Microsoft SMB VoIP Solution Gets Less Than Enthusiast Response

It is no secret that Microsoft is building a set of products for the crowded SMB voip market and Response Point is one of those offerings. Response Point, consists of software from Microsoft and phones from D-Link, Uniden and Quanta. Version 1.0 of Response Point is currently in beta 2.

"From a telephony point of view, it's a disappointment. It doesn't support T1 trunking, which is important, even for small businesses," said the Microsoft partner, who requested anonymity. "All it does support is regular POTS (plain old telephone service), which isn't a long term solution for most businesses because there's no growth path."

There are plenty of options at this end of the market including the feature rich Asterisk Appliance, Tribox and others. In a statement that certain people would consider condescending:

However, Microsoft executives deflected the partners questions, said the source. "They said they want us to focus on the product that's out there right now, and not the future. I thought that response was [puzzling]," the source said.

Hopefully Microsoft has learnt that rolling out a product with a Microsoft name does not guarantee people will sell it nor people will buy it. It is going to have to work really hard and deliver a very feature rich product to make this work.

Microsoft's Small Business VoIP Fails To Impress

• VoIP / Convergence