2 o o o Sponsored by:

~\JGeotgIaStatelliverslty

COLLEGE OF BUSINESSADMINISTRATION

ATLANTABUSINESS

CHRONICLE

GRAND WINt\JER.PREMIERETECHNOLOGIES- ORCHESTRATE

By Sandy JohnCONTRIBUTING WRITER

In the old days, a business person on thehad to find a pay phone to call the office

and receive messages. Then came the pager, and finally thecell phone, allowing business people to be reached by phoneanyplace, anytime.Today, more and more business messages aren't coming

over the telephone; they come via e-rnail. So traveling busi-ness people still must find phone jacks for their laptop com-puters before they can check their messages.Would those people's lives be less hectic and more produc-

tive if their computers could talk to their cell phones? That'sthe premise behind Orchestrate E-mail by Phone, launchedin 1999 by Premiere Technologies Inc. of Atlanta.Orchestrate E-mail by Phone is an entry in the new brand

telecommunications category known as "unified messaging, II

or UM. It's an Internet-based messaging and communications

service that enables users to consolidate and access e-mail, faxand voice mail messages via one chosen vehicle - the tele-phone in the case of Orchestrate E-mail. Orchestrate userscan hear e-rnail over the phone, thanks to advanced text-to-speech technology, and send voice replies that can be heardthrough the recipient's computer speakers.

''The biggest challenge of the launch was presenting asophisticated and complicated system to an audience thathad never heard of UM before," said Grant Meldrum, direc-tor of brand marketing for Premiere Technologies. "We hadto explain what it was in a simple way and show why it couldhelp them be more productive."To introduce consumers to the concept and create a desire

for UM, a multipronged marketing approach was used,employing everything from a booth at a tradeshow to bill-boards to getting disc jockeys to demonstrate the service onthe air with e-rnail from listeners.The company also gave away 30-day trial subscriptions to

Orchestrate E-mail by Phone."Once people start using it, they wouldn't give it up. They

are very loyal users now," Meldrum said.

Supplement to Atlanta Business Chronicle