Codespear's SmartMSG Tool Ensures Business Continuity

That mantra is playing itself out with the launch of SmartMSG, an instant-messaging product from startup Codespear, headed by President and CEO Paul Hodges. Prior to joining Codespear, Hodges was CEO of Bloomfield Computer Systems, a VAR that was acquired by Logical in 1999. Hodges stayed with Logical until mid-2001.

Originally developed by Codespear for Ford Motor, SmartMSG is a business-continuity tool that allows organizations to broadcast urgent messages to a variety of e-mail clients, mobile phones, pagers and PDAs. The system is designed to give organizations a tool that guarantees delivery of messages to executives, employees or business partners in the event of an emergency, Hodges said. It includes receipt notifications, multimedia messages, encryption, chat functions, conferencing tools and support for LDAP and Active Directory.

"SmartMSG is a good way to broadcast urgent messages that leave an audit trail that the message was accepted and read," said Lee Schulz, vice president of national sales at NetDirect Systems, Raleigh, N.C. "This kind of technology will become ubiquitous."

Hodges said he expects Codespear to build a more formal channel program for SmartMSG next year.

"My background is working in the channel, and this is a toolset that can be made available as a component to ISVs or as a stand-alone product," Hodges said. "Right now, I have a network of people that we are working with. But in the end, we will probably formalize a channel program," he said.

Codespear, Birmingham, Mich., began shipping SmartMSG this month. License fees start at $50 per user.