Interactive Intelligence Launches Mobile IP Telephony Offering

Interactive Intelligence has introduced a mobile offering that duplicates many of the IP telephony functions available to workers on their desktop phones.

Interaction Client, Mobile Edition provides users with presence management, that is, being able to look up the presence of a co-worker; company directory look-up; Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Outlook contact access; call control; multi-party conferencing; call recording; and text messaging.

A graphical client interface, Interaction Client's Mobile Edition supports the Windows Mobile 5.0 and Smart Phone operating systems. The company is looking at adapting it for other operating systems as well, Rachel Wentink, director of product management, told CRM Buyer.

A Company First

Interactive Intelligence has offered limited mobile functionality with past product releases, including such features as "find me, follow me." However, Interaction Client, Mobile Edition is the first robust mobile offering, Wentink said.

"By that I mean this is the first time we have taken our Client edition and put it on a mobile device," she noted.

Slated to come out at the end of the year, the Mobile Edition client will be offered as part of the company's unified communications software suite for contact centers and enterprises.

It will run on networks that provide access to voice and data simultaneously via high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). It can also be used on devices using WiFi for data connection and a cellular network as its audio path, according to the company.

The Always-Connected Employee

The Mobile Edition client is designed for companies with a lot of field personnel such as sales reps or service technicians. Vertical targets include retail, warehousing, hospitality and healthcare. Companies with campus-like operations that require employees to spend a lot of time walking to and from offices are also potential targets. In these environments, Wentlink said, desktop phones are considered akin to dinosaurs.

Indeed, integration of IP telephony and the cell phone is going to relegate desktop phones to the dustbin, Gartner (NYSE: IT) predicted in a recent report. By 2010, 80 percent of large enterprises will have bought their last desk phone for mid-level and senior-level employees.