Sigh. Where to begin? And where does it all end? Microsoft and unified communications, Microsoft and Facebook, and Microsoft and...RFID?? Why, it's almost scary - and on Halloween, no less!
Face the First: Microsoft recently announced a bunch of stuff related to unified communications, as ranted about here previously. As I said then, I have a bit more to say about that.
Specifically, questions remain/abound about how, when, and whether Microsoft will integrate its Response Point voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) solution for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with its Office Communications Server and Office Communicator 2007 client software, which are designed for larger enterprises. (Microsoft recently announced pricing for Response Point systems, as ably covered by my Microsoft Subnet blogmates at Micronet.)
As SMBs become more and more reliant upon IT to do business, their requirements start to look more and more like those of their larger counterparts - but SMBs have WAY fewer resources to throw at their IT problems. So vendors from IBM (with its "Express" offerings) to, well, Microsoft have historically tailored solutions for SMBs (and the resellers that frequently support and guide them).
But how will Microsoft and its ecosystem of channel partners help SMBs decide whether to go with Response Point or OCS? Response Point is designed for companies of 1 to 50 employees, according to Microsoft. But there are a lot of 50-employee companies with communications needs beyond what Response Point seems able to do today. (And it's based on an embedded version of Windows XP, which while fairly powerful, is not the newest software technology out there...or even at Microsoft.)
Eventually, interested SMB decision-makers and their channel partners will need a road map describing how Response Point will evolve, and if and how it will integrate and interoperate with OCS. Those decision-makers and channel partners will also need accurate (and likely constantly evolving) help determining which solution makes the most sense for those SMBs "on the cusp" in terms of their communications requirements.
As Frost and Sullivan put it back in May, when Response Point first went into beta testing, "businesses seeking a solution that would eventually scale up to a very large number of users, will offer the ability to integrate multiple offices through an abbreviated dialing plan or hunt groups, and can support some other advanced business telephony features, will also look elsewhere for their telephony solution." Whether "elsewhere" includes Microsoft or not remains to be seen.
Face the Second: Microsoft and Facebook. Oh, boy...
