NEW ORLEANS -- MetaSwitch today announced that it will be hosting demonstrations on the mash-up of its CommPortal subscriber interface with iGoogle and salesforce.com, enabling click-to-dial experiences via both websites. The solutions will enable service providers to integrate MetaSwitch's CommPortal platform directly into both websites, allowing users to access click-to-dial, contact integration, visual voicemail and other advanced features. The mash-ups will be displayed, and an educational class for service providers on how to build their own mash-ups will be held, during the fifth annual MetaSwitch Forum, MetaSwitch Forum V, April 22-24, 2008 in New Orleans, La.

"The power and flexibility of the CommPortal interface offers service providers a wide range of applications and features, all in a highly customizable setting that allows for a truly personalized experience," said Chris Mairs, chief technical officer at MetaSwitch. "Integrating the Web 2.0 standards of CommPortal with the features associated with iGoogle and salesforce.com allows MetaSwitch to deliver substantial solutions to help service providers reduce cost, retain subscribers, and increase revenue."

iGoogle is one of the most popular customizable start page tools, allowing users to aggregate resources to create a highly personalized web page. The iGoogle/CommPortal mash-up includes an iGoogle gadget to enable a click-to-dial experience from a user's telephone, as well as a "remote" click-to-dial option that allows subscribers to utilize the function on their mobile phones. In addition, users can integrate their Gmail contacts with the CommPortal interface for enhanced contact management, streamlining the communications process by eliminating unnecessary conversions with traditional contact management programs.

More than 38,000 companies worldwide use salesforce.com to manage critical business functions. By integrating salesforce.com with MetaSwitch's CommPortal, customers can utilize the click-to-dial function from anywhere within the salesforce.com website, eliminating the need to return to the homepage to place a call. Users have access to a contact-based view of their call history allowing them to see the exact number, date, time and duration of calls to each specific contact. Subscribers can also take advantage of a visual voicemail application within the contacts section that will show all messages for a particular contact.

The highly customizable nature of the CommPortal web interface allows service providers to quickly and easily build mash-ups that are personalized to their own preferences. It seamlessly launches via any standard web browser, using the service provider's own web page, adding a highly interactive functional element to the service provider's offering to encourage subscriber self-service, personalization and retention. In addition to supporting subscribers served from a MetaSwitch class 4/5 softswitch, CommPortal can also be used to provide mash-ups to subscribers using legacy switches.

Metaswitch Networks