Verrassend ...
Dell begeeft zich op de Voice over IP-markt en neemt daarvoor Nortel en start-up Fonality in de arm. Samen met partner Nortel gaat Dell zich richten op het middensegment tot zo'n vijfhonderd medewerkers, waar de eisen complexer zijn en bedrijven vaker meerdere locaties hebben.
Source: Dell betreedt VoIP-markt met partners
redactie@channelworld.nl (Ferry Waterkamp)
Date Published: Thu, 24 Jan 2008
More OCS 2007 goodness. I'm using the OCS voice fucntionality for quite some time and it is very impressive ...
This document provides information to help you plan and deploy Enterprise Voice in your Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 infrastructure.
Source: Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Enterprise Voice Planning and Deployment Guide
Date Published: Fri, 14 Dec 2007
Mike Gotta of Burton Group gives his view on the recently announced Unified Communications Tools for Developers.
As you may know the 'partner eco system' (ISV's Developers, SI's, Telephony vendors, etc) is vital in Microsoft's approach. These tool will speed up the process of integration, optimisation and development of new functionality ...
.... How credible is Microsoft's position in the unified communications space?
Very credible but it has different areas of competency that are at different levels of maturity. Microsoft’s core strengths are in the real-time collaboration re: IM, presence, web conferencing. They are rapidly moving into the area traditionally dominated by communication vendors – VoIP/IP Telephony, audio/video conferencing. But right now, I believe most organizations are going to deploy OCS and “get stable” around the real-time collaboration capabilities, then move to VoIP and integration with existing communication vendors as driven by business requirements. I don’t see anyone ripping out their existing IP-PBX infrastructure in the short run. I do expect more rapid adoption of Round Table however given its price point, form factor and integration with Live Meeting. But make no mistake, Microsoft is in the UC game for the long run and fully intends to dominate it from a platform perspective - that includes mobile and speech as a standard application interaction model.
Who is the typical "developer" they're targeting for this stuff?
Different segments – Microsoft wants to make it easy for the average developer to UC-enable productivity applications, deliver deeper, more complex UC-centric systems and extend the modality of applications with speech interfaces – so I really think it is across the board – from the historical “VB”-like developer to the IT Pro who might be developing at a core infrastructure level. ...
Source: Microsoft Introduces Unified Communications Tools for Developers
Author: Mike Gotta
Date Published: Fri, 30 Nov 2007
Zoveelste bevestiging dat VOIP "hot" is. GOed dat de discussie inmiddels om productiviteitsverbetering draait en niet om simpelweg 'goedkkoper bellen'...
VoIP is definitief doorgebroken in Europa en het gebruik ervan doet inmiddels niet meer onder voor dat in Amerika. De overtuiging dat VoIP werkprocessen kan verbeteren is belangrijker geworden dan het idee dat je met VoIP kosten kunt besparen. Dat zegt Forrester-analist Phil Sayer. Sayer: "VoIP is een rijdende trein geworden waar iedereen op wil springen, uit angst om achter te blijven en niet te profiteren van de productiviteitsvoordelen die het oplevert."
Forrester-analist: bedrijven omarmen VoIP massaal
Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:05:23 GMT
Over on the Burton Group Collaboration and Content Strategies blog Mike Gotta posted a comprehensive overview of Microsoft's UC Launch. Very good read and much more detail on Mike's 'regular' blog (highlighted in his post)
... Microsoft officially launched its UC platform last week in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Auditorium. A webcast of the keynote is available here. Please note that if you scroll down, there are also links to case studies as well as the launch presentations and demos. I attended the event and posted a series of entries on my Collaborative Thinking blog.
- Microsoft UC Launch Event: Getting Ready
- Microsoft Launch Event: Bill Gates Keynote
- Microsoft UC Launch: Jeff Raikes & Bill Gates
- Microsoft UC Launch: VoIP Quality of Experience
- Microsoft UC Launch: Anywhere Access
- Microsoft UC Launch: Embedding UC In LOB Applications ...
...
... I expect most organizations to take a pragmatic, long-term view on Microsoft's UC platform. Decision makers will examine all of the components: Exchange, OCS, Exchange Unified Messaging, Round Table, Live Meeting and so on. For those organizations looking to move from LCS or to take their first step, the catch-phrase "get current & get stable" comes to mind. That means deploying OCS as a IM and presence platform to the point where you have stabilized operational and change management procedures. After that - the conservative move would be to turn-on web conferencing. This could also include hooking OCS up to room environments using Round Table. The more aggressive path would being to deploy VoIP/IP Telephony integration with existing PBX systems and opening up the UC platform to external parties. In any case, the intelligent (and obvious) strategy is to avoid the "big bang" approach. On top of the technology complexity, issues related to organizational readiness and governance will also slow down rapid deployment in large enterprise environments. ...
Source: Reviewing Microsoft's UC Launch Event
Author: Mike Gotta
Date Published: Mon, 22 Oct 2007
Lot´s of downloads today on the UC front ... This whitepaper is a must read if you or your organisation is serious about UC ...
Clearly unified communications means, above all else, the integration of telephony with other important forms of communication to provide streamlined communications for business users. Therefore, telephony integration is a critical component of Microsoft’s unified communications strategy.
