Although being developed primarily for use in large corporate environments, the new voice store and forward technology known as "voice messaging" or "voice mailbox" may be of interest to LSN readers concerned with maintaining an acquaintance with developments in all areas of information technology. Supported by broad spectrum industry companies such as IBM (Audio Distribution and more specialized firms such as Voice & Data Systems Inc. (Out-Voice) and ECS Telecommunications Inc. (Voice Message Exchange), voice messaging technology provides facilities for 200 to 3,000 users to record, store and distribute voice messages ranging in maximum length from 90 seconds to 10 minutes.
Like the electronic messaging becoming popular in library applications (see LSN Vol.2, No.1), voice messaging offers facilities such as mass calling whereby one message can be delivered to a number of predetermined groups of system users, voice mailboxes where messages may be stored until the recipient is ready to receive them, and the ability for a recipient to scan the messages awaiting delivery. Some systems compress pauses in the spoken messages, are programmable to permit delivery of messages at a predetermined specified time, and may be staged to continue calling a recipient until the message is delivered. System pricing is dependent upon the number of service points in a particular installation, and costs range from $115,000 to $495,000. The systems are designed to be operated by non computer users and all claim to be user friendly.
