A NetworkWorld article summarizing the acquisition says “Aspect will apply SharePoint directly to contact centers, for example, enabling such services as expert search in which agents can find subject matter experts company-wide to answer callers’ questions.”

It should be interesting to see how Aspect takes the skills and intellectual property of Quilogy and expands its portfolio of unified communications and contact center offerings.

That will be significantly different in 2010. Following on the heels of Windows 7, and Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft has a busy year of product launches including OCS 2010, SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, and eventually (keep your fingers crossed) Windows Mobile 7 just to name a few. The way these products integrate and work together to deliver a seamless experience will revolutionize Microsoft unified communications and raise the bar for UC in general.

My friend and fellow Microsoft MVP Joe Schurman wrote up a detailed look back at Microsoft Unified Communications in 2009, as well as some thoughts on what 2010 has in store and his own insight on where things should go if Microsoft wants to dominate this market.

As a IT solutions provider, BT has been one of the leading champions of unified communications. BT has been a strong partner and supporter of Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft unified communications solutions. Cisco, on the other hand, is one of Microsoft’s biggest competitors in the UC arena.

The fact remains, though, that Microsoft is a software solution that relies on third-party networking and telecommunications hardware, and Cisco happens to be a leader in those areas. The combination of BT and Cisco, and the ability to integrate Cisco hardware and software with OCS 2007 should provide a powerful and cost effective UC solution for those who would rather not invest in their own UC infrastructure.

As John Blake, head of hosted IP telephony evolution for BT, is quoted saying in this article, “Business haven’t the money to invest in new technology, but they desperately need new technology.”

In a press release, Niel Levonius, director of business strategy for AltiGen said “AltiGen is the first vendor to be certified as both an integrated call center solution and intelligent gateway solution with direct SIP integration to Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007.”

Levonius added “With a rich set of UC application functionality natively integrated to OCS 2007, AltiGen is able to uniquely offer Microsoft customers a powerful alternative to other Unified Communications technologies. Finally, customers are able to deploy a complete end-to-end 100% Microsoft-based Unified Communications solution.”

Logitech announced the purchase of LifeSize Communications for $405 million. LifeSize has an established presence providing high-definition equipment for corporate video-conferencing systems. With 9,000 customers spanning 80 countries, LifeSize is not a newcomer to the field.

The move pits Logitech against major players in this market like Cisco and HP. Logitech can take LifeSize and do battle against Cisco and HP on its own, or it could conceivably pair up with Microsoft. A symbiotic relationship between Microsoft’s unified communications and conferencing software and the Logitech / LifeSize hardware could be a win-win for both parties and create a whole greater than the sum of its parts for facing off against Cisco and HP.

IBM had some serious issues during a live demonstration of its UC technologies at the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Its a presenter’s nightmare. I am sure the stuff works better than that and I assume they even rehearsed the presentation just fine. But, during the actual live presentation all of sudden the bandwidth wasn’t there to deliver a smooth experience. C’est la vie.

IBM rebounded from that experience and moved on to issuing challenges to Microsoft. Basically- IBM says its UC solution is superior to Microsoft’s and its willing to prove it in a head-to-head, mano-a-mano, cage match at VoiceCon in Spring of 2010.

What do you think? Will Microsoft accept the challenge? Can IBM hold its own in a cage match with Microsoft UC?

Perhaps IBM can also get Hulk Hogan for a new marketing campaign?

I had an iPhone for a few months. I enjoyed it, and I felt like it had a lot of really cool features, but in the end I found the fact that there is ‘an app for that’ for so many things to be more of a distraction and a time-suck than a value. I also missed Office Communicator Mobile and my Office Mobile applications so I eventually traded my iPhone for the AT&T (HTC) Tilt– a Windows Mobile 6.0 device.

New phones are emerging with the potential to challenge the iPhone for rock star status among mobile devices. The HTC Pure isn’t really one of them, but it is the crown jewel of the Windows Mobile 6.5 devices which recently hit the streets. I’m debating holding my breath to see if the HTC HD2 comes to AT&T when Windows Mobile 7 is unleashed, but that seems like a long time to wait for a rumored device on a vaporware OS that may not even be offered through my wireless provider if/when it does arrive.

Back to the iPhone though. The iPhone is the #2 smart phone in America. It is lower on the global totem pole, but as it begins to be offered through multiple providers in China that could quickly change. However, there is a reason that Nokia and RIM have so much of the smart phone market share and it has a lot to do with the ability to integrate with enterprise networks and applications. Until Apple gets an app for that it is going to have a tough time being a serious threat in the enterprise.

The flip side of that point though is that Microsoft could do itself a favor and extend its reach by working with Apple to make that happen. The iPhone is a formidable mobile device and it is hugely popular. Microsoft should develop Office Communicator Mobile and Office Mobile apps for the iPhone to promote the use of Microsoft products no matter what mobile platform is being used.

The ability to provide some sort of failover redundancy or site resiliency has been seen as an Achilles heel of Microsoft Office Communications Server. Microsoft has made some enhancements though in R2 and produced a white paper describing how to accomplish site resiliency with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2.

Here is the description Microsoft provides for the white paper:

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

To make things even easier to monitor and manage, Microsoft has developed a Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft provides the following overview of the capabilities of this tool:

The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 provides real-time insight into the health and performance of key Forefront Security for Office Communications Server (Version 10) components and services. The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack alerts the administrator to critical events affecting the security of their OCS environment. Proactive management of the Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server environment is facilitated through management pack activity reports on IM scan performance.

Feature Bullet Summary

• Monitoring of current license state
• Monitoring of Antimalware Engine health and update activity
• Monitoring of IM Scan Job availability
• Monitoring health of required Forefront Security for OCS services
• Reports on key Forefront for OCS performance counters

As it turns out, not every organization is running OCS 2007. I know, right? There are even a vast number of small and medium businesses with no enterprise instant messaging solution. Go figure. Many organizations rely on free IM options- AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, etc.

Microsoft had two announcements this week that change the landscape for instant messaging with OCS 2007. First, it released the XMPP gateway for OCS R2.  The new gateway expands the options for IM by enabling connectivity to systems such as Google Talk and Jabber. 

The second announcement was that connectivity with AOL is now included in the licensing price, along with Windows Live, which was announced a few months ago.  That means that OCS 2007 R2 can connect with AIM and Windows Live Messenger accounts without the need to purchase Public IM Connectivity (PIC) licenses.

Organizations that want/need to connect with Yahoo IM accounts will still have to purchase the necessary PIC licenses.