Source: Integrating Telephony with Office Communications Server 2007
Author: Date originally published: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:26:15 GMT
Er was toch zoiets als "core business"? Natuurlijk is er een relatie tussen veilingen en VOIP en zijn er veel handige toepassingen te bedenken, maar het blijkt wel een spagaat tot nu toe. Er gaat ook nog wel meer geld "verbrand" worden als ze Skype in sync willen houden met de andere aanbieders op het VOIP vlak ....
Veilinghuis eBay neemt een last van ruim 1,4 miljard dollar in verband met zijn telefoniedochter Skype. Tegelijk treedt Niklas Zennstrom, mede-oprichter van Skype, als af algemeen directeur.
Source: Skype drukt zwaar op eBay
Author: Automatisering Gids
Date originally published: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:12:00 GMT
So many angles to OCS 2007 ... I can tell you that 1:1 and 1:many Communicator calls (VOIP without PBX) work awesome. I do almost all of my internal voice/video calls via VOIP.
This document provides information to help you plan and deploy Enterprise Voice in your Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 infrastructure.
Source: Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Enterprise Voice Planning and Deployment Guide
Date originally published: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:13:05 GMT
Mike Gotta of Burton Group experienced LiveMeeting 2007 with Microsoft Roundtable and was clearly impressed.
We have a few Roundtable devices already internally at Microsoft Netherlands so are able to use them every now and then. As soon as they become available more mainstream they will become the standard. Also the interest of clients is there and orders are coming in.
The audio (VOIP) and video quality of LiveMeeting 2007 is awesome by the way.
Would be curious if and when competitive platforms will start supporting Microsoft Roundtable like Mike points out ...
... I have to say that as a presenter, I was impressed with the experience delivered by the combination of RoundTable and Live Meeting 2007. Feedback from other people participating in the session was equally positive. The audio quality from RoundTable was perceived to be better than the previous conferencing option used. The panoramic video display that RoundTable delivers within the Live Meeting console also received positive comments. The tracking capability of RoundTable was also very good - as people conversed or moved about, the RoundTable system tracked changes in speaker and their location. As I wandered back and forth in front of the room (for instance, to point out certain items on a slide), the system consistently found me in a flawless manner. The IT folks told me that RoundTable installed without a problem and the integration with MOLM 2007 was seamless.
I expect RoundTable (with its price point) to have a significant impact on how people think about group conferencing (e.g., bridging co-located groups with remote groups). It would be nice to see RoundTable integrated with other web conferencing tools however - it's nice (and expected) to see the level of integration with Live Meeting 2007 but I would like to see interoperability with other tools as well (e.g., IBM Lotus Sametime or Adobe Connect or Cisco Latitude). ...
Source: Microsoft RoundTable + Office Live Meeting 2007
Author: Mike Gotta
Date originally published: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:24:31 GMT
Confirming developments in my earlier post, VOIP / UC are developments that are definitely gaining momentum. The majority of our Enterprise customers today have implemented, started or planned an IP Telephony project. Many of them are exploring deeper or full integration with their IT environment in the form of desktop integration, presence integration and even integration in business applications ...
... The rise of unified communications and the entry of major players like Microsoft(MSFT) into the voice-over-IP business are just two examples of how simple Internet-based communications are changing the marketplace, according to one industry analyst.
Allan Sulkin, an industry analyst and long-time contributor to Business Communications Review, notes that the voice networking software business has definitely shifted in the last 10 years.
"Only now are people getting past the education phase of why Internet voice software is important and discovering how to integrate IP phone systems in their business," Sulkin told InformationWeek on Monday. Sulkin is one of several experts in the field advising attendees on VoIP trends at this week's VoiceCon show in San Francisco.
Sulkin said the massive shift to IP-based phones is a telltale sign that companies are rethinking their communications infrastructure.
"Five years ago, I asked a crowd like the one I spoke to today how many had IP phone systems in their offices. About 5% said they did. I asked the audience today, and somewhere between 65% to 70% said they use IP phones in the office," Sulkin said. ...
Source : InformationWeek.com
One of the many examples in which Microsoft invests in and ultimately leverages new technologies into its solutions and partnerships. Without a doubt, voice is one of the major killerapps now and in the future .. Microsoft has a good headstart ...
... Microsoft announced six companies, including Intel (Quote) and Texas Instruments (Quote), are now licensing its voice software for audio conferencing, video, wireless over IP and gaming devices.
The licensing agreements, which were announced Tuesday at the VoiceCon San Francisco 2007 conference, could help put Microsoft in the catbird's seat as it extends its tentacles to the emerging unified communications market.
Infonetics Research, an IT market research firm based in Boston, in July reported worldwide sales of unified communications applications increased 21 percent between 2005 and 2006 to more than $363 million. It now expects the market to grow in the "high double digits" each year through at least 2010.
Unified communications is the integration of different streams of communication such as e-mail, voice and video into a single location where it can be accessed from a variety of different devices.
The RT Audio codec software compresses digital speech into a digital media bitstream, giving its partners the flexibility to build customized communications products for their customers. The software converts analog sounds into secure digital packets that are transmitted and then restored into audible sounds.
