April 26, 2005
Viewpoint: Microsoft's Jeff Raikes On Real-Time Collaboration
Addressing Today's Real-Time Needs
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Helping people work together more effectively is core to our strategy for Microsoft Office. We launched new solutions and services in early March with that goal in mind. Bill Gates helped us announce these offerings and introduced a concept called integrated communications. Integrated communications uses the power of software to simplify the way we communicate.
These new real-time products and services include:
- Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 — a new business IM and communications application we'll deliver soon.
- Updates to Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 — the product that infuses "presence" information, which conveys the status of online contacts, into business applications and lets people send secure instant messages.
- The 2005 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting — a major update to our popular Web conferencing service.
These products begin to deliver on our integrated communications vision and help people share ideas and information in real time, regardless of location.
At Microsoft we have more than 35,000 people using Live Communication Server-based IM and we send roughly 7.5 million instant messages per month. I, personally, use these technologies extensively,"IM'ing" with my employees and with the Microsoft Senior Leadership Team. I mentioned "presence" earlier, which is an indicator that tells me whether people in my Outlook and IM contact lists are reachable or not. If I receive an e-mail and decide I want to chat with the sender, I can tell if that person is online without leaving Outlook. I get that same information from shared documents and from SharePoint, because presence information is integrated across multiple environments and Office System applications.
Because I can quickly send a message to someone without leaving the context of what I am working on, I can resolve quick questions and hold impromptu discussions on emerging issues. I even use IM when I'm away from my desk with my Windows Mobile Smartphone, I can send and respond to instant messages from just about anywhere or at any time, using the software I'm familiar with.
The presence features delivered with Communicator and Live Communications Server allow me to advise people on how best to contact me. I can indicate whether I am free, busy, away from my desk, on a remote connection, or only available to answer messages on a specific topic (such as the next day's customer meetings). The software even tracks whether I'm on the phone or have a meeting scheduled in my Outlook calendar, and automatically marks my status as "busy" based on policies I have set.
Communicator also makes the phone another communication choice available on the PC, and it helps me manage incoming and outgoing calls. Integration with our phone system lets me see when someone is calling my desk phone while I am connected to the Internet - even when I am not at work. I can then instantly choose to forward that call to my home or cell phone.
The updates to the Live Communications Server also enable people within a business to use secure instant messaging with colleagues and friends who use MSN, AOL or Yahoo! and with other companies who use Live Communications Server. Interoperability with other public networks and organizations enables me to keep in touch with customers, partners, and my family through the same communications tool that I use to keep in touch with work colleagues and with the same level of security that I have with corporate instant messaging.
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