Lucent Technologies yesterday detailed a program intended to help software and Web developers create network services, including multimedia e-commerce and broadcast-quality video.
The company also announced a four-tier certification program for service providers and systems-network integrators dealing with voice and data network convergence, and launched an IP (Internet protocol) multimedia software application for service providers that lets users prioritise and filter voice and data messages arriving on wired and wireless networks. The announcements were made at the Supercomm trade show in Atlanta.
The program for software and Web developers, called Full Circle, is available for four Lucent development broadband service platforms. The program also includes training, marketing support and new applications testing, Lucent officials said.
Full Circle is open to hardware and software companies, service providers, content providers and companies that develop Web sites providing links to other sites.
The companion certification program, called Lucent Certified Network Professional, is intended to help service providers and Lucent channel partners create, operate and manage networks for voice, data and video.
It includes four categories:
-- Certified Solutions Engineer, an intermediate technical certification signifying competence in core voice and data technologies, planning and design of Lucent products and the Internet;-- Certified Solutions Consultant, a more advanced certificate for those with extensive development knowledge for multiple networks;-- Certified Solutions Specialist, an advanced certificate for those with wider engineering abilities for complicated multimedia network software;-- Certified Solutions Expert, the most advanced level for those who have passed the specialist mark and can design, implement and manage a converged multiservice network.
As for the new software application, Lucent said that the product, called MyNetWorks, will give users control over how and when they receive messages via voice, e-mail, fax and multimedia networks. Built on the Lucent Technologies Softswitch, MyNetWorks is part of the Full Circle program.
MyNetWorks includes what Lucent termed an "electronic personification" of users called "e-Me", which filters information using a list of contacts, a schedule and rules set by the user that prioritise messages. MyNetWorks uses a Web interface and allows users to set up databases of individual people and groups, make calls, send messages, link to Internet call conferences, prioritise messages by caller, topic and time, and establish directions for directing calls.
The software also synchronises contact databases with PDAs (personal digital assistants), PIM (personal information manager) systems, other handheld devices and network databases.
Besides the Supercomm announcements, Lucent was otherwise in the news with a published report based on an interview with company chief Richard McGinn who suggested that additional acquisitions are in the offing for the Murray Hill, New Jersey-based networking vendor.
In an interview with the New York Times yesterday, McGinn said that the company will continue its ongoing acquisition binge after it completes its merger with Ascend Communications in the next couple of weeks.
Noting that Lucent has bought 21 companies since it spun off of AT&T three years ago, the Times quoted McGinn as saying, "That pace is going to continue".