Microsoft rolls out real-time lineup

Microsoft last week began to pull together its real-time communication platform and to deliver the pieces that corporations will need to build instant messaging and presence awareness into their applications and networks.

The company announced the imminent release of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, the corporate client for its real-time platform. It also announced upgrades to its Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS) instant messaging/presence platform and Live Meeting Web conferencing service. However, despite these plans, analysts say Microsoft still has a way to go to provide the capabilities it has promised.

"It is quite astounding that Microsoft has not been able to deploy a good IM system before," says David Ferris, president of Ferris Research. Microsoft's first effort came with Exchange 2000, but the technology was yanked in the 2003 version and eventually became LCS. Today, Office System is the centerpiece for real-time communication and collaboration, which includes Outlook, Communicator, Exchange, Office, SharePoint, Live Communication Server and Live Meeting.

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Microsoft last week began to pull together its real-time communication platform and to deliver the pieces that corporations will need to build instant messaging and presence awareness into their applications and networks.

The company announced the imminent release of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, the corporate client for its real-time platform. It also announced upgrades to its Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS) instant messaging/presence platform and Live Meeting Web conferencing service. However, despite these plans, analysts say Microsoft still has a way to go to provide the capabilities it has promised.

"It is quite astounding that Microsoft has not been able to deploy a good IM system before," says David Ferris, president of Ferris Research. Microsoft's first effort came with Exchange 2000, but the technology was yanked in the 2003 version and eventually became LCS. Today, Office System is the centerpiece for real-time communication and collaboration, which includes Outlook, Communicator, Exchange, Office, SharePoint, Live Communication Server and Live Meeting.

Ferris says Microsoft is playing catch-up to rival IBM/Lotus, which has delivered IM and real-time capabilities for years. "Microsoft customers should be happy the company is showing a way forward, especially those committed to the Windows platform," he says.

The way forward starts with Communicator, which was released in beta last November under the code name Istanbul .

The client integrates presence information, instant messaging, voice, video, Web conferencing and telephony into a desktop interface. The client, when integrated with a PBX, can be used for call control such as call forwarding and multi-call conferencing. Microsoft is working with partners Siemens and Alcatel's Genesys to provide telephony integration with LCS 2005 and Communicator.

Microsoft also is planning a Web-based version of Communicator that will run in a browser on Windows 9.x and non-Microsoft platforms. Microsoft also plans to continue support for its current Windows Messenger IM client. Pricing was not announced for Communicator.

LCS 2005 Service Pack 1, the Session Initiation Protocol -based back-end server for Communicator, and Live Meeting 2005, an upgrade to Microsoft's Web conferencing service, also were unveiled last week.

LCS 2005 SP 1 includes support for Communicator and technology to connect LCS with AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant messaging platforms. Live Meeting 2005 includes integration with Office applications and Active Directory, and streaming audio features.

Despite the added features, Microsoft didn't say anything about multi-party support in the client or a premises-based server for Web conferencing, which are two things rival IBM/Lotus is offering customers.

"There are gaps that Microsoft has in its product line ,and they need to get some more capabilities," says Ed Brill, business unit executive for worldwide sales at IBM/Lotus. "But building a new client and one that predicates the entire Office 2003 suite is about the way you would expect them to do it."