HILLSBORO, Ore.-There are a variety of wireless e-mail services ready to satisfy the needs of e-mail junkies stuck in a meeting or an airport who are dying to know the contents of their beloved inbox.
But one service is beginning to stand out from the crowd-Etrieve Inc.’s e-mail solution. And last week it got even better when the company announced it added a WAP solution to its service, allowing users to read their e-mail on any WAP-enabled mobile phone.
Of course, text e-mail on mobile phones isn’t a revolutionary step, but add it to the e-mail service Etrieve already offers and the result is pretty unique.
“What we’re able to do is let the users choose how they want the information,” said Mike Maerz, Etrieve’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Etrieve, one of the few companies jumpstarted by Ignition Corp., offers its customers an almost dizzying variety of e-mail options. Before the WAP solution was available, users could have their e-mails read to them over their mobile phones-without changing their e-mail address-and then could verbally reply to those messages by sending a WAV audio attachment with an e-mail. Etrieve’s service also gives users the chance to check out Microsoft Word or HyperText Markup Language attachments by sending them to a nearby fax machine.
The new WAP functionality gives Etrieve’s customers more ways to read and respond to e-mail. Users can check their inbox or even scroll through e-mails on their phone. If they don’t want to scroll through the whole e-mail, the program can switch to an audio reading with the push of a button.
To respond, Etrieve users can reply through the standard WAV attachment, manually type out a message or even choose from among several canned responses, such as “out of the office, will reply later.”
Maerz said the service is now equally fitting for e-mail junkies walking through an airport or sitting down in a meeting. Etrieve’s program supports Internet, Outlook and-most recently-Lotus Notes e-mail.
Some of the other interesting options the service offers include jumping directly to an Internet site listed in an e-mail, being alerted to the arrival of a priority e-mail and having all of Etrieve’s services automatically synchronized through a downloadable program on a desktop computer.
Maerz said the variety of services Etrieve provides helps it to stick out in a highly competitive market-one which caters to the nation’s increasing reliance on e-mail.
“There’s a curse and a blessing in being in a really great market,” Maerz said. “It’s a big market with a lot of players.”
“This is a very interesting space because it is going to be a very high-growth area,” said Naqi Jaffery, an analyst with The Strategis Group. “Voice is going to be a killer application for wireless data.”
Some of the more prominent companies competing in the e-mail solutions market include Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry, Phone.com’s Onebox.com and the Portico Virtual Assistant from General Magic Inc. Most e-mail solutions companies offer services similar to Etrieve’s, but most can’t cover the scope Etrieve does.
Thanks to that scope, Maerz said, Etrieve is close to announcing a variety of deals with companies who have signed up for Etrieve’s service.
“We’ve already closed five deals over the last quarter,” he said. “We’ve made some very good progress in those areas.”
Some of the companies that have already installed Etrieve’s service include Standard Insurance, Silicon Valley Bank and Tripwire.
Maerz said Etrieve works on an evangelical basis-when one company finds the service useful, they become a spokesperson for the program and get other companies interested. Maerz said Etrieve’s clients have a 95-percent referral rate.
Etrieve, founded in 1998 and privately held, is funded by Softbank Venture Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Timberline Ventures and Venture Partners.
