IMI and Akonix Launch Developers Portal for Instant Messaging Bots; Hosted Portal Provides Access to Development and Deployment
IM Interactive Corp., a Connecticut high technology company, and Akonix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of instant messaging (IM) management and security solutions, today announced the launch of IM Interactive's IMProv Center, an innovative development and hosting portal for creators of IM bots built upon Akonix's leading real-time and presence based communications development platform, L7 Builder(TM).
The online portal will enable developers to quickly and easily create new bots using Akonix L7 Builder's IM and presence technologies. Bots developed through the IMProv Center are then licensed to be deployed over the MSN Messenger Network, a worldwide network community of approximately 205 million users.
"We have seen a great interest in rich IM applications on the MSN Messenger Network," said Todd Biggs, senior product manager at MSN. "Working with industry partners such as IM Interactive and Akonix is a key for scaling the number of these applications on the network because it provides solutions that make optimal use of the cutting-edge development environments offered by Microsoft."
"Akonix is pleased to have been selected to provide Akonix L7 Builder as the development platform for the IMProv Center," said Peter Shaw, chief executive officer of Akonix. "IM Interactive's portal will stimulate many new innovations in the deployment of bots on the MSN Messenger Network as developers take advantage of easy access to the features of L7 Builder."
IM bots offer users real-time access to information and applications via MSN Messenger. Applications include interactive weather, sports updates, local event information updates, shipping applications, games and other interactive real-time applications. Companies are deploying IM bots to leverage their existing content and services through this new communication channel that is being adopted by business and consumers alike. IM bots provide additional brand awareness to very tech savvy and mobile audiences.
Akonix L7 Builder provides developers a complete set of tools to quickly create IM bots. The bot development platform provides a Microsoft .NET (C#) SDK that includes an intuitive set of API's, session management and an IM Markup language. MSN's Activity API extension for the MSN Messenger Network will also provide developers the ability to add rich interactive content inside of an instant messaging session, further leveraging real-time interactivity.
"We are very pleased to be working in close collaboration with MSN, which is a great global IM network, and Akonix, which is providing key technology that enables scalable IM application hosting," said Joe Mazzarella, chief executive officer of IM Interactive Corporation. "The IMProv Center will deliver an environment that will provide the tools to make bot building easy and accessible to the developer community, and provide them with licensed, streamlined access to the MSN Network community. IM Interactive Corp. has unique knowledge and expertise in IM application development and our intent is to open this area to the community at large."
The IMProv Center will be available in April 2006. Pre-registration is available immediately.
The service is available as a subscription license. IM Interactive is offering six-month evaluation licenses for the service free of charge.
To learn more about The IMProv Center for MSN, please visit the portal's address at www.improvcenter.com/msn.
About Akonix
Akonix Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, is the provider of a suite of industry-leading products providing security, compliance, management and enablement for corporate use of both public and private instant messaging networks. The company's flagship product, L7 Enterprise(TM), is the most deployed IM security product in the world, while its development platform, L7 Builder, enables the development and deployment of all types of IM bots and applications that leverage real-time messaging and presence awareness.
Over one million people in all industries around the world use Akonix solutions. With over 20 patent applications, Akonix's award-winning products provide the industry's only automatically-updated protection to block viruses for both enterprise and public IM systems. Akonix has certified partnerships with all leading IM and presence providers including America Online(R), Microsoft, Yahoo!, Reuters, IBM, Parlano, Antepo and Bloomberg.
For further information on the company, please visit www.akonix.com.
About IM Interactive Corp.
IM Interactive Corp. is a privately held company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. The company specializes in the development of edge technologies including instant messaging related applications, interactive RSS, and other web socialization environments. For more information on IM Interactive Corp., please visit www.2imi.com.