The rest of the VoIP industry is now preparing for the waves that a Microsoft toe can cause.
Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes said the company expects that within three years 100 million – twice the number of VoIP users in the world today – will have the ability to make phone calls from Office applications.
In three years, the cost to businesses of voice over IP solutions would be half of what it is today as VOIP systems moved from hardware to software, Mr Raikes said.
The company would later this month release beta versions of its Office Communications Server 2007 – Microsoft’s VoIP server – and Office Communicator 2007 client product for public testing, he said.
Millions of users are expected to become involved in the beta process.
“Software is set to transform business phone systems as profoundly as it has transformed virtually every other form of workplace communication,” he said.
“Over time, the software-based VoIP technology built into Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will offer so much value and cost savings that it will make the standard telephone look like that old typewriter that’s gathering dust in the stockroom.”
Microsoft says its VOIP server and client technology represents the most important new communications technology since Outlook – the company’s email client – was launch in 1997.
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