The release of Office Communications Server 2007 heralds Microsoft’s latest push into the enterprise communications space. The company has put the new solution into the hands of 2,500 IT managers to beta test the offering.
Microsoft also announced a number of partners including Avaya, Cisco, LG-Nortel, Mitel, NEC Phillips, Nortel Networks, Polycom, and Siemens. Through these partnerships, customers will be able to utilize existing phones, IP PBXs, and enterprise networks which will be ensure interoperability with Office Communications Server 2007.
To accelerate testing and deployment, Microsoft is hosting a Technology Adoption Program (TAP) Summit this week to provide hands-on training and instruction for customers and partners. Over 100 companies are expected to be represented at the summit.
Office Communications Server 2007 is essentially the successor to Microsoft Live Communications Server, and joins Exchange Server 2007 as part of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio.
Anoop Gupta, Corporate Vice President, of Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group, quoted in a corporate Q&A, described the new offering as such: “It is the hub of all real-time communications, providing VoIP telephony, secure presence and instant messaging, and audio-video-web conferencing that is integrated seamlessly with everyday applications and business processes.”
Sounds like this is a product that enterprises would warm to instantly. Interestingly enough, Microsoft is not getting rave reviews form the outspoken folks who tend to leave comments at the end of news items and blog entries. Overwhelmingly, users are being hard on the move, suggesting the solution is not robust enough and that we’ll have to get used to “rebooting the PBX” on a regular basis. Time will tell.
I for one still refuse to bet against Microsoft. Since they merged their IM and Real-Time Communications groups to form their Unified Communications Group back in January, they’ve done a good job hitting the high notes, partnering with the right companies, and overall executing on their vision.
It’ll be interesting to see the results of this beta, and to hear from the IT folks tasked with integrating this solution into their businesses.
