* VoiceCon news from Nortel and Microsoft
In addition to the VoiceCon Fall announcements and demonstrations we highlighted last time, today we’d like to point to news from Nortel and Microsoft, which expanded their strategic relationship.
The latest cooperative initiative provides collaborative real-time capabilities for businesses through the integration of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and Office Live Communication Server with Nortel’s open, SIP-based communications product. The package would provide desktop call control, using Microsoft Office Communicator for telephony infrastructures built on Nortel Communication Server 1000. It would also provide access to critical applications such as unified messaging, contact center and self-service via the Nortel Applications Center.
With this announcement, Nortel joins Siemens and Alcatel in similar cooperative agreements with Microsoft.
Nortel announced new products, including a WLAN handset, an IP phone, CallPilot Unified Messaging 4.0, Secure Multimedia Controller 2450, Multimedia Communications Server 3.5, Survivable Remote Gateway 50, and Communications Server 1000 Release 4.5.
After the Nortel/Microsoft announcement was made, we went over to the Microsoft demonstration of Office Communicator. In the demonstration, Microsoft showed how the software offers a unified messaging GUI that can be used to integrate with a third party’s PBX extension. Unlike previous Microsoft PC-to-PC voice calls, the voice quality on the PC-to-PBX demo call was excellent. The product offers integrated PC-to-PBX presence management and instant messaging, and of course it is integrated with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange.
