Microsoft Kills Response Point
Response Point is Dead, Long Live OCS
By Alex Lewis on Thu, 07/02/09 - 10:52pm.
The sharks have been circling for awhile and now it looks like it's official. Response Point, Microsoft's SMB VoIP platform, is dead. Earlier this summer Microsoft announced its first substantial layoffs in memory and with it purged most of the Response Point team.
Current customers have been eagerly awaiting a new version of Response Point, something they've been promised for well over a year now. You see, Response Point is like a lot of Microsoft 1.0 products. It had a lot of bugs but the promise of a bright future. Now, unfortunately, that future will never be realized. And current customers will be stuck with a poorly supported, buggy VoIP platform. The VAR Guy compares it to IBM's OS/2.
Most SMBs choose "simple" products because they don't have dedicated IT resources nor the time to build expert-level knowledge on their own. Companies like Evangelyze built their reputation on being able to make Response Point work well and keep it working for a number of SMB customers. Unfortunately RP never was much of a do-it-yourself type platform.
So, where does this leave current Response Point customers? Well, it's not like Microsoft doesn't have a credible VoIP platform. Microsoft has been ramping up OCS, Office Communications Server, over the last 2 years and it's now a common name in most companies. Right now it's targeted at the mid-market and small enterprise, 500-2500 users with hopes to jump into many larger accounts soon. However I've done plenty of small OCS implementations as well. It's outstanding as a pbx-replacement for 25-100 users (and larger). It can be done in just a few servers and be basically zero-touch day-to-day.
With the death of Response Point Microsoft will need to start directing customers to OCS. And, it will need a lot of help from SI's and VARs. SMBs will also need to get over the intimidation of deploying a true enterprise platform with little to no in-house support.
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OCS is pretty tough for a
OCS is pretty tough for a small business. There are better options such as 3CX Phone System for Windows.
A lot of options
There are a lot of third party options, however Microsoft in particular only has OCS to offer at this point. Microsoft reps aren't going to recommend someone else's product and it seems unlikely MS would purchase another small vendor like 3CX when it had a potential winner in Response Point.
Though a little complex I wouldn't be surprised to see a slightly dumbed down version of OCS in MS Small Business Server sometime in the future. OCS is just a little trickier than Exchange when talking about simple scenarios and Exchange has been in SBS for years.
Incorrect information
Alex,
Good article, but a bit of incorrect info in that Evangelyze provided about 1% of it's business with Response Point and built our reputation around selling and deploying more Unified Communications projects than any other voice specialized partner for Microsoft worldwide. EC is focused on the enterprise Unified Communications platform and had tried to build a bridge between OCS and RP as a viable branch office solution. Unfortunately, the product never aligned with Microsoft's UC strategy and product roadmap. Based on our experience and expertise within the UC platform and developing solutions on top of the platform, we are now helping mid-market RP customers transition to OCS Standard Edition for now until a viable Microsoft branch office solution is released.
Joe Schurman
Founder, CEO
Evangelyze Communications
http://www.evangelyze.net
Missed the point
Joe, I think you misunderstood. I was actually giving your company, Evangelyze, a compliment as one of the few partners focused on making Response Point successful. I've seen many other partners fail where you managed to carve out a niche. Certainly not claiming it's the only thing you're good at... My apologies if you read it differently
Thanks Alex
No worries Alex. Just wanted to make sure readers did not get the wrong impression. Again, good article! Next step is to conslidate a package offering through OCS Standard Edition to provide service to existing RP customers to transition to OCS.
Joe Schurman
Founder, CEO
Evangelyze Communications
http://www.evangelyze.net
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