EnvoyWorldWide: Providing Cost-Effective Messaging to PACE

Computerworld -

EnvoyWorldWide Inc.

Category: CRM

Location: Bedford, Mass.

Technology: EnvoyExpress

How it works: EnvoyWorldWide's flagship service lets users communicate time-sensitive personalized information to many individuals instantly and simultaneously. It consists of a scalable interaction management platform, real-time tracking capabilities and a two-way, actionable response mechanism.

Customer sampling: Symantec Corp., Southern California Edison Co.

What's in store: Notification services are an emerging technology area, says Thornton May, an industry analyst in Biddeford, Maine, and a Computerworld columnist. The technology is now used only for emergencies and to maintain regulatory compliance but will soon become more mainstream, he says.

User Profile

The Los Angeles-based Partnership for Academic and Community Excellence (PACE), a school-to-parent communications system built for the K-12 education market, needed a fast and efficient way to notify parents about issues such as school functions, student attendance and security crises.

Working with EnvoyWorldWide, PACE was able to replace an in-house database system with an Internet-based communications service that creates and instantly sends voice communications to parents at up to six different contact numbers, says John Gamba, CEO of PACE. The new system boasts security, redundancy and backup and can send out several thousand messages an hour, and as many as 3 million per year.

EnvoyWorldWide has "been a great partner," says Gamba. "Not only do they have a great system technically, but they've been a very good strategic partner to us as we prospect and contact school districts."

PACE offers its services in 650 school districts and sends messages to more than 1 million parents nationwide per year.

The system is a good fit for companies that must communicate with employees or clients around the clock, via a host of hardware and software systems. According to EnvoyWorldWide, services are hosted in two redundant facilities that offer virtually 100% availability and can deliver millions of text and voice messages daily.

The company offers two services: EnvoyExpress contains the core messaging service engine and relies on database management, speech and XML technologies for Web-based communications via phone, fax or e-mail to multiple devices. EnvoyProfiles, built on EnvoyExpress, allows users to receive messages on the PC or device of their choosing.