EDial links phone, IM and Web conferencing

Enterprise instant messaging (IM) and Web conferencing already exist together in several packages on the market. Now little-known eDial Inc. is adding the telephone to the mix.

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The Waltham, Massachusetts, company's new Instant Collaboration System provides not only secure enterprise-grade IM and simple Web presentation capabilities, but also ties in a company's PBX (private branch exchange), said eDial President and Chief Executive Officer Jill Smith.

Because of the connection to the PBX, users can see if a colleague is available on the phone, in addition to availability on IM. Also, the system allows users to start a phone call or conference call with the click of a mouse from within an IM session. After a participant in an IM session clicks the button, the users in the session will be asked if they want to talk on the phone. If so, their phones will ring and they will be connected via the phone, Smith said.

"We provide the glue that brings together voice, IM and collaboration. The very purpose of our Instant Collaboration System is to integrate these islands of communications," Smith said.

EDial's system is Web-based, eliminating the need for special client software. However, the system supports the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) standards, making it interoperable with SIP clients such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Messenger, eDial said.

"We recognize that many enterprises may have already made decisions as to what client is being used, so we can integrate with any SIP client, either at the client level or the server level," Smith said.

SIP and SIMPLE support also enables connections between the Instant Collaboration System and other software and systems, including the phone system. Furthermore, because the system is Web-based, users on the road can access it as well, eDial said.

EDial's product offers simple Web presentation only, which allows users to display documents on a Web site. However, the Instant Collaboration System also can provide a simple link to full-blown Web conferencing services such as the one offered by WebEx Communications Inc., which includes features such as whiteboarding, document editing and application sharing.

Smith believes eDial's product is unique in the market, for now. "Today we don't see anybody providing this type of product, but in the longer term, Microsoft is obviously going to tie in as much as they can in their products and also PBX providers may pull similar products together."

Robert Mahowald, research manager at IDC, in Framingham, Massachusetts, said eDial's product is one of the first that brings the telephony and data side of an enterprise together and does it in a "pretty smooth" way.

"It has a big gee-whiz factor and does not require you to rip out any of your existing infrastructure, but occupies a functional space between the very old phone and, on the high end, sharing of documents and applications. It sits between those things functionally and makes those things work better together," Mahowald said.

Instant Collaboration System runs on Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Inc.'s Linux. The product works with IP (Internet Protocol) PBXes but can also be used with traditional PBXes if the customer buys a hardware card from eDial. For IP systems, the software costs about US$1,000, while a setup for traditional PBXes costs about $8,000. There is also a $30 charge for each named user, eDial said.

EDial was founded in 1998 and employs about 20 people. The company is venture-backed and collected about $32 million in three rounds of financing, mostly during the dot-com boom years, Smith said. The company plans to break even before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation in the first half of next year, she said.