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Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Chicago based Parlano which sells MindAlign, an application for enterprise group chat. The plan is to add Parlano’s group chat functionality as a new feature of Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator. More specifics:
Microsoft yesterday announced a press event on October 16 featuring Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes to launch the next generation of unified communications software or more precisely, “to highlight the general availability of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.”
Jeff Raikes, the head of Microsoft’s Business Division, got to deliver some good news at today’s Financial Analyst Meeting:
During his address at Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM), Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, announced that Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator are code complete and will release to manufacturing (RTM) tomorrow. With this milestone and launch around the corner this fall, the Unified Communications Group is one step closer to fulfilling the UC promise and helping customers streamline business communications, increase productivity and lower costs.
This means that those that want OCS 2007 can get it, while the gala launch event awaits some alignment of the marketing planets this fall. Not unexpectedly, localized versions are still being worked on, however.
It’s a little more than a year since Microsoft’s Business Division (i.e. Office) unveiled their Unified Communications product road map and now the major products are starting to roll out. The real trick is going to be to convince potential business communications customers to wade into the morass of current technologies, systems, and vendors and replace them with a unified solution from Microsoft.
The crew in Mountain View apparently has time (and certainly money) to spare as evidenced by yesterday’s quiet announcement that Google had acquired Marratech, a Swedish video conferencing provider. They now join Cisco, who just acquired WebEx, and Microsoft, who has Office Live Meeting acquired with PlaceWare, in the scramble for the “unified communications” dollars.