"The RT Audio codec is the secret sauce behind Office Communicator's strong voice quality," Clint Patterson, a spokesman for Microsoft's (Quote) unified communications group, said in an interview with internetnews.com. "It's a proven technology that we've been using in Windows Live Messenger and PC to PC calling that customers have used for more than 1.5 billion voice minutes."
Along with Intel and Texas Instruments, Microsoft said AudioCodes, Dialogic, LG-Nortel and Polycom have signed on as licensed partners. The codec is also used in the Xbox Live gamer voice-chat capabilities. ...
Source: Internetnews.com
Forrester interviewed 516 landline voice decision-makers in North America and Europe and found that enterprises plan to increase budgets for IP telephony (IPT) or IP PBX systems and services during 2007. This is not surprising. New shipments of IPT outpaced those of traditional PBX systems three years ago, and the installed base of IPT lines is expected to outnumber traditional PBX lines within the next few years. North American and European enterprises indicated that they plan to increase spending on IPT desktop equipment and services in 2007, and that in five years most will have completed their migration to IPT. The market dynamics for IPT will continue to evolve beyond basic telephony upgrades as enterprises demand increased flexibility and mobile solutions for their workers.
Source: 2007 Survey: Strong Growth For IP Telephony
Originally published on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT by "Elizabeth Herrell"
This week the annual Microsoft Partner Conference is held, its in Denver this year. With all the exciting stuff going on in Microsoft there are ofcourse lot's of announcements coming out ... With Microsoft entering new markets there is a lot of opportunity for partners. Chris Capossela highlighted Unified Communications :
... Microsoft Tuesday added a voice specialization to its Information Worker competency and said it's recruiting partners with the skills to deploy unified communication solutions.
Microsoft's unified communication strategy is set to take off this fall with the launch of Office Communication Server 2007, the successor to Live Communication Server, which weaves together email, instant messaging, mobile and VoIP telephony, and videoconferencing.
The release will enable voice over IP and represents "a huge step" for Microsoft into the unified communication space, said Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Business Division Product Management Group.
In a keynote speech Tuesday at Microsoft's worldwide partner conference in Denver, Capossela described the partner opportunity around unified communication as "massive." ...
Source: CRN.com
The lineup of IP PBX vendors is increasing; is this momentum or what ? What's really strong is the continuous pace in which Microsoft is driving Unifed Communications. This started with LCS 2003 and later Communicator. OCS 2007 is the 3rd wave in 4 years. Also looking at announcements like these I hope it becomes clear; this is about an ecosystems (products, solutions, partnerships) and not about a product solely to which we can compare the "me too" features ...
... Microsoft announces at Interop a lineup of companies that have adopted Office Communications Server 2007 interoperability specifications for VOIP, IM and conferencing.
Microsoft at Interop on May 22 announced interoperability partners on the other side of the VOIP coin for Office Communications Server 2007.
In the latest partner lineup, Microsoft announced that a dozen IP PBX and voice over IP gateway makers pledged to work with Microsoft's interoperability specifications for the OCS 2007 unified communications conferencing and messaging server.
The IP PBX and gateway companies pledging interoperability with OCS 2007 include Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Mitel Networks, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens Enterprise Communications, AudioCodes, Dialogic and Quintum Technologies.
On May 14, Microsoft announced 15 new phones from nine handset partners that work with OCS 2007 and Office Communicator 2007. The phones range from IP Phones, conferencing phones, USB phones, wired and wireless headsets, and more. Among those partners are Nortel Networks, NEC, Plantronics, Polycom and Samsung.
The IP PBX and gateway providers pledged to Microsoft that they will deliver interoperability upgrades by early next year, although Microsoft believes some will have their interoperability upgrades available in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Anthony Bawcutt, director of business development in Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, in Redmond, Wash. ...
... Microsoft also announced that the public beta for OCS 2007 and Office Communicator, launched in March, has already seen 50,000 downloads since its initial beta release. ...
That also show the interest : 50.000 downloads of the beta in as littlle as 2 months ...
Source : eWeek.com
Momentum is building for the Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 launch later this year. Gartner has produced a number of reports already and more to come I think. Mostly for subscribers only unfortunatly ...
... Now that Microsoft is testing its voice over IP for launch in 2Q07, enterprise IT systems and business process owners must evaluate their long-term interest in using emerging voice alternatives in enterprise IT solutions to support customer service and internal operations. ...
Source: Gartner.com
Interactive Intelligence is a 'pure play' IP PBX vendor with strong focus on Microsoft's UC solutions. Great to see they've now finished the Exchange 2007 integration
Interactive Intelligence Inc., a leader in unified communications systems for businesses, today announced that it has completed integration of its popular IP PBX platform with the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging solution.
With this combined solution, customers will gain the productivity efficiencies afforded through Microsoft’s tightly-integrated suite of unified communications software with the advanced contact center and enterprise applications offered via Interactive Intelligence¹s standards-based IP telephony platform.
With Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, users have access to continuously-evolving server-based tools that integrate with desktop and mobile clients that give them fast access to voice, fax and e-mail data — regardless of their location. This powerful solution gives workers the ability to manage their e-mail, calendar and personal contacts via their mobile devices just the same as they were sitting at their PC (providing, of course, that high-speed wireless broadband service is present). In addition, support for SIP means reduced complexity and cost for implementation and integration with existing communications systems. ....
