By Melanie Turek, Nemertes Research
March 8th, 2005

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) launch this week of a slew of new and improved features from its Real-Time Collaboration group bodes well for enterprises eager to enable collaboration among virtual workers.

Master of the virtual ceremonies Bill Gates announced new features in Microsoft’s Live Meeting, Live Communications Server and Communicator client (formerly code-named Istanbul). Among them: The ability to launch Live Meeting conferencing sessions from within Office applications; Internet audio broadcasting in Live Meetings; full voice support for one-click dialing, call management, and conferencing within LCS/Communicator; and built-in federation and support for IM from AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.

The announcements push Microsoft’s offerings closer to what telephony vendors such as Avaya (NYSE: AV), Nortel (NYSE: NT) and Siemens (NYSE: SI) provide today. With the new capabilities, IT managers can effectively design a desktop that will let users call, conference, and message each other seamlessly, all while monitoring each other’s online and telephone presence. What’s more, thanks to the support for consumer services, it’s the only such product to offer any kind of presence/IM interoperability.

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