Introduction Today more than 8 billion personal messages (non real-time voice, text or graphic communication between individual and groups) arrive daily through mailboxes, answering machines and personal computers throughout the world. Thus there is a growing demand for a messaging system which converges all these three types of messaging, thereby making the communication independent of location, time or device. This is where the Unified Messaging System (UMS) comes into the picture. Basically in UMS all your messages-voice, e-mail, fax, data (such as documents)- go to one inbox. Everything in your inbox is accessible from your desktop PC, any telephone, or your laptop computer. From your desktop or a Web browser anywhere, you can review these messages, which appear as single-line summaries on your inbox screen. Click the message you want, and you see or hear the message, forward received faxes to the nearest fax machine, or even have selected email messages faxed or read to you. Unified Messaging has obvious benefits in case of use and time savings, but its true power lies in its simplicity. As voice mail, faxes, email messages, etc. become just "messages", people become free to spend more time thinking about the content and quality of the messages they send and less time on the medium and methods used to send those messages. How does the Unified Messaging System actually work? Messages in the system are displayed in your mail client window. Special Icons and message header information display the message type, sender, subject, date, and the time the message was received. You can store all message formats in one folder or create individual folders for different contacts or individual projects. All the messages are accessed and controlled from either the telephone or the computer since your UMS is connected to both i.e. PSTN and your workstation. With this, the user is allowed to retrieve, send and respond to messages wherever he/she may be-in the office, at home, in the car, at the airport, or any other remote location. Details Of The UMS Voice Mail The caller is played a user-defined or system-defined greeting and allowed to record a message. The number of mailboxes is unlimited. The maximum number of messages and maximum message length are limited only by available disk space. Once the audio recording is complete, it is attached to an email message and can be retrieved and played back or the message can be accessed on the phone. Message Reception User-defined or system-defined greetings : The system can automatically provide greetings based upon the current status of the unavailable user or users can provide their own personalized greetings. User status : Users can update their status from their computer desktop, over the phone, or even over the Internet using a Web browser. The system can automatically report this status to callers. Organizations can completely customize the list of possible status types (e.g. in a meeting, at lunch, on vacation, etc.). Status values can also contain dates and times (e.g. on vacation until July 23, in a meeting until 4pm, etc.). Caller options : After recording a message, callers can be presented with a customizable set of options including send the message, replay the message, re-record the message, delete the message, and so on. Message Retrieval Retrieval by email : Voice messages show up in a user’s email inbox (e.g. Microsoft Exchange or Outlook) right alongside emails and faxes. Users can listen to messages through their PCs speakers or headphones, or over their telephone. Retrieval by phone : Users can access their voice mail messages from anywhere in the world via a touch-tone phone. Retrieval by Internet : Users can access their voice mail messages over the Internet via Web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Fax Fax lines can plug directly into the UMS. Incoming faxes are received by the UMS and can then be routed to any user or group mailbox. Fax Reception UMS can receive both high and low-resolution faxes from Group I, Group II, or Group III fax machines. Maximum number of faxes and maximum fax size are limited only by available disk space. Faxes are attached to email messages and routed using defined rules. Fax Retrieval Retrieval by email : Faxes show up in a user’s email inbox right alongside email and voice mail messages. Faxes can be printed, forwarded to other users, archived, and so on. Retrieval by phone : Users can access their faxes from anywhere in the world using a touch tone phone. UMS can send a fax to a nearby fax machine or can use text-to-speech in order to “read” the fax message over the phone. Retrieval by Internet : Users can view received faxes in a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Navigator. Fax Submission Submission by email. Users can send faxes directly from their desktop PC’s via their email application (e.g. Microsoft Exchange or Outlook). Such messages can contain attachments such as Word documents and bitmap IMAGES. Fax messages are directed to UMS where they are rendered and then queued for transmission from the server. Fax Transmission Outgoing faxes are queued for transmission at the UMS server and can be sent at specified times in order to take advantage of off-peak telephone rates. Multiple faxes to the same phone number can be transmitted together in order to reduce long-distance costs. Ultimately what do you get with UMS ? Voice, fax and e-mail are all stored in one universal inbox. Messages accessible from both PC and telephone. Administrator mailbox options through a GUI interface. Visually scan, sort and review all message format at once. Receive private faxes at your desktop. Send voice mail to any e-mail user via LAN or Internet. Store voice, fax and e-mails in separate, customizable folders. Identify calls and messages with caller ID. Use one-button callback to immediately respond to messages