Source: TMCnet.com
David Senguputa of Ferris Research gives a bit more insight in to Microsoft "Tanjay"; a new line of IP Phones ..
... Microsoft is gradually taking the wraps off its new phones, code named Tanjay. These include two form factors of desktop phone and a Bluetooth earbud. None of the devices are shipping yet.
The phones support name-based dialing using a large touch screen that displays presence information (Available, Be right back, DND, In call, Out of office, etc.) for colleagues you work closely with. Your presence is easy to see and set. Early prototypes that have been shown publicly have had buttons for: headset, volume, mute, help, messages, Exchange 2007 calendar, Exchange 2007 call log, redial, conference call, and forward. (These options will likely change somewhat by ship time.) When the devices are connected to the network, they support automatic network discovery and provisioning. ...
Mike Gotta of Burton Group has posted an interview he has recently done with Xuedong Huang, Microsoft's General manager of Microsoft Response Point
On March 19, 2007, Microsoft announced Response Point, a VoIP phone system aimed at the small business market. From a technology perspective, the system is designed for simplicity from both a user and management perspective. The user experience relies heavily on a speech-enabled interaction model with little learning curve – verbal reserved words control system capabilities (e.g., voice mail, call transfer). An integrated PC interface supports additional management functions such as configuring Response Point for directing calls to role-based groups (e.g., a sales or marketing department extension). The PC-based user interface also creates an effective way for users and administrators to manage phone behavior. Users for instance can define settings through their PC rather than learning complex phone commands and navigation sequences.
The system integrates with Office Outlook and Exchange Server as well as Windows Live VoIP services. Response Point relies on OEM partnerships (e.g., D-Link, Quanta, Uniden) to deliver the solution to the small business market. While Response Point shares some “DNA” with Office Communications Server, each product is targeted at different audiences.
The technology around Response Point illustrates the breadth of Microsoft’s efforts in the Unified Communications market. However, what I found most intriguing about the solution has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the manner in which Microsoft created, developed and launched Response Point. Rather than follow a traditional product research and development cycle within an established business unit, Microsoft incubated the Response Point team within Microsoft Research. The group was structured as a self-contained team. In essence, Response Point became a company-within-a-company. This type of organizational model I felt was quite innovative. Below are several questions I submitted to Microsoft with responses from Xuedong Huang, General Manager, Response Point:
Link to Innovation Spotlight: Q&A With Xuedong Huang On Microsoft Response Point
In Office Communicator 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft has completely overhauled its Live Communications family of software. With new PBX connectivity, the new suite pulls the public telephone network into the equation, making it possible for people on landlines and cell phones to join VoIP-based conversations and data conferences. "Presence" detection is also a major theme in the new software suite.
Checkout the 13min Video / Demo on ZDnet.com
In the light of the "open" discussion, Cisco seems to have issues with their proprietary protocol SCCP ...
... Unified CallManagers and Unified Presence Servers could be crashed via remote attacks, company says
Cisco this week said its corporate VoIP and presence servers could be attacked remotely and flooded with specific types of traffic intended to crash these systems.
The Cisco Unified CallManager (CUCM) and Cisco Unified Presence Server (CUPS) are vulnerable to remote attacks by specially crafted TCP, Internet Control Messaging Protocol (ICMP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. Cisco has released software patches for these problems.
CallManager servers, which process VoIP calls on a network, can be crashed by sending attack traffic to TCP ports 2000 or 2443 to the server; these ports are used by Cisco's proprietary call control protocols — Skinny Call Control Protocol (SCCP, or "Skinny") and Secure SCCP. This vulnerability exists in CallManager versions 3.x, 4.x and 5.0 (CUCM 6.0, the latest version (announced this month), is not affected, nor is the Presence Server). ...
Source : Networkworld.com
Nortel and Microsoft are expanding the partnership. Very good developments ...
... Nortel and Microsoft Corp. are expanding their efforts to drive the widespread adoption of unified communications among businesses around the world. Building on their existing Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA), the companies plan to offer solutions that will enable service providers to deliver comprehensive unified communications services to small and medium business (SMBs) and enterprises.
Nortel and Microsoft’s alliance will allow carriers to host unified business communication and collaboration services for their business customers, including e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, click-to-call, video conferencing and other multimedia services. This will enable carriers to derive greater value from their existing network investments and resources, while allowing SMBs and enterprises to benefit from unified communications without bearing the burden of purchasing, installing and managing additional network infrastructure. ...
For the remainder of the pressrelease read @ source : Persberichten.com
Yes, you read this correctly, it's a Microsoft Phone System ....
Microsoft Response Point phone system software was designed for small businesses with simplicity in mind. Backed by industry leading hardware vendors like D-Link, Quanta and Uniden, Microsoft Response Point offers a breakthrough voice-activated user interface, simplified setup and system management, and the calling capabilities your business needs.
