Office Communicator 2007 Goes Gold

Published: August 1, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft last week announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007, the server and client products that form the backbone of voice over IP (VoIP) strategy. With the master, or "gold," version of OCS 2007 and its client sidekick ready to hit Microsoft's duplication machines and distribution mechanisms, businesses should be able to purchase the new products this fall.

As the cornerstone of its Unified Communication (UC) strategy to combine VoIP phones, Instant Messaging, and video conferencing, the duo of the Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 are perhaps the most important product releases Microsoft will make this year. Considering the new ground they break for Microsoft, and the new functionality they'll deliver to organizations, they are probably the most anticipated Microsoft products of the year.

When the products do become available--most likely in the mid to late September timeframe--it will provide some pretty cool capabilities, such as allowing users to launch a phone call from Office 2007 by clicking on a person's name, assigning a telephone call a "subject," like with e-mail, and accessing e-mail from a telephone. Users will need the 2007 versions of Office and Exchange Server hooked up to OCS07 and Office Communicator 2007 to accomplish the neatest tricks, such as call holding, forwarding, and transferring, and unifying voice mail and e-mail in a single inbox. But what else would you expect?

Microsoft's well-thought-out UC strategy has already attracted attention from the likes of Gartner, which places Microsoft in the leaders' quadrant for unified communications. Microsoft, in turn, is relying on a network of partners to deliver OCS-compatible phones and other gear to complement its Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based telecommunication switch, including Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, LG-Nortel, Mitel Networks, NEC Philips Unified Solutions, Polycom, and Siemens Communications.

Gurdeep Singh Pall, vice president of the Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, says Microsoft's approach to unified communications is being validated in the market. "We believe all forms of enterprise communications, including VoIP, are moving from hardware-based systems to software," he says in a Q&A posted to Microsoft's Web site. "Over the last year, we've seen customers and partners increasingly validate our viewpoint and our strategy in this space. Even our competitors are validating this trend by trying to reshape their hardware-based businesses and investing heavily in software R&D."

Pall likened the transformation from hardware-based PBX systems to software-based VoIP systems along the same lines as the mainframe-to-PC transformation. (Although mainframes are far from dead, PC servers now account for the majority of server revenue.) "Unified communications is predicted to be a $45.4 billion industry by 2010," Pall says.

The new software will also extend to smart phones equipped with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. Communicator Mobile, which with Office Communications Server, will allow people to use a Windows Mobile Smartphone to view presence status and click-to-communicate using voice, IM or e-mail. It will also include a "simultaneous ring" feature that send calls to mobile and desk phones simultaneously, although it can be configured so it only occurs during working hours or when users are available to take calls. "This is perhaps one of my favorite features," Pall says. "I've set my phones to simultaneously ring so that my team can reach me whether I am at my desk or in transit, but only during office hours and when I am available."

Microsoft was also expected to post pricing for OCS 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 today. One area that's sure to rub large Enterprise Assurance customers the wrong way is the need to pay for additional client access licenses, or CALs, on top of the costs for the OCS 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 products themselves. The standard CAL, which supports instant messaging and SIP-based presence awareness, will cost about $21 per user, while the enterprise CAL, which will add VoIP call management and Web conferencing features, will cost about $97 per user. These two CALs will also be included as part of the Microsoft Enterprise CAL Suite, the software behemoth says.

Microsoft also posted a white paper that shows how to compute the return on investment (ROI) of deploying a VoIP solution such as OCS07. The white paper can be viewed at www.microsoft.com/uc

RELATED STORIES

Microsoft Unveils Phones for Office Communications Server 2007

Microsoft's New 'Voice Server' Enters Beta

Microsoft Unveils Unified Communications Product Roadmap

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot