Those of us who watch VoIP and unified communications really close have known that Adobe and Flash are going to be an integral part of the real convergence of applications and services. Here's news from Communigate that sets the stage for how we might see Flash-based communications grow

They really pushed the limits of Adobe Flash to take the email beyond what’s in your normal email exchange programs. Pronto ties in your traditional email and calendaring features plus voice, video, audio and more – a definite upgrade from MS Exchange and Outlook.

They went down the road of using Flash for a number of reasons:

1. Its very secure over other standards like Java or AJAX
2. The multimedia aspects are all in one—no need for the program to call up third-party programs (ie. iTunes, Windows Media Player)
3. The portability of it—you can use it over any OS and any browser with the same look no matter what combo, also portable to mobile devices via Flash Lite

This can be scaled and customized to the SMB and enterprise and on the flip side -- any ISP or broadband provider. There are a lot of things either available now or coming down the road including voice services (voicemail, VoIP), IPTV, flash based games and more. With Flash Lite it can be ported to your mobile phone, integrated into a set top box and deployed over your local cable service in addition to your PC or Mac computer.

This news from Communigate bears close scrutiny.

Mill Valley, 5 June, 2007 – CommuniGate Systems, the leader in scalable carrier-class Rich Media Internet Communications solutions, today announced the availability of Pronto!, a unique user interface based on Adobe Flash® and Adobe Flex™ 2 technology that brings together Rich Media and IP Communications. Deployable today, Pronto! unifies all forms of Internet Communications — from e-mail and IM, to chat, rich media, and groupware — in a sleek, easy-to-use, easy-to-manage client interface.

Pronto! scales to support any deployment size, and flexible to meet the requirements of business or consumer subscribers. Pronto! promotes team collaboration and increases employee productivity by unlocking e-mail and other productivity tools from the desktop. Whether they’re in the office, at home, or on the road, employees can access e-mail and stored data, schedule team meetings, and call colleagues from the integrated Pronto! Interface. For maximum flexibility, users can access Pronto! from any web browser without the need to install client software.

And with Pronto!, service providers can quickly generate new revenue streams and improve subscriber loyalty by offering new premium services to consumer and business subscribers. With its fully-integrated, easy-to-manage, and low footprint client, Pronto! ensures a fast return on investment by enabling service providers to add new services like blogging, IP TV and other Rich Media Applications through the client framework, without having to replace or expand their existing infrastructure. Pronto! is designed at the core to adapt to various subscriber requirements, and portable to allow Fixed Mobile Convergence due to the nature of the portability of Flash.

"Pronto! illustrates how Flex 2 and Flash are reshaping the user’s experience on the web,” said Jeff Whatcott, vice president of product marketing, Enterprise and Developer Business Unit at Adobe. “Using Adobe’s latest rich Internet application technology, CommuniGate Systems has been able to take business and personal communications to a whole new level – delivering design-friendly, rich functionality with the flexibility of a Web 2.0 application.”

“The e-mail and collaboration software markets are merging and converging to enhance support for communication, sharing, and teaming behaviors,” said Tom Eid, Vice President, Gartner Technology & Service Provider Research. “The integrated collaboration market is emerging in response to the demand for a coherent and integrated set of technologies, processes and services that support a broad range of collaborative activities.”

The launch of Pronto! provides a Rich Media interface for the CommuniGate Pro Internet Communications platform, a scalable performance-driven platform that combines VoIP, data communications, and collaboration services. As the industry’s most scalable IP communications platform, CommuniGate Pro continues to set record benchmarks for performance and scalability. Pronto! interfaces with CommuniGate Pro via the XIMSS API (XML Interface for Messaging, Scheduling, and Signaling). This revolutionary API enables ISPs and Enterprises to rapidly develop and design UIs, build portals, interface with cable modems, and link to external applications and services — all without any complex coding or protocol requirements.

Pronto! features include:

• Fully featured E-mail Application
• Calendaring
• Contacts management
• Secure Instant Messaging
• Presence
• VoiceMail Management and Calling Preferences
• RSS Feeds and management
• MyPhotos
• MyVideos
• MyMusic
• Portability to any Flash 9 Player on Windows, OSX, Linux
• Highly secure binary that runs in memory space not browser cache

The CommuniGate Pro Enterprise Suite, including Pronto!, is available today, starting at US$849 for 25 users. ISP and Carriers can contact sales@communigate.com for pricing information.

An animated demo of Pronto! can be viewed at http://www.Communigate.com/pronto.

For a free live trial visit http://www.talktoip.com and Sign In for an account with yourusername@talktoip.com.

About CommuniGate Systems
Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate Systems develops carrier-class Internet Communications software for broadband & mobile service providers, enterprises, and OEM partners worldwide. Over 125 million subscribers including 45 million voice customers rely upon CommuniGate Systems products for their voice and data communication today. CommuniGate Systems is the most trusted & financially stable vendor which maintains the highest customer satisfaction levels in the Rich Media Communications industry. CommuniGate Systems provides flexibility, performance, scalability, with the benchmark proven architecture that remains un-challenged in the industry. Our open development environment with simple APIs delivers extensible flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime for the most demanding application environments. CommuniGate Systems has over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.

Download CommuniGate Pro today and join the initiative to drive interoperability of Unified Communications and convert nearly 2 billion e-mail accounts to a single identity for all forms of Internet Communications. For more information, go to www.communigate.com

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