Easy to Manage
Microsoft Response Point is easy to set up and maintain so you won't be bogged down with confusing manuals or in-depth training. Response Point's user-friendly management console makes it a snap for the average PC user to set up a new phone, change preferences for voicemail or call handling, or create a call distribution list. As your business grows, your Response Point system grows with you. You can easily add new phones as you hire new employees. And if you move offices, just pick up your phone system and take it along.
Easy to Use
Say goodbye to confusing key strokes and phone programming — Just press the Response Point button and tell the phone system what you want to do. Reach anyone in the company directory or your Microsoft Outlook address book by simply saying their name. Transfer, park, and retrieve calls the same way too. Voicemail features allow you to retrieve, forward, and archive messages from your phone or your e-mail.
Easy to Buy
Response Point phone systems will come complete with a base unit, voicemail, software and desktop phones. You can use as many features as you like and add phones or extensions without paying additional licensing fees.
Microsoft Response Point features include:
- Phone and service configuration wizards
- Phone auto discovery
- One-touch voice commands
- Automated Receptionist
- Built in voicemail
- Voicemail to e-mail forwarding
- Incoming call notifications on your PC
- Microsoft Outlook contact integration
- Two-click backup and restore
Checkout the website : here and watch a customer case video
Read the Press release
Large article about the IP Telephony / Microsoft implementation at Shell. This is a huge and impressive project which is just getting started. Implementation involves Office Communication Server 2007, Exchange 2007 fully integrated with the Nortel IP telephony platform ...
... Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is planning a global VoIP rollout with tens of thousands of IP phones that will ultimately run off of a mostly Microsoft-based server platform.
Shell plans this year to begin testing Office Communications Server 2007, Windows Vista, along with Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007, and rolling the platforms into production by early 2008. Shell now has Nortel's Communication Server 1000 IP PBX running in its data centers, which host around 1,000 IP phones worldwide.
When the Microsoft infrastructure is in place, Shell will start to switch over large numbers of employees to Office Communicator softphone clients, hosted by the Microsoft OCS platforms, as well as Nortel IP hard phones, managed by CS1000 IP PBXs.
"Ultimately, we don't see the need for separate IP telephony" and Microsoft messaging platforms.That is our vision, but it depends on whether Microsoft delivers," said Johan Krebbers, group IT architect at Royal Dutch Shell, during a presentation at VoiceCon this week. ...
...With the forthcoming voice mail features that will be included in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Krebbers said OCS 2007 and Exchange will serve as the core VoIP and messaging platforms for the company. Nortel will still have a role in Shell's network for specialty applications such as call centers. Nortel VoIP gateway equipment also will be used in data centers, to connect to the public switched telephone network, as well as in branch offices, for backup phone connectivity. ...
No promises of things to come, but stuff you can use and deploy today. Integration Exchange 2007 with Cisco Call Manager 5.1. Direct SIP connection ... cool huh ...
This PBX configuration note contains information about deploying Exchange 2007 UM with a Cisco Call Manager 5.1 using direct SIP connection. You can use it to help decide if Exchange 2007 UM is the appropriate solution for your organization.
A document behind the 'subscription door' at Forrester. Just so you know it exists and if you are a subscriber, you now know where to get it ...
This Essentials document answers the most critical questions — the what, why, and who — of the unified communications (UC) market. It's a concise starting point to assist IT operations professionals who are planning, building, and running the next generation of IT.
InformationWeek features an article about Cisco teaming with Jabber, the multiplatform IM solution. The article / statements from Jabber do raise some questions and / or are wrong to begin with ... I am taking the Microsoft perspective (Live Communications Server 2005, Office Communicator 2005, Office LiveMeeting 2005)
... With the addition of these capabilities, Cisco's communications platform gains a capability missing from competing offerings from IBM and Microsoft, according to Jabber CEO Paul Guerin: multiuser chat. "IBM and Microsoft don't even offer multiuser chat at this point," he says. ...
Wrong: Maybe I misinterpret the multiuser chat. But Microsoft (with LCS 2005 and Communicator 2005) does support IM with multiple users and the seamless transition from chat to for example LiveMeeting and/or Conference Calling.
Mr Guerin : The screenshot below shows me (with 3 other colleagues and myself again on LiveMessenger (Windows Live logo) ;-) This is multiuser chat I would say ...
...The Cisco-Jabber integration aims to make communication and collaboration easier by exposing presence information so workers know when their coworkers are free to interact and by providing easy access to voice, video, and Web conferencing...
Hmmm: So Cisco in itself does not have a well integrated platform for Presence in every tools / platforms users use (Office Productivity, Document Collaboration, Enterprise Content Management) and will leverage the Jabber model ?
The key to the success of Unified Communications is based on Presence integration The Cisco/Jabber apporach is not unique; it is a requirement every Unified Communications solution must facilitate. he more standardised / integrated the presence the better the solution.
... In contrast with products like Microsoft's SharePoint, says Dave Uhlir, VP of marketing, "you don't have to sign your life away to a technology architecture" and deal with "massive integration efforts" to get workable collaboration....
Wrong: Come on .. "massive integration efforts" ??? Presence Integration and therewith the Unified Communications in implicitly integrated in the whole of 2007 Microsoft Office System (also the 2003 version) meaning in SharePoint, the Office Suites, etc.
