Nortel Networks Corporation

Sylvain S Huppe

Eric W Parsons

Steven M Armstrong

Denis T Trudeau

A notification system for providing unified alerts about messages left for a user in a communication system is coupled to a voice mail service in an office. When voice mail messages are left for a user, the voice mail service sends header information about the new message to the notification system. The notification system sends a notification of the new messages to a wireless device configured and selected by the user for receiving message notifications. Depending on the type of wireless device, the notification may include a link to a dialer application with which the wireless device can be connected to the voice mail service for selectively listening to the messages of interest. From the new message, the notification system may further extract information about the message sender, and use it to attempt to retrieve the sender's name from the user's personal contact list, for example. This information can then be included in the message header information sent to the user.

Voice mail caller identification

A notification system is coupled to a plurality of message services including a voice mail server, an email server and an information server in an office. Messages left for a user (e.g. voice mail, email, CRM event, etc.) are deposited in folders maintained by the messaging services. The notification system detects additions to the user's folders and when a new message arrives, the notification system sends an alert to a Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) enabled device (e.g. cell phone) configured for the user. The alert includes the total number of messages of each type received for the user, along with an indication of the most recently received message. The notification system may further monitor an information source for new information that may be of interest to the user (e.g. stock or product price quotes), and provide these in the alert notification if certain conditions are met (e.g. stock price exceeds a threshold).

Growing community of inventors

Woodlawn, Canada

Sylvain S Huppe