Microsoft recently released its long awaited Office Communications Server 2007 unified communications platform to manufacturing. With this move Microsoft stays on-target for a fall release after completing an extensive beta testing period.

Microsoft continues to position OCS as a tool that will enable enterprises to shift their telephony applications away from costly hardware toward application-based services while improving the ability of individuals and groups to communicate and collaborate.

Meanwhile Microsoft's competitors tout richer feature sets and proven enterprise-class reliability and scalability, a message that so far continues to resonate with enterprises as noted in the Nemertes benchmark , "Building the Successful Virtual Workplace." ITEs interviewed for the benchmark were by and large adopting a "wait-and-see" approach, planning to integrate their Microsoft presence apps with their telephony systems, but not yet ready to commit to replacing IP-PBXs with OCS servers.