[ Music ] ^M00:00:03
>> I'm Ina Freed with cnetnews.com in San Francisco.
After seven years in development, Microsoft is finally
ready with software for moving business telephony from
the phone network over to the computer network. On
Tuesday Microsoft chairman Bill Gates took to the stage
here to tout the benefits of when the magic of software
replaces the busy signal. Microsoft, however, is far
from alone in recognizing this potential, and this
latest move puts it in even deeper competition with
Cisco.
>> Well, Microsoft is all about the magic of software.
Taking software and letting people be more productive
and more corrective. And what today's announcement is
about, is taking the magic of software and applying it
to phone calls. We don't just say phone calls, because
of course once you get software in the mix the
capabilities go way beyond what anybody thinks of today
when we think of phone calls. The next wave of
Microsoft's voiceover IP and communications products is
here. Today I'm very pleased to announce the launch of
Office Communication Server 2007. Office Communicator
2007, a major update to Exchange 2007, Live Meeting, and
Microsoft Roundtable. Now collectively, these products,
these underlaying technologies form the backbone of
software-powered communications.
>> You are connected to Microsoft Exchange.
>> Eric Swift.
>> Please enter your pin. Then press the pound key.
You have one new voice -- I heard you say good-bye. Do
you want to end this phone call?
>> No.
>> You have one new voice message --
>> E-mail.
>> Opening your mailbox. First, an unread message from
Rebecca Laslow [assumed spelling], titled Fabricam
[assumed spelling], arrived yesterday at 3:31 p.m. Hi
Eric. I'm in meetings all day. Please send me an
e-mail when you get Fabricam's response to our proposal.
Thanks.
>> We surveyed people recently about how they think
about that desk phone. And we found that one in three
have successfully transferred a phone call. Now that's
the most basic functionality you can imagine. Even less
people have been successful at setting up a standard
kind of conference call. So the button, adding the
buttons and all that, that's just not going to work.
