Wirelessmail Offers Device Flexibility

That can be most evident when their customers are using Lotus Notes as the delivery platform.

WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino from MartinScott Consulting aims to simplify the integration of wireless devices into the Notes environment. The add-on agent is installed into a user's Notes mailbox, eliminating the need to modify the Notes server, firewalls or directories. It also allows solution providers to restrict wireless capability only to the end users sanctioned by the customer.

CRN Test Center engineers installed WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino on three client systems running Lotus Notes release 5.0.7. Product installation was straightforward and consisted of little more than running an online wizard that installed the agent software into the user's Notes mailbox.

Test Center engineers found WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino quite easy to work with. The product adds a management link to the Notes Actions submenu that allows users to quickly change settings. There are also a plethora of options for e-mail forwarding. Users can set up rules and schedules for e-mail forwarding and can even apply rules to format the e-mail for a specific wireless device. Scheduling is particularly important to prevent receiving mail from multiple avenues at once. For example, a user is not likely to need or want pager e-mail while they are in the office.

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All a target wireless device needs is a valid Internet e-mail address, which allows devices ranging from dedicated handheld units to pagers to cell phones to take advantage of the capabilities offered by WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino.

Because WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino forwards e-mail via SMTP, users can opt to have their e-mail forwarded to virtually any valid e-mail account, including home accounts or remote accounts. The agent could be sold initially for simple forwarding, but that in turn could open the door for a wireless e-mail upgrade sale down the road.

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Because WirelessMail forwards e-mail via SMTP, users' e-mail can be forwarded to virtually any e-mail account.

Users may want to change the forwarded e-mail account's default "reply to" address to their Notes account e-mail address to ensure that all replies to received e-mail have a consistent address and central repository.

The product has spam-filtering capabilities that allow e-mails to be discarded based on address information or content. Solution providers will find the spam-filtering feature a valuable ally in cutting down e-mail forwarded to wireless devices. Users can choose to fine-tune the spam filtering by devising rules to search for certain phrases in the e-mail text or subject line or reject e-mails with "undisclosed" recipients.

Advanced filtering capabilities are provided by the agent software's rules-based filters. Rules can be devised for many conditions and actions to affect e-mails before or during forwarding. The rules can be used to escalate importance based on sender, to prevent forwarding based on addressing information, or to forward to an alternate address. In effect, the wireless connectivity can be conditioned for very specific uses. For example, a company may be looking for wireless paging only for high-priority e-mail.

Test Center engineers tested the unit's forwarding capabilities with several devices, including a RIM BlackBerry 5810, RIM BlackBerry 957, Panasonic Versio cell phone, Handspring Treo 300 and Motorola Adviser Elite pager. Wireless service providers included T-Mobile, Cingular Wireless, AT&T and Sprint.

Each of the devices tested had different requirements for formatting e-mail. The BlackBerry devices and the Treo 300 were able to handle forwarded e-mails using WirelessMail's Advanced Device/Full Email Client setting, which forwards e-mail as a normal SMTP-delivered message. The other devices tested had limits on message size and formatting. Those limitations required using WirelessMail's Limited-Length Device setting, which allows e-mail to be formatted to reduce size, discard attachments and split long e-mails into multiple messages.

Another important element of the product is the scheduling feature. Users can set up forwarding schedules to control if and when e-mails are forwarded. This feature comes in handy for desk-bound users who only want e-mail forwarded when they are scheduled to be away from their desks. For users with less static schedules, WirelessMail offers the ability to quickly turn forwarding on and off.

All things considered, WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino is easy to deploy and offers either a temporary solution for enterprise users moving over to wireless devices or a permanent solution for those who only need their e-mail forwarded.

PRODUCT SNAPSHOT
> NAME: WirelessMail 3.0 for Domino
> PRICE: $49 per user or $1,399 per server
> DISTRIBUTORS/INTEGRATORS: Sells direct to solution providers
> COMPANY: MartinScott Consulting
Vienna, Va.
(703) 281-6724
www.martinscott.com