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Microsoft Reveals Extent Of VoIP Ambitions |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
Within three years Microsoft expects more than 100 million people will be able to make phone calls using its Office Systems applications.
It better get a move on then. The company is getting ready to
deliver a key component of this integrated business communications
vision in the form of Communications Server 2007. It's ust announced it
will be making the software available as a public beta priorto the
general relase of the software.
Microsoft has also announced
that for the first time it is making the interoperability
specifications for Office Communications Server 2007 and Office
Communicator 2007 available to partners, enabling them to deliver a
unified experience with SIP interoperability between their PBX and
Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007.
This
is an important part of the solution that will help Microsoft deliver
on its proimise to cutr the cost of solutions by fifty per cent over
the next three years. By allowing partners to develop interoperable
systems Microsoft figures it will make the process of deploying unified
communications more cost effective by leveraging existing phone systems
rather than a rip and replace.
Microsoft is not the only company
taking this approach, but the huge partner ecosystem the softwarevenodr
canbring tobear on such solutions will give it momentum fast.
"We're
embarking on a software transformation similar to what we saw from the
mainframe to the PC," said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp.'s
Business Division, . "With a shift of this magnitude, there will be
tremendous opportunities for our industry partners worldwide."
"Software
is set to transform business phone systems as profoundly as it has
transformed virtually every other form of workplace communication," he
said. "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."
Customers can register for the
public beta version of Office Communications Server and Communicator
2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/uc.
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