Microsoft: Office 2007 VoIP Will Change Communication Landscape

By Greg McNevin

March 8, 2007: Microsoft is predicting the number of business VoIP users to skyrocket in the next three years, saying that 100 million Office customers will be clicking their mice instead of their touchtones keys to make calls and effectively halving communication costs.

And this halving of costs is not referring to analogue services, the company says the cost of VoIP services themselves will halve in the next three years. Speaking at VoiceCon Spring 2007, Microsoft’s Business Division president Jeff Raikes told the conference that huge savings will be made as VoIP systems move from hardware to software.

"Software is set to transform business phone systems as profoundly as it has transformed virtually every other form of workplace communication," said Raikes. "Over time, the software-based VoIP technology built into Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will offer so much value and cost savings that it will make the standard telephone look like that old typewriter that's gathering dust in the stockroom."

Raikes went on to say that IT departments face many challenges managing multiple communication systems, so large savings are there for the taking if these are unified under a software solution. He claimed that Office Communications Server works with a broad array of devices, phones, applications, services and common management tools. This enables companies who have invested in branded hardware such as handsets to repurpose this equipment for VoIP services.

Raikes dubbed the Office Communicator 2007 platform as “the most important new communications technology since Microsoft Outlook 1997”, and predicted the new products would change the way people communicate.

Some of the more interesting new features include click-to-call which enables contact calling simply by clicking their name wherever it appears in Office applications, “presence” capabilities which determines if a colleague is at their desk and if not, the best way to contact them, and a phone number that follows workers wherever they are on the road.

"We're embarking on a software transformation similar to what we saw from the mainframe to the PC," said Raikes. "With a shift of this magnitude, there will be tremendous opportunities for our industry partners worldwide."

Raikes also announced that Microsoft will distribute the public beta-test version of Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft's VoIP and unified communications server, and Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft's unified communications client, to millions of testers later this month.

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