Gates Launches Microsoft VoIP Portfolio, Predicts Demise of PBX

"We can bring a well-tested solution that [combines] Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Apple and BlackBerry and legacy voicemail," said Richard McLeod, director of unified communications solutions for worldwide channels at Cisco, San Jose, Calif. "It's a superior solution for customers."

During a live demonstration at the event, Microsoft showed how a user could tap into a multitude of its products, including Outlook Voice Access speech recognition interface, Outlook Mobile and Communicator to conduct business from the road. The vendor's click-to-call interface allows users to see the presence of co-workers and other contacts and communicate with them via phone call, IM or videoconference from whatever device they are on.

Setting up a multi-party video call is now as easy as dragging and dropping names from the Office Communicator contact list.

In addition to the product rollout, Raikes also revealed that 800 solution providers have attained Microsoft's unified communications specialization since it was launched four months ago.

Channel partners eager for the launch expect to pull products from a variety of vendors into Microsoft-based unified communications solutions.

Don Wisdom, president of Datalink Networks, a Microsoft partner based in Santa Clarita, Calif., plans to exploit his partnerships with Mitel and Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve networking division to build unified communications solutions.

"This is very exciting for us, as we are one of Microsoft's key partners for unified communications," Wisdom said. "Microsoft and Mitel have a very good working relationship, and we brought Mitel on because Mitel and ProCurve have a good relationship."

Mitel was one of 50 technology and services partners on hand to showcase OCS-ready offerings. The company has plans for a server built around OCS to meet the specialized needs of SMB and vertical market customers, Raikes said.

Nortel Networks, which forged a unified communications partnership with Microsoft over a year ago, rolled out a large portfolio of OCS-compatible products, including Nortel Converged Office, which integrates the telephony features of Nortel's IP-PBX with OCS and Nortel Multimedia Conferencing 5.0, which supports conferencing across a mix of client types, including desktops, analog, digital or IP phones.

Pricing for OCS is $500 for the Standard version server or $2,800 for the Enterprise version. Client support for IM and presence costs $21 per user, while the addition of conferencing and VoIP capabilities costs $97 per user. The RoundTable videoconferencing unit is priced at $3,000.