Microsoft News Tracker

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. and Alcatel today announced a formal alliance to market a customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center solution for midsize companies with contact centers of 25 to 150 agent positions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and Latin America. The joint solution will bring together Alcatel’s OmniTouch Contact Center Premium Edition developed on Microsoft® Windows Server System™, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 and Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0, Microsoft’s newly launched customer relationship management solution. Integrated with this offering is the Genesys Gplus Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which enables voice interaction management for both Internet protocol (IP) and traditional circuit switched telephony and multimedia (Web, e-mail, fax, etc.).

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will launch a series of go-to-market activities such as customer forums and partner engagement events that include co-channel development, education and training, and certification for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

Serendipitously, Alcatel is merging with Lucent who is suing Microsoft for patent infringement.

Matt Rolak has the news at the The Office Live Team’s Blog:

Since we debuted our waitlist for the Microsoft Office Live Beta back in November 2005 we have had over 275,000 customers sign-up in our Beta waitlist, and we thank each and every one of them for signing up. But what we’ve heard over and over is: please don’t make me wait in a list; I want to try Office Live NOW!! So, good news to everyone who hasn’t already gotten a product key, your wait is over (maybe before it even started!)

We have dropped the requirement of a product key from our signup! The Beta is still only open to US residents for now, but ANY US resident with a valid credit card can sign up for the Beta and experience Office Live! All you need to do now is pick your product (Basics, Collaboration or Essentials) and pick your domain. So head over to www.OfficeLive.com now to get your Beta subscription started.

There are more details about the levels in the original Office Live announcement, but I’m a little puzzled as to who the 275,000 customers for the Office Live services beta can be unless they all want to test the collaboration offering. It would have to be a small business that doesn’t have an Internet domain, but is willing to wait until the beta starts to get one? How likely is that?

Rachael Rosmarin has the scoop at Forbes:

Europe is typically the last major region to receive a newly launched videogame console, but today it was the first to receive word on pricing for the Sony PlayStation 3.

The high-end gaming machine will cost between 499 euros and 599 euros—that’s between $600 and $730—according to vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe George Fornay, who spilled the beans on the air while a guest at France’s Europe 1 radio station.

Prices elsewhere won’t necessarily be a direct currency conversion, of course.

These comments from Fornay represent the first bits of PS3 pricing information from Sony since Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi told gamers the console would “be expensive,” at the E3 convention in Los Angeles in May 2005.

Sounds more like “too expensive.” More by following the link.

Update: Christopher Grant has more at Joystiq including some further remarks from Mr. Fornay:

He was sure to point out that while this might sound like a lot of money for a game system, it was in fact cheap for a Blu-ray compatible playback system.

It’s a Blu-ray player and a home server. I wonder if you can play games on it?

Update 4/6: Tony Smith at The Register reports Sony claims PS3 pricing leak ‘incorrect’:

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has claimed reports that its senior staffers let slip how much the company plans to charge for the PlayStation 3 when the console ships next November are “incorrect”.

Instead, head of the the company’s French operation, Georges Fornay, says he was “misunderstood” when he appeared to indicate a price range for the PS3 during an interview with French radio station Europe 1 this week.

Hit the link for details of the “explanation.”

Microsoft wants us to know that they’re thinking of all those portable gadget vendors out there who want to sell premium entertainment content to their subscribers:

Today at CTIA WIRELESS 2006, Microsoft Corp. announced it will make significant investments in its digital rights management (DRM) technologies to enable a new offering and drive scenarios that support the wireless industry. As wireless delivery of content to mobile handsets continues to grow at a rapid pace, this commitment of resources and manpower will help enable next-generation mobile entertainment scenarios for consumers.

“We’re responding to our wireless partners around the world who are asking for a solution to enable new scenarios in the industry,” said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. “We want to give consumers what they want —seamless experiences with premium content on a wide range of mobile devices.”

The more than 800 million mobile handsets sold worldwide each year represent a largely untapped market for digital entertainment. Microsoft’s commitment to capitalizing on this opportunity is the result of ongoing discussions with many of the wireless industry’s largest firms.

Microsoft® Windows Media® Digital Rights Management (DRM) is broadly licensed and deployed by more than 100 content services and on hundreds of devices. The platform helps protect and securely deliver content for playback on computers, mobile devices and portable devices. It supports a wide range of business models that include download and play, subscription, and video on demand, and enables device manufacturers to directly acquire licenses on their handsets. The breadth of scenarios supported by Windows Media DRM directly correlates to its status as the most widely used DRM system worldwide. The platform will serve as a key building block to enable new and innovative scenarios for mobile content delivery — an important request of wireless industry leaders.

No word on exactly how much they are investing.

In a nutshell, a beta of Speech Server 2007 will be released in May with the product release planned for late 2006. If you aren’t familiar with Speech Server 2007, it’s “Microsoft’s next-generation speech and telephony platform to help contact centers and businesses meet the challenge of reducing costs while improving automated customer service over the telephone.” Just think of it the next time you hear “Your call is important to us.”

The press release has more details on what is new in Speech Server 2007 including support for SALT, VoiceXML, and VoIP plus new analysis tools and a new .NET API. As for the bottom line:

Over the past two years, Speech Server 2004 has been embraced by more than 100 customers in the United States and Canada. More than 40,000 telephony ports of capacity have been licensed, and Speech Server customers are successfully answering more than 10 million calls per month on the platform.

Seems like a comfy niche.