Microsoft unveils new VoIP devices 15 May, 2007 By Liam Lahey

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Bryan Rushe, product manager, unified communications for Microsoft Canada Ltd., said voice is moving from hardware to software. Like the transformation from the mainframe to the PC, software is changing enterprise VoIP and Microsoft is keen to lead the charge.

Traditional IP telephony is failing to meet people's needs at work. Workers waste 30 minutes per week in phone tag and for 50 per cent of calls workers make they have to look up the number (according to research firm Harris Corp.). E-mail also has its shortcomings, with information overload and misinterpreted emotion. There is the need for the resurgence of the voice back in business and it doesn't need to be a costly endeavour.

For several years now, customers have been asking Microsoft for solutions that help people work better together, Rushe said. And he identified three main problems with regards to setting up business communications with people: Scheduling, varying online identities, and differing communications technologies.

"There's a mental cost associated with moving from one communications technology to another . . . the solution we're bringing through our unified communications platform simplifies this," he said. "With Office Communications Server 2007 you have the ability to get additional information as it pulls from Exchange Server and information in your calendar."

Unveiled at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007, Microsoft and nine OEMs -- ASUSTek Computer Inc., GN, LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., NEC Corp., Plantronics Inc., Polycom Inc., SAMSUNG, Tatung Co. and ViTELiX -- are introducing a new generation of devices that connect the workplace phone to e-mail, instant messaging, real-time presence information, conferencing, VoIP, and mobile communications.

The new wave of phones and devices would become available for use in the public beta program of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, officials said. Microsoft is providing the device manufacturers with design specifications, helping to assure customers that the new phones and devices work easily with Office Communications Server and Office Communicator.

For the end user, all forms of incoming communication -- whether an e-mail, voice message, or instant message -- are posted in his/her Outlook inbox. Through Outlook, one could respond or interact with the sender as one sees fit.

"There remains a heavy reliance on e-mail . . . there's been a lot of questions raised about 'has business gone too far in terms of its reliance on e-mail?' A lot of that has to do with the mental cost of using what's easiest," he said. "What we're trying to offer customers is a lot of choice around how they want to deliver Voice over IP."

The phones and devices would work out-of-the-box with Microsoft's unified communications software, Rushe said. The 15 phones and devices include Internet protocol (IP) phones, Universal Serial Bus (USB) phones, wired and wireless headsets, conferencing phones, LCD monitors and laptops.

The other side of the story Rushe said is that with these devices and Microsoft's solutions, the software giant is aiming to help companies that have PBX infrastructures to prolong the lifecycle of those networks. He said companies recognize VoIP is the future communications platform though PBX infrastructures typically stay in place for up to a decade. That the move to IP-PBX is potentially very costly, by providing a software-powered VoIP solution alongside an existing telephony infrastructure, the customer could reap the benefits of VoIP functionality at a lower cost.

"A lot of what we're trying to do with our channel partners in order to bring these solutions to market includes investing heavily both on our traditional Microsoft partners with expertise in Exchange Server and Office Communication Server as well as ramping them up on voice capabilities," he said. "We're also looking at traditional telecommunications channel partners to help ramp them up on the Microsoft technologies . . . partners with capabilities around PBX technology and the integration with telephony environments. One of the big advantages of our software-powered VoIP solution is the ability to integrate it into legacy environments."

Rushe added Microsoft would bring the new solutions to market in a services to an on-premise continuum. Customers could purchase either the on-premise solution (buying the servers, software and implementation) or as a hosted model through hosting partners customers could buy on a per user, per month basis.

"Customers want the ability to communications-enable business processes," he said. "We're providing the ability through applications people are already using daily to launch communications from all of those applications regardless of what mode it is."

All 15 VoIP devices will begin rolling out to the public by July, Rushe added.