Microsoft Small Biz VoIP Gets New Features, Hardware

Microsoft Tuesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston released its first major upgrade to Response Point, the vendor's small-business VoIP system software.

Response Point Service Pack 1, available now via a free download, adds support for SIP trunking, click-to-call functionality, a call history log and the ability to select music for parked calls and hold time.

Microsoft also revealed that the Aastra Telecom division of Aastra Technolgies, its most recent Response Point OEM partner, is debuting its first Response Point-based hardware platform, dubbed AastraLink RP. Response Point, targeted at businesses with up to 50 users, is available on systems from three OEM partners: Aastra, D-Link Systems and Quanta Computer.

Aastra's AastraLink RP VoIP family

D-Link and Quanta launched their systems in November. Both vendors will roll out SP1 to their respective Voice Center IP Phone System and Syspine systems.

A key feature of the software upgrade is the introduction of support for SIP trunking, which enables end-to-end VoIP calling with the Response Point system, said Richard Sprague, senior director of Response Point for Microsoft, Redmond, Wash. Channel partners can become agents to sell VoIP services from Microsoft's service provider partners, including Cbeyond and New Global Telecom, he said. Microsoft also unveiled the addition of Junction Networks as its third VoIP service provider.

SIP trunking and click-to-call functionality via Outlook are two key features that channel partners have been waiting for, said William Brown, associate vice president of technology at D-Link. Another is on its way, he said. "Probably in SP2 we'll get the ability for multiple Voice Centers to be linked as one."

Solution provider Available Networks, which focuses on the SMB space, plans to use the launch of AastraLink RP as the foundation for its new VoIP push.

"[SIP trunking] is going to be very significant for our customers," said Jeff Loucks, CEO of Available Technology, a solution provider in St. Catharines, Ontario. "People talk about how it lowers costs, but it's really about enabling you to work from home or from different locations. They can get away and the system recognizes them as if they were in the office."

Response Point systems still do not support T1 lines, a feature that some channel partners have said will limit the platform to only the smallest of customers. But Loucks said the addition of SIP trunking overshadows the lack of T1 support.

"Honestly, SIP trunking is the better way to go. T1 is only for markets where they just can't get reliable Internet," Loucks said, adding that while those areas still exist, there are fewer and fewer of them.

NEXT: Aastra's New Hardware Options