Microsoft launches Office Communications Server 2007

Microsoft today took another major step into the unified communications (UC) market with the much-anticipated launch of Office Communications Server 2007.

Microsoft claimed its new products, coupled with its existing converged communications technology and hardware from partners, will help businesses be more productive and slash VoIP costs in half by making use of existing legacy infrastructure wherever possible.

Companies already have assets like internet connections and desktop PCs in place, and Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates claims they will be able to use these and other familiar devices and technologies to take advantage of the products released today. Launched today were Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Microsoft Roundtable were also revisited, in addition to a key update to the company's Exchange Server 2007.

"Microsoft is all about the magic of software...Taking the software and letting people be more productive and creative," Gates said during a live webcast to coincide with the launch.

"[Today is about] taking the magic of software and applying it to phone calls. This is a complete transformation of the business of the traditional PBX. The PBX in some ways is like the mainframe was many years ago. By moving phone calls onto the internet using industry standard servers we have got a very different way of being able to do things. That leads not only to lower costs but far more effective ways of how your employees communicate inside your company and with partners outside your company."

Industry analysts have, in the main, welcomed today's news due to the potential applications for the new products.

"I think the big deal today for businesses is this means that Microsoft is now going to put some marketing muscle behind unified communications and expose what the productivity and business benefits are," said Henry Dewing, principal analyst at Forrester. "Microsoft and IBM will compete at the desktop level and unified veneer level. At the same time, at the level below, PBX and vendors like Cisco are in there competing all the way down to the LAN. But the UC veneer on top will still look [like a] duopoly with Microsoft and IBM dominating. Below that it will be quite fragmented."

Gates added: "In the next decade, sweeping technology innovations driven by the power of software will transform communications. Working with partners, we're making rapid advances that will enable fundamental advances in the way people communicate and collaborate at work."

Those partners include a large number of independent software vendors, phone and device manufacturers, systems integrators and telephony providers including Ericsson, Mitel and Nortel.

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