Microsoft and Nortel unveil ICA roadmap

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Since the ink dried on the joint alliance contract, Microsoft and Nortel claim that dozens of customers have bought into their vision, with hundreds more in the pipeline, including Royal Dutch Shell, whose group IT architect Johan Krebbers took to the stage to confirm that the company would be embracing ICA offerings to support its global business operations.

Ballmer said that the solutions would benefit "any company large enough to have an IT department," but also recognised that the alliance needs to make provisions for smaller companies too.

He also made a quip about the umbrella term used to describe the solutions the joint alliance will produce, suggesting he often jokes with his team that he doesn't like the name.

"They know I don't love it because it means everything and it means nothing and doesn't have a specific meaning to any one customer," said Ballmer.

"But the truth is this is not the hardest communications challenge we've ever had. If you do a demonstration people get it and say they want it. When you try to explain SOA or web services [for example], that's a little harder to explain unless you're talking to people who are really technical.

"You go out and do a demonstration, and people say, okay, I get it, I'd like something like that, that looks pretty good. You want to call that unified communications? Okay, we'll use that word from now on. But in this case I think the demo does help resonate with people quite strongly. Whether we do a demo or other guys do demos, the demos bring alive an important transformation that's going to happen."

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