RSSMicrosoft to Test New Calling Software
By Ed Oswald | Published March 7, 2007, 10:42 AM
Microsoft intends to offer a beta version of Office Communicator 2007 to millions of testers later this month. The move will begin an effort to give VoIP click-to-call functionality to some 100 million users of Office in the next three years.
In a keynote to attendees of a VoIP conference in Orlando, Fla. Wednesday, Microsoft Business Division president Jeff Raikes said the cost of VoIP deployment for businesses would be cut in half by the end of the decade, spurring growth in the sector.
One of the biggest costs to business deployment still remains the phones used, often requiring a specific brand. This can comprise nearly half of the cost of adoption, and is something Microsoft plans to address.
Raikes said users would have the option to choose from a range of phones rather than those from a specific brand. In addition, the Office Communications Server beta would offer considerably better sound quality, and for those already with VoIP deployments, an easy transition path.
Office Communications Server is Microsoft's offering that enables communications services within the productivity suite. Among the features in the new release are presence awareness, IM services, Web and videoconferencing, and VoIP support.
Office Communicator is the client that brings those services together on the user's desktop, as well as allowing that user to extend telecommunications services to devices outside of the office such as smartphones.
"Over time, the software-based VoIP technology built into Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will offer so much value and cost savings that it will make the standard telephone look like that old typewriter that's gathering dust in the stockroom," he mused.
The company is billing the release as one of its most important new communications technologies out of Microsoft since the release of Outlook in 1997. Raikes argued that Office Communicator will soon "change the way people contact each other."
In addition, partners will gain access to interoperability specifications that would allow them to integrate Office VoIP solutions into existing PBX solutions. This will negate the need to replace current systems with new software and devices when upgrading.
"We're embarking on a software transformation similar to what we saw from the mainframe to the PC," Raikes said. "With a shift of this magnitude, there will be tremendous opportunities for our industry partners worldwide."
Those interested in the interoperability specification can register for that information on the company's Unified Communications Web site. Registration for the open beta will also be available there as well. Microsoft did not specify a final release date for either product.
oops duplicate post.
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|This isn't a Skype related conversation, this is for corporate environments where you're integrating an IM/Meetings platform with VoIP into a PBX for large conference calls etc. Not just 1-5 small 'chats' with colleagues but 50-100 people conf calls.
This is a new area for MS but something Lotus Sametime has had for years and does exceptionally well. Yes, it can already do Skype like calls from the Sametime IM client but you've been able to integrate into a PBX for years too. Schedule a meeting in Sametime, click a button and everyone invited get's a phone call.
I've used Lotus Sametime for years and would recommend it fully. I don't want my company being a test bed over something MS is just getting into when there are other companies that have been doing this for years.. and have got it right years ago.
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|Skype is not a business ready platform.
Cisco Phone systems start at 100K for small businesses, and easily grow from there.
Neither have anywhere the features PBX's have had for 20+ years.
What amazes me in the VoIP sector is how many basic essential phone features you lose when going to a VoIP system. We looked at VoIP systems in 2005, and packages from Cisco, Avaya, nortel, etc, were PATHETIC when it came to basic call transfer, manager/assistant, line monitoring, call transfer, call tracking, etc. They ALL wanted add-ons for this capability. They all started at $50-$100K for an office our size, and they didn't meet the features of our 12 year old Panasonic PBX.
Looking forward to this, but really, getting a good phone system down pat is hard work. We won't be willing to spend more than $20K
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|You should probably clarify what you mean by "small." There are a lot of different solutions you can get for "small businesses" ranging from $10k-$1M or more depending on number of phones, redundancy,voicemail, number of sites, etc. Things have changed a lot just in the past year so you may want to re-visit your options since it seems as though you are working off of data which is a couple years old which is an eternity in the VoIP world.
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|Skype has a two year lead over them. Good luck M$. Of course, stupid IT people that recommend Microsoft only to businesses who will in turn use this.
Microsoft is horrible with server scalability, they never prepare enough for large things like this; Vista betas proved it. If they can't handle that, then they certainly can't handle a voip system of this scale.
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|I completely disagree. Microsoft products are scalable where they need to be such as with SQL and Exchange clustering. I think you might have your wording confused. Plus, the software isn't the one doing all the work here. It is the physical phone systems, switches and routers.
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|Yes, Skype may have a 2+ year lead over them, but Cisco has been doing this for over 8 years since it acquired Selsius. For the "Unified Communications" portion, Cisco has had this for a year already and just introduced even more products that utilize "presence" information. MS has to partner with other vendors to do the call control and phone hardware right now--in fact, one of the vendors they integrate with is Cisco...not just Nortel. So why wouldn't you want your phones, network, and the software that controls them to be from a single vendor with a proven track record of over 11M phones shipped??
What amazes me is that people still compare VoIP with Vonage and Skype, et al. When you throw anything on the Internet, you can't control the quality since you don't own every piece of equipment that the voice packets go through--so of course you're going to have problems now and then. With Enterprise VoIP solutions, you throw that variable out and have complete control over the voice, video and data traffic on your network. There are many myths that must be overcome before VoIP is embraced from the enterprises.
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