A system and methods to allow messaging systems to efficiently perform multi-media processing functions are provided. An exemplary messaging system comprises a host computer interconnected to a network interface unit (NIU), that is, itself, interconnected to external telephone networks. An embedded services platform (ESP) within the NIU provides a general-purpose computing capability within the ESP and provides a network interface for connecting the ESP to an external network. A media resource server (MRS) connected to the external network is used to offload multi-media processing function from the host computer to the MRS via the ESP.