Redmond, WA, February 22, 1999: The Software Labs, Inc., a worldwide leader in advanced wireless messaging software solutions, has added its 'CostManagement System' module to 'PageAbility Mail-Link,' the company's wireless e-mail and PC-scheduler connectivity product. PageAbility is now the only wireless e-mail connectivity solution on the market that enables businesses to proactively control wireless messaging costs.

PageAbility provides unified access and a seamless link between users' regular e-mail accounts and their wireless devices. "We developed PageAbility's CostManagement System in response to the concerns of many major wireless carriers about the problems they and their corporate customers face when the floodgate of regular e-mail is opened to employees' wireless devices," said Fred Horowitz, CEO. "A significantly higher number of characters and messages are sent monthly to most individuals' regular e-mail accounts than to their wireless devices. Consequently, many companies that implement wireless e-mail will be unpleasantly surprised by dramatic increases in their wireless service fees."

PageAbility includes a number of messaging controls, including sophisticated SPAM Filters, and a robust e-mail filtering system that can be used to forward only e-mail messages that users need to receive on their wireless devices. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable to expect a company to rely entirely on the discretion of its employees to limit the cost of wireless e-mail to only those messages that most benefit the company's bottom line. With PageAbility's new CostManagement System, companies can for the first time proactively control wireless messaging costs by setting monthly messaging limits that match the wireless service plans they have purchased for their employees.

PageAbility's CostManagement System allows companies to regulate the maximum number of characters or messages users can forward monthly from their regular e-mail accounts to their wireless devices. However, the system has been designed to control costs and not to limit important business communications. "We built flexible, automated functions into the system that make it easy for companies to proactively control costs while insuring that necessary business communications will not be impeded," said Mr. Horowitz.

PageAbility's CostManagement System can accommodate the specific needs of any company. Because different companies have different wireless service profiles, the CostManagement System has been designed to handle any combination of character-based and message-based service plans operating within the same company. The system can be configured to manage different messaging limits for different groups or departments within a company and to support a company's use of multiple wireless carriers. In addition, each user can at any time see his or her remaining monthly messaging allotment on PageAbility's opening screen, and accumulated usage for every user is available to the company's system administrator.

The CostManagement System can be optionally configured to automatically disable wireless e-mail forwarding when a user's maximum monthly messaging limit has been reached. However, users need not be indiscriminately cut off from wireless e-mail forwarding when they have used up their monthly messaging allotment. "We designed this functionality with a redundant early warning system that wirelessly alerts the user when 80%, 90% and 100% of his or her monthly messaging limits have been reached," said Mr. Horowitz. "This gives the user the opportunity to discuss with his or her supervisor the need to continue wireless e-mail forwarding beyond the monthly limit. The user's monthly limit can then be increased until the occurrence of a predefined date, at which time the original monthly limit is automatically restored."

Companies can generate special reports to analyze wireless usage for individuals and departments. PageAbility's usage reports help companies to optimize cost efficiency by fine-tuning their wireless service plans. If department members are consistently using more or less of their monthly messaging allotment, then the department's current wireless service plan should be replaced with one that is appropriate to its members' usage.

PageAbility's CostManagement System benefits wireless carriers by putting the issue of cost control squarely in the hands of the corporate client. "Many carriers have told us that their corporate clients are very sensitive to any sudden increases in their monthly bills," said Mr. Horowitz. "Wireless e-mail forwarding in particular can easily lead to dramatic increases in monthly service fees, especially when companies pay a premium for characters or messages that exceed the monthly allotment specified in their wireless service plans." When a corporate client complains about unexpected billing increases, carrier service representatives can do nothing more than discount the monthly bill and/or suggest that the company educate its personnel to be more discriminating in the use of wireless e-mail forwarding. With the CostManagement System, corporate clients benefit from the ability to completely control their own costs while carriers benefit from the fact that the ultimate responsibility for cost control lies with the client. Now a company need not experience monthly billing increases resulting from wireless e-mail forwarding and, if it does, it will be the result of the company's own decisions in balancing costs with important business communications.

"Both carriers and businesses have expressed genuine enthusiasm over our new CostManagement System, " said Mr. Horowitz. "Many national account representatives have told us that they can rest a lot easier now that we have resolved the cost control problem." The new functionality has been incorporated into the current version of PageAbility and will be made available to existing corporate users as a free upgrade. Final commercial release is due March 1, 1999.

The Software Labs, Inc. is an industry leader in wireless messaging and connectivity applications and has provided software solutions to over five million customers worldwide since 1986. The company has developed and published award-winning products that leverage state-of-the-art technology to enhance corporate and end-user productivity. With over a dozen years of experience in software development, publishing, private labeling, package design, duplication, order fulfillment and retail, corporate and direct mail sales, The Software Labs is well positioned to offer its corporate clients complete turnkey solutions. Information on the company and its products can be obtained by calling (425) 869-6802 or at http://www.softwarelabs.com.