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On Tuesday, Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft's Business Division, will appear on stage in San Francisco to announce Microsoft's new unified communications offerings. These include Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, server software which enables VoIP, instant messaging, video, and conferencing to run on a single server; Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, user-facing software that brings together those communications streams; and Microsoft Roundtable, a conferencing phone with a 360-degree panoramic camera to stream conference images to users of its new server software.
Analysts agree this announcement is more evolution than revolution, partly repackaging and rebranding of products it already has, notably its Microsoft Live Communications Server. Microsoft and Nortel signed a strategic alliance in 2006 to transform business communications; this announcement will be the most significant realization of that partnership to date.
Unified communications, long been a "wouldn't it be nice if..." proposition, is in the early stages of adoption, so while Microsoft's offering will directly compete with Cisco's Unified Communications Manager, the potential market remains quite large. "Right now phone, email, SMS, and IM are all separate," says Gartner analyst David Mitchell Smith. "Trying to find someone can be an ordeal. I think we're about to embark on an era where that becomes easier."
It is interesting to note that Gates himself is making the announcement. Forrester Principal Analyst Henry Dewing muses that Gates has long been interested in telecom and this does represent a "greenfield opportunity." Typically product launches have been handled by Steve Ballmer while Gates devotes time to his foundation. Gates' presence may put an exclamation point on the new products. Then again, doesn't any announcement of enterprise server software need a little sizzle?
Photo: Thomas Hawk
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