Update: Omnipod beefs up instant messaging service

Omnipod, which provides hosted instant message (IM) services to companies of all sizes, is preparing several enhancements to its platform, including the additions of a Web-based client, a telephony component and a persistent-chat feature, Omnipod's chief executive officer said.

Omnipod currently has a Windows-based client, so the new Web-based client will open up its platform to non-Windows end users, in particular those working from PCs running Unix, Linux or Apple Computer Inc.'s MacOS, said Gideon Stein, Omnipod's chief executive officer. "That's something a lot of our customers have requested," he said. "The Web client also will substantially increase our ability to do larger and larger deployments."

The Web client, expected to debut either late this month or in early December, will be Java-based and feature SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption. It initially will let users conduct IM sessions only, but will progressively gain other features found in the Windows-based client, Stein said.

Omnipod, a privately held company founded in 1999, has signed up several hundred companies to use its hosted IM platform, which lets users conduct, save, log and search IM sessions. Omnipod users also can share and transfer files, as well as import contacts from users in other IM networks and communicate with them. Omnipod users can also establish different access rights for shared files and integrate Omnipod's IM with third-party e-mail and calendaring applications. Pricing starts at US$5 per user per month with discounts starting at 26 users. Optional features and storage cost extra.

As a hosted IM provider, Omnipod handles upgrades, maintenance, security and network operations from its data center. Rolling out enhancements such as those the company has planned is also handled by Omnipod, freeing IT departments from having to spend time and effort installing upgrades, Stein said.

"We can add features to the back end and then roll out new services to people without requiring a massive corporate upgrade," Stein said. The same thing goes for adding users. "With our solution it's as easy to deploy 100 people as 10,000 people," he added. Omnipod's clients include Texaco, the Mayo Clinic, the state of Florida, Atlas Air Inc., Partners HealthCare System Inc. and the state of Virginia.

The end-user Windows client is downloaded to users' machines from Omnipod. Companies don't need to install any server software internally. IT departments get access to a command console from where they can perform management tasks, such as monitoring usage, setting user policies and reviewing logs and calling up archived IM sessions.

Benefit Strategies LLC, an employee-benefit consulting and administration firm based in Manchester, New Hampshire, adopted the Omnipod system about a year ago when executives realized that employees were conducting business-related communications using public IM networks.

Benefit Strategies' Chief Executive Officer Paul Smith worried that this could compromise the security of the company's systems and confidential information, and issued a policy that barred IM use among employees.