PALO ALTO, Calif., March 6, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- MessageCast(TM), a start-up founded by a group of entrepreneurs who revolutionized high-volume business printing over the Internet, announced today that it is delivering an innovative enterprise development environment allowing companies to quickly, cost-effectively, and legally connect to Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT) Instant Messaging network.
The Microsoft(R) .NET Alerts Service allows businesses to send alerts to their customer's desktops, cell phones, and email boxes. Unlike email, which is hampered by spam concerns, consumers must opt into receiving Alerts thus assuring they do not receive unwanted messages. Today there are over 80 million active Windows and MSN messenger users.
More than a year in design, MessageCast has created a development and production environment for .NET Alerts, wrapping an application and Web services integration layer over the various API's that make up .NET Alerts. An implementation builder allows corporations to tap into the exploding world of IM communication in a speedy and painless way.
"MessageCast dramatically cuts the time it takes to implement .NET Alerts -- and significantly increases operating efficiencies," stated Royal P. Farros, CEO and chairman of MessageCast, Inc. "In this difficult market environment, these types of cost savings and productivity gains are absolutely critical to the enterprise."
MessageCast's automated messaging environment for broadcast alerting is built in a modern Web services framework, making it remarkably easy to integrate into an organization. The application allows an organization to create, schedule, modify, deliver, and store automated IM broadcasts. Full reporting statistics give an organization high-level control over broadcast management, including metering and click-thru data that provide revenue-generating opportunities.
"Businesses are looking for new and cost effect ways to reach their customers," added John Maffei, Group Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation. "The .NET Alerts service allows businesses to build deeper digital relationships with customer by sending Alerts to a variety of different customer endpoints including MSN or Windows Messenger clients, cell phones, and email accounts. We are excited to work with MessageCast to help get our mutual customers up and running with .NET Alerts quickly and efficiently."
MessageCast for .NET Alerts is scheduled to ship in Q1 2003 as a hosted service and Q2 2003 as a licensed product running behind the enterprise firewall.
About MessageCast, Inc.
MessageCast, Inc., a privately held company, was formed in 2001 and is a pioneer in automated messaging environments for broadcast IM. Working with all major IM networks, MessageCast is a Microsoft Registered Partner.
For more information, please see http://www.MessageCast.net or contact Information@MessageCast.net.
MessageCast is registered trademark of MessageCast, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other marks are property of their respective owners.