Converged voice and computing for all

Interoperability between telephony and computing systems will soon be mainstream for all business users, following the announcement that Microsoft is now working with Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Nortel and Siemens. The partners are working on enabling connection to its Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and Live Communications Server. Projects will soon mean that users of Office Communicator will be able to see if colleagues are available to receive phone calls, and on which device. They will then be able to make and receive PBX and Internet protocol-PBX calls and seamlessly switch between instant messaging and voice sessions. Work with Cisco, for example, involves integrating Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and the open (SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with the new SIP-based Cisco Unified Communications system. The objective is to help users build simple, flexible real-time systems with facilities like: ‘click to call’ from Office Communicator; viewing Cisco Unified IP Phone presence status from within Office Communicator; and transferring between instant messaging and voice sessions. Meanwhile, Alcatel OmniPCX, Alcatel OmniTouch and MyTeamwork and Alcatel Genesys Enterprise Telephony Software (GETS) will interface with Live Communications Server and Office Communicator to provide ‘voice collaboration’. The result: users will be able to work with colleagues, access availability and presence information, and manage phone calls and conferencing among computers and desktop phones using TDM and/or next-generation IP networks. As for Nortel, that work is about integrating Nortel IP telephony systems with Live Communications Server 2005 to provide SIP-based, business-grade desktop call control. And the partnership with Siemens is to deliver a family of enterprise-grade, presence-enhanced calling, video and web conferencing.