The client gives people who use any of the major operating systems of Windows 98/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris access to the big public IM networks of AOL's AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

Future enhancements of JSuperChat are already in development to provide enterprise IM features, company officials said.

Besides giving access to the major public IM nets, JSuperChat also supports Zion's newly introduced JMessageServer enterprise IM (EIM) solution. JMessageServer provides collaboration, presence and customer contact via Java, "to maximize portability and ensure freedom of client and server operating systems," officials said. The EIM system scales to accommodate future growth within an enterprise.

Available for Java 1.4 and greater computing environments. JMessageServer lets organizations keep internal communications inside the corporate network, with centralized logging to meet SEC and HIPPA requirements. Interoperability with the major public IM services is available.

A core feature of the new system is the use of a relational database backend, which stores user contact lists and real-time presence. This enables new applications and services to be developed using live presence-aware data. In addition, enterprise application integration (EAI) with JMessageServer is enabled with Zion's enterprise IM toolkit, JBuddy SDK, so applications and users can interact in real-time over the corporate network with minimal development effort.

JMessageServer pricing starts at $1495 for up to 100 users.

"This combination of universal IM client and enterprise server allows corporate IM to remain internal, secure and logged while still supporting customer communications over public IM services if corporate policy permits." says David Ferrero, founder and CTO of Glastonbury, Conn.-based Zion.

A free version JSuperChat for personal use and an eval version of JMessageServer, are available at the company's Web site.

Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.