It is not signing your life away ... Yes you have to choose your Unified Communications platform which best integrates with your current Collaboration platform and related productivity tools. I guess in this partnership announced with Cisco is proof of an open platform approach ;-)
... Jabber counts 15 defense and intelligence agencies as customers, along with five of the eight largest investment banks in the United States. ...
Hmmm: I know a lot of companies use Jabber. It is a good solution and in a lot of cases more flexible to start with than some other platforms maybe. However ... something tells me Jabber is not the only and definitely not thé standard IM / Presence platform used in many of the organsiations mentioned ...
My humble analysis of this announcement : two companies with very good / top of the line solutions in the RTC field are combining efforts to come up with some kind of platform approach to be leveraged in an organisations asynchornous (i.e. not real time) infrastructure. They are attempting to become the presence platform of choice. Depending on how well they proof this and show how this is going to be integrated in the development of joint solutions they may become successful. I look forward to hearing Cisco's side of the story, maybe this is more down to earth and truthful.
Overlooked this pressrelease earlier this month ... Office Communications Server 2007 will again be a major step forward in Microsoft's Unified Communications Strategy ...
... Upcoming release of Microsoft Office Communications Server aims to accelerate voice over Internet protocol adoption by enabling IT to extend existing telephony infrastructure.
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 11, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today opened a private beta of its new enterprise voice communications server, Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007, to 2,500 IT professionals. Office Communications Server 2007 allows companies to integrate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology into existing telephony infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive network overhauls and also extending the useful life of existing investments. The new voice server will also allow workers to instantly launch a phone call from 2007 Microsoft Office applications, such as Office Word 2007, Office Outlook® 2007 or Office Communicator, by simply clicking on a colleague’s name to determine his or her availability and initiate a person-to-person or multiparty call.
With native support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator, part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, interoperate with products from industry partners including Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., Mitel Networks Corp., NEC Philips Unified Solutions, Polycom Inc. and Siemens Communications Inc. Through these relationships, customers worldwide will be able to support VoIP using their existing desktop phones, data networks and time division multiplexing (TDM) or Internet protocol (IP) private branch exchanges (PBXs). Customers will also able to leverage the softphone capabilities of Office Communicator to make and receive phone calls from their PCs, eliminating the need to purchase expensive IP-compatible phones.
“The convergence of telecom and data networks is happening rapidly. Software will integrate these two worlds, enabling IT managers to deliver new communications possibilities that include VoIP,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “With this open architecture and broad interoperability, Office Communications Server 2007 will give IT managers the flexibility to determine when and how and in what way they move their communications infrastructure forward.” ...
Continue at Source : Microsoft PressPass..
The head of Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group tells how the company is simplifying the ways in which people work by bringing voice technologies to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007
Link to Q&A: Microsoft Delivers Voice Technologies in Unified Communications Platform
The new Radicati report shows UC as being a very healthy market ...
... The latest study by The Radicati Group, "On-Premises Corporate Unified Communications Market, 2006-2010" provides market size, four-year forecasts, technology trends, and competitive information for the On-Premises Corporate Unified Communications market. The report also includes installed base and market share data broken out by Region and Business Size.
The growth of the UC market continues to be driven by the need of employees to more efficiently communicate with each other, as well as the desire to manage a variety of communication devices and applications in a cohesive manner. The potential for this market is huge - with 18 million deployed on-premises UC mailboxes in 2006, this market is poised to grow to over 47 million deployed mailboxes by 2010.
Geographically, on-premises UC solutions today have the highest number of deployments in North America (47%), followed by Europe (37%). UC vendors are expected to collect about $559 million in worldwide revenues in 2006, growing to over $1.2 billion in 2010...
Source : Radicati.com
Wow good article on exacly where the UC strategy of Microsoft (and IBM for that matter) will make a huge difference. Costsavings, costsavings, costsavings. No need for expensive "I can do everything a PC can do" IP phones and "hey I am a softphone and look exactly like a real telephone" softwaretools that hardly integrate with your everyday productivity apps and collaboration platform. This report and related message is not that good news for those companies that bet on selling those expensive devices ...
... As the migration to IP telephony systems continues, many businesses will needlessly spend $20.3 billion on expensive IP screen phones from 2005 through the beginning of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, it will amount to more than €5 billion.
"Many companies are replacing old phones with fancy, screen-based IP phones and IP/PBXs with related hardware, however, most users continue to use the new phones like their old phones, only with a few new capabilities, such as viewing missed calls or for directory dialing," said Bob Hafner, managing vice president for Gartner. "Ironically, in most businesses, the IP screen phone is placed on the desk beside a PC that has a much bigger and higher-resolution screen." ...
...With the money saved on the lower-cost IP phones, Mr. Hafner said companies should purchase UC applications. This option enables the user to improve productivity integrating communications applications with services such as instant messaging, unified messaging, presence, personal agent, conferencing and mobility services to create a converged desktop with the voice communications on the phone. These applications are far more productive than the screen on an IP phone and are about the same cost....
... Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Don’t Purchase IP Screen Phones If You Have a PC on Your Desk." The report provides analysis on IP phone migration plans and unified communications options. The report is available on the Gartner Web site at www.gartner.com/....
