Office Communications Server Heads to RTM

The last week of July is often an important manufacturing milestone for computer companies. Earlier this afternoon, Microsoft proved that's still the case with no fewer than five major announcements in the development arena. A few hours later, its communications division said it is proceeding with plans to release to manufacturing tomorrow its ambitious Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 (the client module) - the keystones of its Unified Communications strategy.

But this time around, adopting this new Microsoft product isn't just a matter of ripping out one piece of software and replacing it with another. UC is an entirely new mindset for corporate communications, and whether it's necessarily better than the current mix of landline telephony with cellular communications with instant messaging, may not be proven for at least the next few years. For businesses even considering UC, it's an investment that is certainly bound to become historic no matter what the outcome.

So to that end, Microsoft is hoping that a white paper will help businesses consider the possible advantages. This afternoon, it's pointing customers to a paper by analyst Art Rosenberg of The Unified View, entitled, "Microsoft Software Enables Progressive Enterprise Migration to Unified Communications."

The tone of Rosenberg's white paper goes the direction Microsoft would clearly appreciate: The move toward unified communications, as he explains it, is an evolution that is happening - like it or not - and Microsoft just happens to be on hand to bring that evolution about.

"The traditional telephone has always been unnecessarily complex and inefficient for callers initiating time-sensitive business contacts," he writes, "for several reasons, including telephony's unawareness of a called party's location and availability, its limited visual interface for reference information, and its lack of continuity from one call to the next ('contextual call management'). This is all beginning to change as IP telephony applications join the Internet communication revolution of unified message management with the flexibility of wireless network access, a choice of speech and visual user interfaces, and the practical integration of telephone calling with personalized presence and availability management under the umbrella of unified communications (UC)."

[portfolio_slideshow id=28217]The factor consistently driving businesses in the direction of UC, like geese flying south in the winter or some similar force of nature, is return on investment, as Rosenberg sees it. For an enterprise, that ROI is recognized in four departments: procurement and administration costs (assuming new equipment is easier and less expensive to purchase and maintain); mobile services costs; productivity benefits (reducing the time spent by users operating those confusing, current-generation cell phones); and reducing the time it takes for contacts to network with one another.

It's that third item that may raise some eyebrows. Rosenberg explains: "We define 'micro-productivity' as the timesaving efficiencies realized by individual end users because of new communication capabilities and procedures that improve their personal job performance. By making the transition between all forms of communication 'seamless' and easy to use whenever needed, end users can more flexibly and efficiently initiate contacts and respond to others, minimizing the time spent in communicating."

But as far as helping enterprises along the path to planning a migration to UC, Rosenberg is somewhat more vague. For his section entitled, "UC Migration: Where Do You Start?" he launches with the following exact quote, in a paragraph to itself: "It all depends!"

As for what it all depends on, exactly, he recommends enterprises conduct extensive studies to see where their time and resources are currently being wasted, in order to ascertain just what it is they'll be saving once the migration process is complete. Rosenberg's presentation is very similar to several seen five years ago, which listed the benefits of businesses migrating to Windows Server 2003, before advising them that it would be difficult for them to realize just what those benefits are until after they've taken the plunge and fully migrated.

So before and after the Rosenberg white paper, UC will be a difficult sell. Official price lists for the various versions of Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, and Live Meeting 2007 will be posted to Microsoft's Web site on August 1.