Microsoft, IBM Execs On Collaboration

CRN: Can you talk about VAR opportunities with the new Office Communicator Web Access client?

PALL: Customers [want] to integrate presence and IM [instant messaging] into their apps, a lot of which are written in multitier architectures where you have portals and are mostly accessed through the browser. Communicator Web Access is built on AJAX, [and that means] you can actually take AJAX controls and embed them into portals and into apps, which we think is incredibly powerful. That’s a big opportunity. Integrators are doing a lot of the work in building, maintaining and updating these apps.

CRN: The plan was to converge Live Communications Server and Live Meeting architecture over time. PALL: I can’t discuss time frames, but it’s something we’re actively working on.

CRN: Microsoft has a variety of realtime stuff, some overlapping between MSN and your group. Can you parse it?

PALL: MSN is focused on consumers; the scenarios are buddies and friends and friends of friends, exchanging pictures [and/or] personal information between families or individuals. We’re focused on information workers, anything that has to do with info workers and IT managers.

CRN: How much of the realtime collaboration stuff will stay separate, and how much will flow into the Vista or Longhorn operating systems? PALL: There’s an evolution; as solutions come out [they are] much more integrated around the scenario. Then the platform will start emerging with provider interfaces, with apps on the top and [service] providers on the bottom, then sort of a middleware platform [in between]. I suspect many components will be built that way in the future. Now we’ll focus on making sure the right scenarios can be enabled. At the same time, we’re mindful of platforms. This whole AJAX thing we did in Communicator Web Access was to make sure whenever there’s an interesting opportunity for integration that we have a platform for the customer.

CRN: Google is expected to come out with calendaring and other things that will encroach on your realm. Which competitors worry you?

PALL: Google has promised a lot, some things are in perpetual beta. But they are in a different segment at this time at least. IBM is probably the most traditional competitor we have. I can see over time, as convergence happens, some others. Oracle is aspiring in the collaboration space, folks like Webex in point solutions, Jabber in IM.

CRN: IBM had Sametime [enterprise IM] out early, but it seems not to be a big emphasis now.

PALL: It’s hard to speculate [on what] IBM is doing with Sametime, I know there was realignment from Lotus to Workplace.