Today (Monday 3/19) at the company’s annual Small Business Summit, Microsoft unveiled a small-business IP phone system, code-named “Response Point.”

 

Yes that’s right, Microsoft has announced an IP phone system, and they say it will be generally available later this year. The Beta 2 release of “Response Point” is scheduled for early April.

 

Now in beta testing, the system is being hailed as being easy to install and manage. “Response Point” will be available in three models based on hardware from D-Link, Quanta, and Uniden.

 

According to Xuedong Huang, general manager of the “Response Point” team at Microsoft, “I am proud and honored to work with leaders in the computing, telephony and networking fields to bring ‘Response Point’ to market. Each of our OEM partners brings its own special expertise to our customers, allowing us to serve a much broader range of small businesses.”

 

Microsoft is touting voice recognition and a speech-enabled auto-attendant as the hot features of the impending phone system.

 

Information about the forthcoming IP phone system from Microsoft can be found online at http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint.