Well, the reason I am blogging about this subject is due to the large amount of emails that I have received complaining and questioning about Microsoft's VoIP strategy.  I do not work for Microsoft directly as an employee, but I can answer this question based on my experience, my contacts, and my perception of the future of VoIP as seen by the eyes of Microsoft.

To begin, Microsoft has four VoIP offerings.  The first to the market was the free consumer product that most of us use today called, Windows Live Messenger.  I have been using Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, now Windows Live Messenger (WLM) for as long as I can remember.  I lived on WLM for the past two years because of all my travel internationally as WLM provided me with the ability to stay in contact and see my wife and kids from the most remote of locations on my tours.  WLM is an easy to use and powerful consumer-focused IM product, far superior in its design from any other IM client as well as with its integration with the Windows Live and Office Live services provided by Microsoft.  WLM uses VoIP to provide users with the ability to communicate using Voice over an IP line so that you can speak to another party using your computer.  You must have a VoIP account to make this possible and WLM uses Verizon for this.  I will say that I have never had a problem using this service and when you're six months on the road crossing the globe from South America to Asia, it comes in handy!

Secondly, Microsoft has Microsoft Office Communicator.  Communicator is a client application that communicates with a server application called Office Communications Server, previously known as Live Communications Server.  After many revisions, name changes, complete architectural re-designs, Office Communications Server (OCS) is now finally what it has been meaning to be all of these years.  A bad ass (excuse my language please) VoIP server.  OCS provides Communicator with the ability to use features like secure IM, VoIP for Voice over IP communications, telephony integration so you can actually integrate your desk phone to the Communicator client application and use it as a virtual phone, known as a SoftPhone, and it provides meeting services with integrated video and audio so you never miss a beat.  The client application, Communicator, also provides presence.  A lot of people go nuts talking about this, but this is your basic online status.  What's cool about Communicator's presence capabilities, is that it completely integrates with your current conversation mode.  If you are using VoIP or controlling your desk phone, your status is "In a call", in a meeting, "In a Meeting".  The client is also integrated with Outlook so that you can see and share presence through your email and this also extends across documents written in Microsoft Office, such as Word, Excel, and PPT.  In short, this is a VoIP solution on steroids and not even IBM, Cisco, or anyone else has designed something so easy to use and packed with as many features as OCS and Communicator.  Also, note that these two products are part of Microsoft's Unified Communications platform that includes Exchange, Outlook, and Live Meeting, which is another area of confusion.

Thirdly, there is Live Meeting.  Live Meeting rounds out the Unified Communications platform by providing enhanced and advanced online meeting services.  Integrated with video and a new product called, RoundTable, which is a device that allows you to run your meetings over the Internet or Intranet using video and Voice over IP, this product combined with Live Meeting and OCS, delivers a punch that will put WebEx, QuickPlace, and AT&T meeting services out of business.  Now, there is some confusion here with Live Meeting.  With the OCS server, you can use the same meeting capabilities that you can with Live Meeting even with RoundTable.  The difference is that the meeting services that you would use in the OCS server are managed by you and your company.  The meeting services used using Live Meeting are hosted online by the Live Meeting service.  It all depends upon what you can afford and what type of meeting you are hosting.  If you are producing an online webcast for external participants, use Live Meeting.  Hosting a meeting with your customers, use OCS.

The last solution I would like to talk about is Microsoft Response Point (RP).  This is the first in a new line of VoIP products being released from Microsoft that leverage actual hardware.  That is one major difference between RP and the UC platform and WLM, is that RP is actual hardware and software.  UC and WLM are only software services running on your choice of equipment.  Response Point is a hardware-based solution provided by three of Microsoft's current vendors, Quanta, D-Link, and Uniden.  Microsoft designed the software that provides the VoIP, calling services, and management capabilities, the vendors designed and deployed the hardware to run it on.  Response Point is, in a nutshell, a phone system.  The purpose of this solution is to provide small businesses with the ability to replace their current phone systems that are costing them a fortune for crap service and features, with a state of the art phone system that supports traditional phone capabilities as well as Voice over IP.  The system includes the OEM provided hardware which comes with a Base Unit device, which is basically the phone system server, and then handset devices.  The system also comes with Microsoft's software to manage and administer the system, setup user, create calling plans, configuring external access, configuring VoIP services, and a client application that runs on the desktop called Response Point Personal Center that allows the user to configure voicemail, e-mail integration for voicemail, importing of contacts into their address book, and other features that are missing from current phone systems without having to read a manual at all.  Each vendor provides something special with their RP devices as well.  For instance, Quanta provides a RP device that allows you to integrate up to 8 outside FXO lines (i.e. 8 phone lines not VoIP lines).  What that means is that the company who buys the device will be able to support 8 external lines that their external callers can dial into, and for internal communication, it is all handled by VoIP. 

So, in short, I have tried to provide a good overview here to dispel any confusion, but I am sure there will still be some confusion between all of these services, so I encourage you to visit the website for each product by using the links listed below.  I have also personally delivered many webcasts that explain more detail about UC products and Response Point, so please visit my website at http://www.evangelyzellc.com or http://www.whatdouc.com to review these broadcasts by viewing the events section of each website and clicking on the link provided for each webcast.  These webcasts can also be found by searching www.microsoft.com for my name, Joe Schurman.  So thanks for your time, hopefully, this provided something useful and meaningful to you. 

Links

Microsoft Windows Live Messenger - http://get.live.com/messenger/overview.

Microsoft Unified Communications platform (Exchange, Outlook, OCS, Communicator, Live Meeting) - http://www.microsoft.com/uc. 

Microsoft Response Point - http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint.

I'm blogging from my Windows Mobile Motorola Q today so excuse any spelling mistakes. I just wanted to post a recent technological success here at a United States Figure Skating Association rink in Houston, Texas.  Most people only see figure skaters on TV at the Olympics or through various ESPN Figure Skating championship events coverage.  What they don't see is what happens behind the scenes.  My daughter is a competitive ice dancer so my wife and I take turns bringing her to practice at 6 am until after noon 5-6 days a week.  Being the techie that I am, I am always looking for a way to use Microsoft technology to improve processes.  I noticed that the practice these skaters go through is daunting for any athlete, but that the main annoyance was the management of music.  Sometimes, there will be 10 or even 30 students on the ice at one time, each having their own music CD that needs to be played before they practice their routine.  The rink has two audio / stereo setups, one back in the A/V room and the other where the ice hockey judges sit.  This is where the students toss their CDs around like crazy and come in and out trying to play their own music having to miss their intro and rushing through their routine.  I saw this as an opportunity so the first thing I did was purchase a Zune for the rink.  I purchased the A/V connector kit as well and that allowed me to connect the Zune to the rink speakers via the A/V cables through their receiver.  One of the coaches, Mark Janoschak and I compiled all of the kids' routine music and their on-ice conditioning music and ran everything through the Zune.  The kids used the remote control that came with the A/V kit to change their music and I placed a piece of velcro on the rink wall on the inside so they could skate by and change their music on the fly.  The only problem with this setup was the ability to see the small screen on the Zune from behind the glass.  So with $300 and my Best Buy Rewards Zone card, I purchased a 15" LCD screen and had it secured to the booth desk where the Zune was located.  The screen faced the glass and the video was sent out via the same A/V kit to the LCD.  The kids could now easily navigate to their music.  So, now that this solution has been in place, it has really rocked!  Other ice rinks are now asking me to do the same for them.  The only problem I have had to work through is physical security.  The original Zune I purchased for them was stolen so we had to build and install a lockbox (yeah, the old Al Gore SNL lockbox) to lock the Zune up. 

Other improvements I would like to make include a barcode system.  I would like the kids to have their own barcode and just wave it when they want their music played.  If anyone reading my blog has a solution for this to integrate into the Zune, let me know!