The communication revolution has arrived

Unified communications helps improve productivity for both employees and information technology (IT) staff by allowing users to access all their messages in one place. Here's how Microsoft is contributing to improved productivity.

In Summary:

In a recent speech, Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, made some bold predictions about the future of communications. He cited estimates that in three years, Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service will cost half what it does now. An even more interesting prediction from Raikes combines communication and software technologies: In three years, 100 million workers worldwide will have the ability to click on a name within Microsoft Office Outlook and initiate a phone call to that person.

Changing the way that people communicate and the way they interact with other people is what unified communications is all about. Clint Patterson Director Microsoft Unified Communications Group

A combined voice-and-data network is efficient for both the IT staff and the office worker. IT has only one network to oversee rather than two (because both kinds of communications are consolidated onto the data network). But the ability to call just one number to find someone, or check just one electronic inbox for phone, fax, and e-mail messages—that's the productivity gain on the employee side. "Right now, when you initiate communication you're contacting a device," says Clint Patterson, a director in the Microsoft Unified Communications Group. "With this you'll be able to contact the person directly without needing to know what device they're next to."

Microsoft is working on aiding this revolution on both the client and server sides. Currently in beta is Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Like its predecessor, Live Communications Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 handles VoIP communications, conferencing applications, and presence. The product's latest enhancements include:

Conferencing. Incorporated in Office Communications Server is Office Live Meeting, which allows companies to set up audio or video conferences using one of their own servers or through a hosted service.

Presence. This feature lets users set up a profile that tells colleagues the best way to contact them—or if they don't want to be contacted at all—and allows special access to some people based on their profile (for example, usually you want your boss to be able to find you).

These two concepts work together by shortening the lag time between communications. If an employee needs to confer on a project with colleagues in different offices, she can contact them immediately, based on their presence profile, by right-clicking on their name in the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 client. She has the option of selecting either an audio or a video conference by dragging her colleagues' Office Outlook icons to an appropriate window.

"Changing the way that people communicate and the way they interact with other people is what unified communications is all about," says Patterson. "The products we're delivering are about helping people connect intuitively. We're trying to remove the barrier of technology so that it fades and becomes a natural part of the work that people are doing."

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For more information

Silicon Valley-based freelancer Howard Baldwin writes regularly for the Microsoft Midsize Business Center. His work has also appeared on AllBusiness.com and in CIO.

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