While everyone’s talking about the announcement made last week between Microsoft and Aspect Software, focusing on Microsoft’s investment in Aspect and the fact that Aspect will be integrating with and supporting Microsoft’s OCS, I think the most important piece of information is missing from the announcement. Ok, so it’s big news that Microsoft is investing a significant amount of money in Aspect, and it’s also important news that Aspect will integrate its Unified IP contact center solution with OCS to provide capabilities such as “ask-an-expert capabilities” (or what I’ve been calling Expert Agent capabilities) using OCS’s presence technology. This will certainly be useful to Aspect customers, and this helps clarify Aspect’s UC strategy. I see this announcement as being very beneficial to Aspect and its customers.
But what is missing from this announcement is information on Microsoft’s contact center strategy vis a vis UC. We still have not heard what Microsoft will offer in terms of a contact center solution as part of or in conjunction with its OCS offering. Clearly Microsoft recognizes how important it is to have some sort of contact center solution offering for customers that are looking into an enterprise UC/voice solution. But the company has not disclosed any sort of contact center strategy to date.
Microsoft has several options– clearly working with Nortel, a leader in the contact center space, to provide the needed contact center capabilities is one option (and while Microsoft made it clear that its investment in Aspect does not impact its relationship with Nortel, I’m sure the Nortel folks weren’t too excited when they heard the news).
Another option is to acquire a company in the contact center market, such as Aspect or possibly Interactive Intelligence. And of course rumors persist that Microsoft will acquire Siemens Enterprise Communications, Nortel, or any number of telephony vendors, which, if true, would provide Microsoft with the needed contact center capabilities and expertise. But these are rumors and so far no truth to any of them (yet).
The cynic in me believes that there’s a good chance that Microsoft will leverage both Nortel and Aspect’s expertise, and then offer its own contact center offering, competing with both companies (although less likely Aspect since they traditionally focus on high-end solutions).
Regardless of what route Microsoft takes, it’s important for the company to articulate its contact center strategy for those companies that are looking to OCS as an enterprise voice solution. Most of those companies also have contact centers and in many cases will be looking for a contact center solution down the road. Microsoft needs an answer for them.

Tags: UC Information by Blair Pleasant
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At Microsoft UC launch, Bill Gates made it clear that communications is changing and Microsoft plans to be both a market maker and a market leader in unified communications. I was impressed by the presence of customers at the launch, from companies large and small–e.g., L’Occitane and Gibson–describing how they use OCS to integrate communications into business processes, and how they are saving money while improving productivity and customer satisfaction.

Microsoft has accomplished a lot since it announced that it was entering the UC market in June 2006. There are over 100 customers participating in Microsoft’s Technology Adoption Program (TAP), and while only a fraction of their 5 million employees are using Microsoft OCS, the potential is clear. Microsoft has over 50 go-to-market partners, including Nortel, Mitel and Polycom, with more lined up for certification over the next few months. And perhaps most important, Microsoft has recruited 800 channel partners for its unified communications portfolio, and they’ll all be hitting the streets with OCS, Exchange 2007 and SharePoint in the coming weeks and months. 

Part of the Microsoft message and promise is its strategy for enhancing its products and providing partners with APIs, software development kits (SDKs) and other tools to enable partners to innovate–and distinguish–their products as part of a Microsoft UC solution. This didn’t get much attention at the launch, but this area will be critical going forward. Microsoft hasn’t tried to hide the fact that it has not made much progress to date in providing current and potential partners with the information they need to innovate around Microsoft’s UC offerings, but it hasn’t made it very public either. For example, the phones that carry Polycom and LG Nortel’s logos are the same exact phone device–they are both based on the Microsoft reference design–the only difference is the logo. I expect to see some serious innovations from these and the other endpoint partners over the next year.

Microsoft’s primary job now is to get the OCS product out to the market; providing partners with interface specifications naturally comes later. The big questions are how much later, and how much control will Microsoft wield on its partners. Given Microsoft’s reputation for dictating to its partners, it will be interesting to see how much leeway will be allowed.

Also noticeably missing from the OCS launch event was a roadmap. Microsoft has delivered on what it promised over a year ago, but how well the company will perform over the next 3-5 years is a key concern. There was little discussion about future plans, and Microsoft stayed focused on the message of the day: The availability of Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Roundtable and Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Hopefully Microsoft will address its future plans and roadmap over the next few weeks.

There will be a lot of news around the Microsoft UC launch in the coming days and weeks, which is one of the reasons UCStrategies.com is adding a UC News Service. On a weekly or daily basis (depending on individual preferences), we will be sending out links to the important news from all the major news sources in our industry, along with our team’s views on these news items. Stay tuned for news on Microsoft, as well as IBM, Cisco and the other UC players, as the market unfolds.

What do you think? Drop me a note at jburton@ucstrategies.com

Jim Burton

CT-Link and UCStrategies.com

Tags: UC Information by Jim Burton
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