Microsoft to integrate communications with office products
12/12/2006 13:55

Technology giant Microsoft is set to further enter the world of telephony with a range of new software that is set to integrate office products with a firm's communications network.

Plans for further development of the Microsoft Live Communications Server were announced in June of this year and this week the firm revealed a beta version of its Office Communications Server that will allow 2,500 people to test the changes to the software.

In the previous version, users could access a person's profile and see whether they were in the office and free for a meeting or phone call.

But using the Office Communications Software office workers will be able to action a phone call direct from Excel, Word or any other Microsoft Office product that holds their details.

This will see the computer software integrated with innovative office products from any one of Microsoft's partners, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) headsets and other hi-tech ear pieces.

Speaking about the call handling functionality of the latest Office software, Chris Cullin, a director of product management in Microsoft's unified communications group, said: "Obviously, this is an important milestone toward that vision.

"This is the first time that the voice components of that vision will be available for customers."

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