Publication Date: August 30, 1996

Keeping In Touch: Part 3 - Don't Get Rid of Your Phone

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While wired and wireless data transmission have revolutionized the way many Americans conduct their businesses, the telephone is still a valuable tool. For the most part, voice interfaces are not evolved enough to allow computers to read data files over the phone. But there are some interesting offerings from telecommunications companies, including call forwarding services, messaging and fax storage.

One of the most intriguing developments is a service called Wildfire. Created four years ago, Wildfire is a voice-driven database system that combines many of the best features of voice mail, call forwarding, message retrieval and priority screening. Wildfire acts as an electronic assistant: It can place calls, take messages, keep a detailed list of up to 150 contacts, and maintain a default schedule for each user, knowing when to reroute calls to your car phone, your hotel room in Singapore, or to your weekend getaway. By using voice commands, Wildfire subscribers can change their forwarding numbers, scan their messages, modify call screening and priority, place voice reminders for important meetings or tasks, and return dozens of calls without ever having to hang up or redial. Its "hands-off" feature makes the service easy to use in a car.

"Wildfire executes the receptionist duties of a very good secretary," says Leslie Anderson, manager of corporate communications at Wildfire Communications Inc. of Lexington, Mass. "It manages telephone communications for people who are out of the office a lot – people for whom being accessible in real time is of the utmost importance."

Bob Ross, senior vice president at CBS Television Group in New York, says one of Wildfire's advantages is that the service can be used at any time of the day, any day of the week. "I travel extensively, and work in all sorts of time zones. My secretary goes home at five o'clock. Sometimes I don't get a chance to call her before she leaves. E-mail does offer you some of the same conveniences. But not all the world has e-mail. And there are some transactions that simply require two-way phone communication."

Originally marketed in a costly hardware package that required the purchase of a Pentium computer with a dedicated line – an initial investment approaching $20,000 – the company now offers its product through a series of authorized service providers spread out across 40 North American cities. The average user spends about $150 per month for the service, including long-distance phone charges. Wildfire does not yet offer fax storage or forwarding, although Anderson assures that the company is working to provide these services. Wildfire is also experimenting with another voice-driven system that will tag incoming e-mail messages according to importance and read off the headers over the phone. She could not say when these products will be available.

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