* Recent alliances, purchases foretell of Microsoft supporting complex carrier IP communications offerings
Microsoft may not fall readily off the lips when mentioning top telecommunications companies, but it is making consistent efforts to become just that.
Most recently, it has announced the purchase of VoIP vendor Teleo, which sells software and services, in an effort to secure a lock on IP voice communications.
The company doesn’t have pretensions of becoming the infrastructure provider or even the service provider. Rather it wants to be the face of communications on the access devices and integrate with whatever IP network is out there to carry the traffic.
While the purchase of Teleo is a step in that direction that gives Microsoft technology of its own, it has also been making alliances with other vendors to integrate with carrier network equipment. It made its first thrust in this direction earlier this year via alliances with Nortel, Sylantro Systems and AT&T, and reaffirmed them more recently with a new round of integration with Nortel gear.
The latest Nortel alliance means end users can use Microsoft platforms – Communicator and Office Live Communications server – to make voice calls with all the features that Nortel’s CS 1000 VoIP platform supports, establish presence and integrate voice, e-mail and instant messaging.
While some might view this as Microsoft’s continuing attempts to get its fingers in anything hot, its involvement in VoIP and messaging can have benefits for end users. The most notable is that end users are by and large familiar with Microsoft desktops, so the learning curve will be less steep if the time comes when Microsoft is chosen as well for the communications platform.
Microsoft is also trying to convince carriers that they might want to include some of its software platforms in their networks, notably Connected Services Framework (CSF), software for pulling together the pieces needed to build complex carrier services. Microsoft has AT&T on board to integrate CSF into its network, which would be a coup if it comes off. AT&T, remember, is in the process of being bought by SBC. That doesn’t mean the partnership won’t continue, but the scope of the plan could change.
Even under ideal conditions, expectations are that nothing concrete will come of this arrangement until sometime next year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is working with Sylantro to enable its applications to work with Sylantro’s VoIP technology to create richer collaboration services that carriers can sell. The plan includes tying Microsoft’s Office Communicator, due out this fall, with Sylantro’s VoIP service software to create a service in which Communicator will display whether the customer is available by phone, instant messaging, e-mail or other means.
In making purchases and alliances to increase its influence in VoIP and integrated communications for businesses and carriers, Microsoft is making some smart moves. Given its financial might, it is worth keeping an eye out for its next move.