Source : VOIPMagazine.net
Cool to see Windows Live Messenger as part of this study ...
Keynote System's third VoIP competitive intelligence study revealed that overall VoIP quality has improved across the board since Keynote's last study in December 2005 and that the leading VoIP providers have actually surpassed PSTN (traditional phone service) in overall audio quality, but still lag behind PSTN in audio delay.
Twelve leading VoIP providers are part of the study that includes AT&T, Comcast, Lingo, Packet8, Skype, SunRocket, TimeWarner Cable, TrueVoice, Verizon, Vonage, Vonics and Windows Live Messenger. In order to benchmark and rank the quality of consumer VoIP services, Keynote measured the relative performance of the leading VoIP providers in the New York and San Francisco markets, including digital cable, adapter-based VoIP (hard phone) and PC-based software (soft phone) services, as well as the performance of leading VoIP providers against PSTN service in those cities. Keynote then rated the leading VoIP service providers on critical performance factors that influence the end-user experience using Keynote Voice Perspective(R), which is Keynote's VoIP quality test and measurement product.
Source : Voiploop.com
Amongst others Philips is introducing a DECT/Live Messenger phone .. must get my hand s on that one :-)
The new beta version of Microsoft's MSN Messenger has jumped from the PC and into some cordless home phones, allowing users to call each other for free.
[Via eWeek VOIP]
Het aantal VoIP-aansluitingen in Nederland is hard op weg richting de 1 miljoen. Waar een jaar geleden een handjevol Nederlanders nog belde via de kabel- of ADSL-aansluiting, wisselen ze hun vaste aansluitingen nu met bosjes tegelijk in. UPC en KPN hebben de grootste VoIP-bestanden. Laatstgenoemde neemt begin volgend jaar een landelijk dekkend netwerk in bedrijf voor digitale ethertelevisie.[Via Computable ICT-nieuws]
Op zich begrijp ik wel dat het in veel gevallen eenvoudiger is om alleen de bestaande telefooncentrale(s) te vervangen. Een organisatie kiest dan echter wel voor een kleine innovatie stap. Het inrichten van een IP Telefonie omgeving en daarmee het uitnutten van alle voordelen heeft nou eenmaal veel consequenties, niet alleen voor de technologie, maar ook voor processen en medewerkers binnen een organisatie. Mits goed ingericht en begeleid liggen daar ook de grote voordelen. ...
Ondanks de opkomst van ip-telefonie, blijft een groot deel van de zakelijke markt investeren in traditionele telefonie. Een op de zes organisaties heeft in 2005 nog geinvesteerd in een vervanging of uitbreiding van de PABX (Private Automatic Branch eXchange).
[Via Computable ICT-nieuws]
Vanaf vandaag, 6 april, kent Nederland een nationaal platform rondo internettelefonie en Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Initiatiefnemer is de Nederlandse afdeling van Internet Society, ISOC.nl.[Via SURFnet nieuws]
Over on the Ferris blog I ran into something on softphones.
I think it is a natural thing that "pureplay softphone vendors start scaling out to broader RTC propositions just as RTC platform vendors move into VOIP / IP Telephony. What I always find funniy is the way IP Teplephony vendors such as Nortel / Cisco and the likes have devloped softphones; they just created a software version of a hardphone.
For those who have seen or better worked with Microsoft Office Communicator have seen that the way Microsoft is approaching telephony is totally different. Making a phonecall is just another for of communication; what combined all these forms is Presence. My guiess is that this platform approach driven by presence is the best way forward.
Some collaborative tools, such as those from Yahoo, MSN, and AOL, have added softphones over the last couple of years.
Conversely, softphone vendors are adding more and more collaborative capabilities. One example is CounterPath. This SIP-based software supports voice, video, and instant messaging.
Future plans include whiteboarding, file transfer, and file sharing. ..
[Via Ferris Research Weblog]
Nederland is een van de eerste landen in Europa waar draadloze huistelefoons van Philips met de software van Skype en MSN Messenger verschijnen. Het Nederlandse bedrijf maakte dat vrijdag bekend op het Ambilight Event in Brugge.
[Via Computer Idee Nieuws]
This is quite an important partnership. Looking at the Dutch IP Telephony market, Avaya is winning quite a lot of large deals. The majority of organisations deploying Avaya also run the Microsoft platform ..
Integrated solutions planned to enable intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration across an enterprise.
Avaya and Microsoft Corp. today announced the intent to develop open standards, SIP-based interoperability between Avaya MultiVantage® Communications Applications and Microsoft® Office Communicator, the unified communications client for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. Aimed at extending the rich capabilities of Microsoft applications to include voice capabilities, this joint initiative will focus on delivering a unified communications solution that allows people, teams and organizations to communicate simply and effectively while working seamlessly with Avaya and Microsoft communications applications.
The goal of the joint solutions is to enable intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration across an enterprise to enhance productivity, to power decision-making and to improve responsiveness to customers. Business users would be able to launch, receive and re-direct communications while accessing the robust, more reliable and security-enhanced business communications functionality and features of Avaya Communication Manager and the desktop and mobile versions of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. With the joint solution, business users would be able to do the following:
Also this announcement clearly show the great momentum that Microsoft has build in a relative short period of time.
Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Nortel and Siemens are extending telephony call control capabilities to Microsoft’s unified communications platform, improving real-time business communications.
[Via Microsoft PressPass - Press Releases]
This is one good partnership to add to the list of RTC partnerships ...
Open standards, SIP-based enterprise solutions enable effective communications.
...Cisco and Microsoft have agreed to work together to create a converged solution that will provide desktop Internet Protocol (IP) telephony call control. Cisco’s SIP interface allows customers to build solution sets to meet their business needs with flexibility and simplicity. To enable this solution, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will interoperate with the new Cisco Unified CallManager....
[Via Microsoft PressPass - Press Releases]
Microsoft probeert voet aan de grond te krijgen in de mobiele VoIP markt. Het bedrijf is werkt aan VoIP-diensten voor draadloze apparaten.
[Via Computable RSS]
Dit kon natuurlijk niet uitblijven, nu ook Microsoft VOIP gaat integreren met MSN ...
Google heeft een nieuw strijdtoneel gekozen in zijn poging het internet te veroveren. Google heeft aangegeven met een voip-dienst te komen die gaat concurreren met andere aanbieders zoals Skype en Gizmo.
[Via Personal Computer Magazine RSS]
Microsoft werkt samen met het Japanse investeringsbedrijf Softbank om VoIP voor het bedrijfsleven aan te bieden. De twee partners, die al enkele eerdere allianties hebben, willen enterprise VoIP, instant messaging, e-mail en groupware bieden aan het Japanse bedrijfsleven.[Via Computable RSS]
Het wordt een echte commodity ... nu de prijzen nog. Je ziet nog veek verschillen in de prijzen van de diverse aanbieders.
Nadat telecombedrijf KPN al in mei van dit jaar VoIP aanbood, komt nu ook dochter XS4ALL met een beperkte basisdienst. Daarnaast introduceert Internet-provider Compuserve VoIP bij haar abonnees.
This was announced this week (13/12/05). As you can see also MSN Messenger is being rebranded into Windows Live Messenger. Windows Live is rapidly turning into a platform ...
Adding telephony features to the new version is more than just a nice feature. Lot's of solutions out there already without argument, but imagine the scale in which this is going to be available.
The pricing is still high I would say compared to SkypeOut, VOIP Buster and others, but having this services delivered through MCI may mean a different (I mean higher) Quality Of Service.
Microsoft and MCI on Tuesday announced the formation of a multiyear partnership to bring VoIP calling to Redmond's next generation messaging client. Called Windows Live Call, the feature will be tested as part of a limited beta of Windows Live Messenger, which is set to begin this week.
AMSTERDAM - Microsoft stapt samen met partner MCI in internettelefonie. De twee bedrijven zijn een samenwerking voor meerdere jaren aangegaan. Met de nieuwe dienst kunnen gebruikers via het internet naar vaste telefoonaansluitingen bellen voor 2,3 dollarcent per minuut.
[Via NU.nl Internet]
Windows Live Messenger is de nieuwe generatie MSN Messenger. Deze heeft alles van de vorige Messenger, namelijk je lijst met contactpersonen, emoticons en rechtstreekse toegang tot je vrienden via tekst, voice en video, plus nieuwe manieren om met het allergrootste gemak contact te maken en documenten te delen. Net als altijd is het downloaden van Messenger en het gebruik van de meeste functies gratis.De nieuwe versie zal ook telefonie mogelijkheden bevatten ...
Telefoneren? Hoe werkt dat? Als je je aanmeldt voor Windows Live Call (deze service wordt door een partner van Microsoft geleverd), kun je eenvoudig en voordelig bellen naar mobiele en vaste telefoonnummers. Via je Messenger-venster kun je een Windows Live Call-account aanmaken. Binnen enkele ogenblikken kun je een telefoongesprek starten. Van te voren kun je belminuten kopen en als ze bijna op zijn, kun je minuten bijkopen. Een groot voordeel is dat met Windows Live Call internationale telefoongesprekken zeer goedkoop zijn. En je kunt gratis telefoneren van pc naar pc. Hiervoor hoef je je overigens niet aan te melden bij Windows Live Call. Je Messenger-contactpersoon moet wel beschikken over luidsprekers en een microfoon (of koptelefoon).
http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=0eccd94b-eb48-497c-8e60-c6313f7ebb73
Sony heeft een programma geïntroduceerd waarmee het mogelijk is gratis videogesprekken met andere gebruikers te voeren. Ook het bellen naar mobiele en vaste nummers behoort tot de mogelijkheden, zij het tegen betaling. Het programma heet IVE (Instant Video Everywhere) en moet de grote concurrent van Skype gaan worden.[Via Computer Idee RSS]
Microsoft and Cisco have announced they plan to support Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE), a method for delivering Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and streaming media through Network Address Translation (NAT) filters on firewalls.[Via Redmond | News]
Het aantal minuten dat via VoIP gebeld wordt zal in 2005 vijf keer zoveel zijn dan het aantal minuten VoIP-bellen in 2004. Dat zegt onderzoeksbureau IDC.[Via Computable RSS]
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