Microsoft Unified Communications Plan

The NY Times says "Microsoft Plans to Blend Phones with Computers". Great headline, but Microsoft had all the pieces (email, IM, Live Meeting, VoIP) for a long time. Now the Unified Communications Product Roadmap ties them all together seamlessly.

There are several key requirements to make Unified Messaging work. First you need one directory of users across all applications. Active Directory is Microsoft's answer. Next you need "presence and awareness" of all your contacts available in each application. This means you need to know who is on line and available so you can choose the right communication tool. Once you can communicate and interact across all these modes and devices you need to keep your "state" synchronized. This means that once you have responded to a message, or deleted it, on one device, it should show up as "read" or deleted on all your other devices.

The individual applications have worked fine over the years as stand alone apps. Now they can work together because of common directories, universal presence, and synchronization across devices. Awesome!!

The NYT article explained several user scenarios.

Microsoft's products will connect its Exchange Server e-mail system to advanced Internet-based PBX systems as well as traditional ones and make it possible to view voice mail in an Outlook inbox. The programs will also perform a series of sophisticated functions linking desktop and cellular phones to desktop and server computers.

In one Microsoft demonstration, a user late for a meeting that is scheduled in an Outlook calendar can phone the Exchange server and tell the system to notify other participants that he or she is running 10 to 15 minutes late. The system, using voice recognition to interpret the message, automatically generates an e-mail notification.

A feature of the next version of Exchange, to be called Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, will make it possible for users to have e-mail read to them by telephone. That product will be ready late this year or early next year.

"We think there's a lot of productivity to be gained by people having things in one place," said Jeff Ressler, Microsoft's director of Exchange marketing.

The products announced as part of the Unified Communications product set include;

•	Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, a robust, flexible, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standards-based real-time communication platform that enables presence-based VoIP call management; audio-, video- and webconferencing; and instant messaging communication within and across existing software applications, services and devices.
•	Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 unified messaging goes beyond e-mail and today’s stand-alone voice-mail systems to deliver a unified inbox experience that includes e-mail, voice mail and faxing functionality, as well as new capabilities such as speech-based auto attendant allowing users to access their communications from any phone.
•	Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, a unified communications client that works in tandem with Office Communications Server 2007 to deliver a presence-based, enterprise VoIP “softphone”; secure, enterprise-grade instant messaging that allows for intercompany federation and connectivity to public instant messaging networks such as MSN®, AOL and Yahoo!; one-to-one and multiparty video- and audioconferencing; and webconferencing. As with the previous versions, Office Communicator 2007 will be available in desktop, browser-based and Windows Mobile®-based versions.
•	Microsoft Office Live Meeting, a rich conferencing service designed to help users more effectively collaborate, conduct training and deliver presentations using just a PC and an Internet connection. Improvements to Office Live Meeting include support for e-learning, enhanced audio and video capabilities including VoIP, a streamlined user interface, seamless integration with the Microsoft Office system and simpler deployment.
•	Microsoft Office RoundTable™, an audio-video collaboration device with a unique 360-degree camera. When combined with Office Communications Server 2007, RoundTable delivers an immersive conferencing experience that extends the meeting environment across multiple locations. Meeting participants on site and in remote locations gain a panoramic view of everyone in the conference room as well as close-up views of individual participants as they take turns speaking.
•	Microsoft Office Communicator phone experience, Communicator-based software designed to run an innovative set of new voice and video devices — including business-enabled IP desktop phones — from Polycom Inc., LG-Nortel Co. Ltd. and Thomson Telecom. This is a new ecosystem designed to run on dedicated communications devices in tandem with Office Communications Server 2007 to extend and enhance the Microsoft unified communications experience.
•	PC peripheral devices, such as USB handsets, wireless USB headsets, USB webcams and PC monitors with built-in audio and video components. Devices from industry partners GN Netcom Inc., Logitech, Motorola, Plantronics Inc., Samsung and Tatung Co. will work with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 to deliver a compelling communication experience on the PC. UPDATE: Rick Segal explains why this Unified Communications Plan is great news for innovative start-ups. "Never once have I seen an enterprise solution come out of Microsoft that was perfect, no other features required, one size fits all, nothing else to add.  While some say there may be zero opportunities for VC level businesses come out of this, there are tons of opportunities for snappy developers to grab an MSDN kit and start coding away. Love em or Hate em, those crazy kids in Redmond are helping to crank up the noise on Unified Communications which means opportunities for you." There is always room for startups to fill holes and add value. Thirty years ago Microsoft was the small start-up adding value and filling holes for IBM.

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Comments

[Call Cruncher]

Great article! I am new to your blog and so far I like what I see. I look forward to your future work.

[jccodez]

I think ms is making a big mistake in locking down the api for their i.m./windows live client. You cannot get to the channel to send or receive binary data...not good...how many developers will take the time to learn the api, build the code, and submit the add on so that microsoft can "approve" wether they will let the app become a user of the protected features of i.m./windows live.

Personally, for me, I am opening up my stuff for Skype, and maybe yahoo, why, because it is an accessible api, I can pump binary data through skypes channel..no problem... In order to do that with ms i.m./windows live, it will take considerable resources and approval from ms (after the fact of spending considerable development efforts)... Not gonna happen when your talking about 1 or 2 developers.

Now, the benefit of skype or yahoo frameworks is the same, it is viral, and can easily be disruptive to some MAJOR players with very little effort in marketing ect...