Sources informed me a few months ago that Microsoft's SMB IP-PBX called Response Point was in trouble. Then my Microsoft contacts Rex Backman and Richard Sprague, who were integral parts of the Response Point team were let go around May of this year which told me things were not looking good for the Response Point product. I really liked the Response Point product, though I did think it was a bit pricey when compared to other solutions. Still, it had a nice TCO since it was so easy to manage.
Sources have told me that Microsoft has indeed just killed the Response Point product. In addition to my complaints about pricing, I always thought that Microsoft should have taken their OCS 2007 product and offered it as a turnkey appliance. OCS 2007 is not an easy product to deploy into the enterprise, has complex licensing, various hardware servers required, needs Exchange integration for unified messaging, etc. -- but is a very feature-rich unified communications platform.
Thus, if Microsoft could offer a turn-key, or nearly turn-key OCS 2007 (2010?) appliance they could really take the SMB market by storm. They could offer it inexpensively by locking down various advanced features with a license key which can be later activated when the customer needs the features. For instance, they could start with basic PBX functionality, but have software license keys for unified messaging, speech recognition dialing, video conferencing, audio conferencing (conference bridges), etc.
I'm sad to see Response Point go, but at the same time I'm hoping this means Microsoft will take the freed up resources to concentrate their efforts on making the future release of OCS 2007 a much easier install with less hardware requirements and a much lower TCO. One can only hope Microsoft listens and doesn't abandon the SMB telecom market entirely. We shall see...
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Have your reviewed the Sutus or Jazinga boxes in the past? Would be good to get your opinion on those two.
Microsoft hasn't "killed" Response Point. After two wonderful years on the project, I left for a great opportunity at Microsoft's Macintosh group in Beijing -- something my family and I have wanted to do for some time.
John Frederiksen, General Manager since early this year, made a number of changes to the project and team over the past few months, but continues to promote the product and its partners.
Hey Richard,
Glad to see you still read my blog after leaving Microsoft's Response Point team!
Are you certain Response Point is still alive?
I had a couple people tell me it was killed so I went and did some online searches and came across these articles:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43247
http://www.thevarguy.com/2009/06/30/microsoft-kills-response-point-development/
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43423
All claim RP is done. If you have other information, please share!
Please share, indeed! I was days away from committing to a RP system when this news broke.
Of course I still read your blog! (at least, until the Great Firewall of China decides to block you :-)
John Frederiksen, General Manager of Response Point since early this year, can tell you about the Response Point changes. Or read the official version at http://blogs.technet.com/rp
Though Microsoft might own the world I haven't had a great experience with them yet as far as IP PBX software. I instead ended up going with Interactive Intelligence instead.
Call center software