senders to prioritize their messages based on customized pull-down menus. The recipient chooses which e-mails to address first based on the category, clicks on the embedded e-mail link to listen to the message, and then he or she can respond with a text message from a computer. Currently, the software can transmit the message to a group of 50, but it can be modified for larger distributions.

“Our first deployment was with Sprint-Nextel over the iDEN network,” Pescatore said. “And in that case, instead of scrolling and making a phone call, you scroll to the contact and then press the push-to-talk button and speak. It immediately sends the voice message to one or many.”

When the receiver has listened to the voice message, the software transmits a confirmation text message to the sender that includes a time-and-date stamp. The entire transaction is stored on the server.

“For enterprises, this allows them to send a message and know the recipient got it and when they listened to it, and the entire transaction is saved on the server,” he said. “From a standpoint of risk mitigation documentation down the road, that can be very important to a business.”

Accounts are managed on SkyMail.net. The service works on any cellular carrier and is priced on a per-user-basis at $9.99 per month. www.pacificdatavision.com