Messaging

Integrated Messaging Redefined

Are there ways for dialup ISPs to leverage their enforced marriage to copper phone lines in order to squeeze more revenue from their customers? One (more) company thinks so.

by Ted Stevenson ISP-Planet Executive Editor [March 3, 2003]

The relationship between the Internet and the telephone has always been an intimate one. But the fact that 40 to 50 million households in North America rely on the PSTN infrastructure for their link to the 'Net—and have only one access line—makes for some turbulence as well.

Answering machines and voice mailboxes go part way toward reducing the conflict between call accessibility and Internet connectedness, but require folks to walk an extra mile (or half-block) to make sure they're getting all their phone messages.

A dot-bomb survivor called Pagoo.com proposes to further narrow this gap, and to provide a new revenue opportunity for ISPs at the same time. Sound familiar?

Well, yes and no. We've reported on a number of call-waiting services over the past few years. Pagoo is different; it doesn't do call waiting (although, confusingly, Pagoo's website hawks the service as . . . "Internet Call Waiting"). It takes audio voice messages when your line is busy, proactively alerts you to the call (via the Web and a compact computer UI), and makes the messages easily retrievable (also over the Web) with the click of a mouse button.

A simple process
According to Pagoo President and CEO, Rick Favro, "Our customers have made it clear to us they like things simple. And that's what we're giving them: simplicity."

Here, in greater detail, is how the simple process works. A call hits your busy signal; it is forwarded to Pagoo's server. The caller hears an outgoing message and leaves an incoming message that is stored as an audio clip. Unless CallerID is blocked, Pagoo grabs the caller's number. The server then sends an alert to your online computer, whereupon your Pagoo interface pops up, showing the time and phone number. To hear the message, you simply click the call entry in the log list.

Where does "integrated" enter the picture? Notification options offered by Pagoo include e-mail (with message as an audio attachment) and an SMS text notification to your cell phone. A further enrichment is the option of prioritizing communications from selected callers (via CallerID).

Furthermore, according to Peter Hewitt, Pagoo's VP of Sales and Marketing, the typical business person these days has three phone numbers: home, office, and cell. Pagoo can aggregate multiple accounts into a single message queue. And, of course, since your account can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection—as well as by phone from a toll-free number—you can get your messages on the road. That's integration.

That's the product in a nutshell. What's the pitch? Well, entering into a period of aggressive expansion—stimulated to some degree by the launch of AOL's CallAlert program, which Favro and Hewitt view as raising awareness in the populations of potential customers—Pagoo is planning to market the service largely through ISPs.

This can be handled either as a straight revenue share, as a co-brand, or as a provider-branded operation.

Pagoo claims 40,000 current customers in the U.S. and Canada. It is looking to leverage its considerable capacity (which is claims is the legacy of its business activities in the pre-crash era) to multiply that customer base by as much as a factor of ten. Clearly, the company will need some partners to help pull this off.

Pagoo's current direct customers pay $5.95 per month for the message service. (And according to a customer survey done by the company—no comment as to its objectivity—they love it.) Contrast this, on the one hand, to AOL's CallAlert at $3.95 a month, but, on the other hand, to Verizon's $8 per month charge for residential (and $12 business) voice mail services. (These figures are Pagoo's; not verified by ISP-Planet.)

Favro and Hewitt assert that, depending on volume, ISP partners should be able to grab $1.50 to $2.00 per customer per month of the revenue stream. Pagoo is also working very hard to make implementation quick and stress free. Over the coming months, as they begin to roll out to the SOHO and small business markets, they will be building an arsenal of marketing collateral that will be supplied free of charge to ISP partners.

— End