Microsoft is here to conquer VoIP, and Unified Communications
"The transformation to software-based communications is going to be as profound as the shift from the typewriter to word-processing software," Gates said.
With all that hype and anticipation, Microsoft Today entered the VoIP market as Chairman Bill Gates launched the vendor's unified communications portfolio. Gates at an event in San Francisco heralded what he positioned as a dramatic shift in the business communications paradigm. Joined by customers and partners, the Microsoft executives launched unified communications and VoIP software that includes the following:
-- Microsoft(R) Office Communications Server 2007.
-- Microsoft Office Communicator 2007.
-- Microsoft Office Live Meeting. T
-- Microsoft RoundTable(TM).
-- Service pack update of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
"Unified communications software will transform business communications as fundamentally as e-mail did in the 1990s," Raikes said. "Today, Microsoft is in the VoIP game, and our customers and partners are already winning with better economics and new business opportunities."
Gates and Raikes were joined today by hundreds of customers (http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies) reporting dramatic time savings due to more efficient communications and cost savings of 25 percent to 30 percent over traditional communications technologies. Gibson Guitar Corp., Global Crossing, L'Occitane, Quanta Computer USA Inc., Sanofi-Aventis, The Shaw Group Inc., Virgin Megastores and Volvo Group were among the customers that joined the event to discuss the positive impact of Microsoft technology on their business.
More than 50 partners joined Microsoft to announce new products and services built on Microsoft's unified communications platform.
But one partner stood out the most. It is the telecommunications veteran Nortel. They were allies before all these new servers came along. In just over a year since the alliance was formed, Nortel and Microsoft have collected more than 300 joint wins representing over 900,000 licenses.
In addition, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and Nortel* CEO and President Mike Zafirovski announced a joint road map to deliver their shared vision for unified communications. The road map is the result of an alliance between Microsoft and Nortel announced in July 2006, and includes three new joint solutions to dramatically improve business communications by breaking down the barriers between voice, e-mail, instant messaging, multimedia conferencing and other forms of communication.
"Nortel and Microsoft share a common vision that business communications are evolving to software, enabling enterprises to more simply and effectively integrate communications with business processes," said Joel Hackney, president, Enterprise Solutions, Nortel. "With solutions that span VoIP, branch office, conferencing, IP phones, data networking and integration services, Nortel is providing enterprises with the industry's most complete portfolio of unified communications solutions to enhance their Microsoft OCS experience. Through our Innovative Communications Alliance with Microsoft, we are leading the integration with Microsoft's new unified communications platform."
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