Microsoft broadens office communication

By Ken Doyle

According to Gates, Office has moved beyond word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The new focus is on companywide document collaboration, information sharing and online conferencing.

At the core of this vision is a new product, Office Communicator 2005, that brings together different forms of communication: instant messaging (IM), video conferencing and - most notably - telephony, including support for traditional PBX phone systems as well as wireless and voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP).

Communicator 2005 will replace Windows Messenger and is the first Microsoft IM client to support other popular protocols, such as Yahoo and AOL. The application will integrate with Office 2003 and will have limited support in Office XP. Communicator is scheduled for release this summer.

On the server end, an update to the existing Live Communications Server will provide support for Communicator clients and more control over IM security. The new version also promises better performance for companies that require a large number of simultaneous connections to the server.

The third piece of the puzzle is provided by the recent update to Microsoft's Web-conferencing application, Live Meeting, which introduces enhanced media controls and tighter integration with the Office suite.

Users of the popular online meeting service from WebEx (www.webex.com) will be pleased to know that it has announced support for Communicator 2005. Through this integration, WebEx users will be able to hold meetings internally on local networks as well as over the Internet.

Since the future of Office is clearly aimed at the enterprise market, small businesses will see little need to upgrade. After all, in a small office, it's easier (and much less expensive) to walk over to a colleague's desk for an impromptu meeting or to hand over a document.

However, even large companies should evaluate their communications needs carefully before making a commitment to Communicator. Like most Microsoft packages, several components (both server- and client-side) are required to obtain full functionality, and the cost for upgrading can be considerable. At this time, pricing for the new applications has not been disclosed.

In a sense, this evolution was essential for Microsoft, as the last two versions of Office have hardly introduced compelling reasons for business users to upgrade. By going beyond document creation and focusing on information sharing, Microsoft hopes to keep up with the changing needs of its enterprise customers.

Although other companies, such as WebEx and Raindance Communications (www.raindance.com) have offered similar services for a while, Microsoft has proved that being first doesn't necessarily mean being successful. It should be interesting to watch the rest of the online communications marketplace shift in response to Microsoft's new vision.

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