Lotus Development Corp will release new versions of its cc:Mail Link electronic mail and cc:Mail Fax gateways next month, while finalising a deal with Digital Equipment Corp, under which the two will integrate their respective workgroup products. Version 2.0 of cc:Mail Link for the Message Handling Service is claimed to improve the integration of the electronic mail package with Novell Inc’s NetWare. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company says the product now conforms to Novell’s NetWare Global Message Handling Service Specifications, including the Standard Message Format 71 application programming interface, which supports file names of up to 255 characters and enables cc:Mail users to attach an unlimited number of files of any size to an electronic mail message. It says cc:Mail Link for MHS 2.0 is now in beta testing and although it supports NetWare Global MHS for NetWare 4.0, will not initially be integrated with NetWare 4.0’s NetWare Directory Service. It will translate the relevant messages and addresses, however, and be available by the end of the year at less than $1,000. Version 2.0 of the cc:Mail Fax gateway will, conversely, automate facsimile routing to a user’s in-tray – each user is given an individual fax number or personal identification number in addition to the main facsimile number. At the moment, it is up to the systems administrator to manually route facsimile messages to each user. cc:Mail Fax will be available by the first half of this year, but prices have not yet been decided. Meanwhile, Lotus is expected to announce in the next few weeks that it will convert its Notes package to run on DEC’s Alpha AXP chip, while the two companies will also work together to integrate Notes into DEC’s LinkWorks object-oriented groupware product. Although LinkWorks has been available for specialist projects for the past 18 months, it is due out in shrink-wrapped form this month, costing UKP300.
