Microsoft Unveils Pricing for Small Biz VoIP System

While solution providers anxiously await the release of Microsoft's unified communications product portfolio later this month, the company in the meantime is making strides to bring its small business VoIP wares to market.

Microsoft on Tuesday said it has released its Response Point phone system to manufacturing, meaning that OEM partners D-Link and Quanta Computer will soon have general availability for products based on the software. Microsoft also said both partners will be pricing their products below $3,000.

Microsoft joins vendors such as 3Com, Cisco Systems and Digium in recently targeting VoIP systems at small businesses.

The systems, which include VoIP call processing and features such as voicemail, call forwarding and integration with Microsoft Outlook, are targeted at small-business customers with up to 50 users, though they will scale higher, said Jeff Smith, senior product manager at Microsoft, Redmond, Wash.

Microsoft's small business VoIP move comes two weeks ahead of the planned launch of Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 and other communications products at a launch event in San Francisco on October 16. Smith noted that Response Point systems were built from the ground up as small business solutions and are not designed to work as branch office systems off of larger OCS deployments.

Two OEM partners, D-Link and Quanta, are preparing to ship product bundles within the next few months that package Microsoft software with their base hardware units, gateways and phones.

Systems based on Response Point software will be available to solution providers via the distributors working with D-Link and Quanta, including D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro, Synnex, Tech Data and several others.

"I've looked into Response Point, and it looks like a compelling solution for small businesses who just want basic PBX features like dial tone and voice mail," said Travis Fisher, executive vice president at Inacom Information Systems, Salisbury, Md., via e-mail. "They say that it will support up to 100 extensions, but my guess is that businesses with 40-plus users will be looking for a more sophisticated solution [with] things like toll bypass, screen pops, SIP compatibility, custom apps on the phone, etc."

NEXT: Vendors outline their product plans