Lately Microsoft and Cisco were having quite a bit head to head battle for VoIP dominance, especially since Cisco’s acquisition of Webex a few months ago. Webex is the market leader in hosted Web conferencing. But now that Microsoft Acquires Tellme Networks, the battle got sweeter, or should I say hotter. On May 3rd, Microsoft announced that it has completed its acquisition of Tellme, the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of voice services for everyday life, including nationwide (US) directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search.

So why not we check out MS Unified Communications, Microsoft’s system that unites all existing communication systems and tools. I have to agree, the idea of uniting all kind of communication systems into one whole integrated system is impressive. A lot of communication giants most probably thinking about it. But Microsoft already tears down the barrier that separate tale-communications and computing. And they do it with software that leverages your existing telecommunications infrastructure.

In plain words MS Unified Communications (UC), work as a communication hub/centre. For example- Voice-mail/faxes arrive in your Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 inbox where you can sort, prioritize, and forward them, just like any piece of e-mail. And when you’re on the road, away from your PC/laptop, you can just dial in over any telephone to hear your e-mails and your calendars. You can even access your Microsoft Office Outlook directory and place calls from any telephone. That was just one of many perks MS UC got under its sleeve. Say that isn’t cool!

Technically speaking, you should know by now the traditional phone system we use is based on PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) on the other hand computer based communications run on packet-based networks like Ethernet (IP). These are two entirely different systems. Computers can check your e-mail but not your regular voice mail. On the other side typical telephone network won’t let you check your mail. Yes its true there are now VoIP phones, but it’s also true those phones works only on a single system (for example- Skype Phone can be used only for Skype, not for Net2Phone or others).

So as you can see consumers, especially businessmen are dying to have a system like MS UC, doesn’t matter coming from Software giant Microsoft or any other company. MS UC is a system where Microsoft aggregated bunch of devices and off course software.

Hardware:

• Microsoft Office roundtable (Which I will review later this month).
• Windows Mobile Powered Devices.

Software:

• Microsoft Office Communication Server.
• Microsoft Exchange Server.
• Microsoft Live Communication Server.
• Microsoft Office Communicator.
• Microsoft Office 2007.

Services:

• Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services.
• Microsoft hosted exchange.
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Apart from these there will be soon Microsoft Partners solutions built on MS unified communications technologies.

Whether you are high flying businessman or just a tech savvy end user UC have something that fits your needs. Since MS UC is at this point the only system of its class, comparison isn’t possible. I like the whole idea in general and also agree with the facts that this is very much cost saver for business that depends on heavy communications. But have to say some of the services (The hosted solutions) are expensive. For example-Medium and large business organization will find it hard to pay $3000/annual fee apart from regular fees for Live meeting.