April 26, 2005
Viewpoint: Microsoft's Jeff Raikes On Real-Time Collaboration
Where Real-Time Communication Is Heading
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To me, the most compelling promise of integrated communications technology is its potential to continue breaking down the traditional communications silos — e-mail, face-to-face meetings, phone calls, IM — and bring them together for customers to use in ways that are more intuitive. This communications convergence is already well under way across computing and IP telephony, data, voice, video and multiple devices. Greater adoption of VoIP technology in the enterprise will bring the ability to offer solutions that go well beyond just replacing traditional phone calls with VoIP calls. And the concept of presence will become universal and tied to location and devices, not just online status.
Some ideas of what could be in store:
- Video conferencing — which today is inconvenient and expensive — must become as easy as e-mail or making a phone call. People should be able to launch a video conference with a few clicks from any PC equipped with a webcam and audio capabilities. Gone will be the days of setting up times in specialized rooms with support techs standing by to make sure the connections work.
- Conference rooms will be equipped with devices that make it easy to share real-time video of everyone in the meeting and the video will automatically focus on whoever is talking at the time — this will allow people who are not in the room to participate and still keep track of what is going on.
- Presence, social networks, and mobile location services could enable you to allow people to know your location by your cell phone. This would tell you when colleagues are nearby — for example, when walking through an airport or at a tradeshow — and offer to contact them so that you can connect.
- People will be able to tell when others are going to be late for meetings through location-based presence that triggers a notification.
- The PC will be the interface to the desktop phone — making it easy to dial with just a couple clicks (no need to memorize phone numbers), transfer calls, put people on hold, set up rules to allow calls to be auto-answered or sent to voicemail based on who is calling, and more.
The convergence of communications modes and the power of software can make a huge difference in most people's everyday interactions by providing a new level of insight and control.
I hope this overview of real-time communications has sparked some helpful insights. along with suggestions for future topics on the challenges and opportunities of information work. Thanks!
Jeff Raikes is group vice president of the Information Worker Business at Microsoft Corp. As a member of the company's Senior Leadership Team along with Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, Raikes shares responsibility for developing and guiding Microsoft's core business strategy.
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