International Business Machines Corporation

Frank S Woo

Andrew Rouse

Imran H Qidwai

Koah-Hsing Wang

Robert J Hoss

An integrated messaging system uses existing messaging equipment to receive, store, retrieve and manage messages in media types and formats appropriate to each existing system using protocols which are specific to that system. Two or more systems are tightly coupled in that a message received in one system can be accessed from all systems. Coordination between messaging systems is achieved by a synchronizer system which periodically connects to each system by means of a standard interface and insures that messages created or received in one system are distributed or identified in all other messaging systems. Thus, the messaging systems can operate together even though they have different user interfaces, storage designs and formats and access and routing protocols. In one embodiment, a message received in one system is copied to the other system. In another embodiment, the header information in a message is preserved in a message created in the other system, but the message is not copied. The header information allows the message to be located and reproduced. In still another embodiment, one messaging system is designated as the single store for all messages.

Integrated multimedia messaging system

An integrated messaging system uses existing messaging systems to receive, store, retrieve and manage messages in media types and formats appropriate to each existing system using protocols which are specific to that system. Two or more systems are tightly coupled in that a message received in one system can be accessed from all other systems. Coordination between messaging systems is achieved by a synchronizer system running in one of the existing servers or in a stand-alone server. The synchronizer comprises a plurality of threads which sequentially examine corresponding mailboxes in each messaging system and update the message states in each system so that all message states correspond. In order to determine whether a message state has changed, the synchronizer maintains a state database which stores the state of each message in all messaging systems which are connected to the synchronizer. A further gatway thread is provided so that messages can be sent directly from one messaging system to another messaging system. The synchronizer is connected to each messaging system via a standard CMC interface so that it can log onto each messaging system as a trusted server and modify user's mailboxes without requiring a password.

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Andover, MA, United States of America

Frank S Woo