• Illustration: IM, VoIP, and Conferencing Roadmap Overview

Corporate instant messaging (IM) and conferencing services will get major updates in the first half of 2005, according to Microsoft’s Real Time Collaboration group. Releases slated for 2005 include a new service that connects public IM services, such as AOL Instant Messaging and Yahoo Messenger, to the Live Communications Server corporate IM product; a new client product called Office Communicator 2005 (code-named Istanbul) that replaces the Windows Messenger client; and a new version of the Live Meeting Web-conferencing service. Microsoft hopes the new releases will help drive these emerging real-time communication and collaboration technologies into broader business use.

Public IM Connectivity

Microsoft is making good on its announced plans to make it possible for customers to securely link their Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 systems with the major public IM providers, thereby removing one of the key roadblocks to IM adoption by businesses. A new subscription offering that went live in Apr. 2005, LCS Public IM Connectivity (PIC), allows organizations to use LCS 2005’s federation support to link with LCS gateways at AOL's AIM and ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger IM services. LCS users will be able to see the presence status of contacts (or "buddies") in the three public IM services and exchange instant messages with them, and vice versa, while maintaining the single corporate identity, security, and message-archiving capabilities provided by LCS. However, in this first release, the federation support does not support the voice, video, or data-sharing capabilities of LCS 2005 and the Windows Messenger client; these capabilities are only available when used inside the corporate firewall or over virtual private network connections.

The LCS interoperability deals will not provide general interoperability between the public IM services offered by the three players, but it definitely puts Microsoft ahead of its competitors in the corporate IM space. However, it will cost LCS 2005 customers an additional US$13 to US$15 per user for an annual subscription, most of which is passed on as royalties to the three services.

Office Communicator 2005

Office Communicator 2005 is in closed beta now and will ship before summer 2005. Compared with the bundled Windows Messenger client included with Windows 2000 and later OSs, Communicator will provide the following improvements:

Greater telephony support. Communicator will be a much more capable Voice-over-IP (VoIP) client than Windows Messenger. When combined with LCS 2005 and a private branch exchange (PBX) gateway from a Microsoft partner, Communicator users will be able to place calls to public telephone numbers and PBX extensions, and it will allow users to advertise their availability by PBX extensions, public phone numbers, and cell phone numbers in addition to the Communicator client. With PBX gateways and other partner data communications equipment, such as multipoint control units, Communicator users will be able to hold, retrieve, transfer, and forward voice calls; redirect calls to voice mail; place conference calls with both VoIP and public switched telephone network (PSTN)/PBX users; and perform multiparty application sharing. Communicator will also support more efficient audio codecs based on Windows Media 9 technologies.

Redesigned user interface. The Communicator client will be completely redesigned and will integrate much deeper with Active Directory (AD), Exchange, Outlook, and Microsoft’s Live Meeting Web-conferencing service. Several key features include a search function to find addresses from AD, Exchange, and Outlook; the ability to set rules, such as setting presence based on Exchange free/busy information; and the ability for users to create notes that give other users more detail on their presence status. For example, a user could leave a note that said "On vacation until April 1. Contact jdoe@directionsonmicrosoft.com in my absence."

Because LCS 2005 and the PIC connect with the MSN .NET Messenger public IM service, the Communicator client does not support the MSN .NET Messenger IM protocol natively, as Windows Messenger does. This eliminates the need for users to have both Passport and corporate AD identities and makes it easier for organizations to control which users get IM access to the public services. Communicator will also drop support for Exchange 2000 IM protocols, which have been superseded by the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)/SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) protocols used in LCS.

Communicator pricing and licensing information has not been released; however, Communicator is likely to be sold as a product or bundled with Office, rather than distributed free for Windows as Windows Messenger is. A Web client and a Windows CE/Windows Mobile client for LCS 2005 with similar functionality to Communicator are to follow later.

Live Communications Server 2005 SP1

In Apr. 2005, Microsoft will release the first service pack (SP) for LCS 2005. In addition to the usual bug fixes, SP1 will add new functionality and is a prerequisite to use PIC and Communicator. Some of the new functions include the following:

Enhanced presence types. SP1 extends the types of presence information that can be stored by LCS 2005, including all of Communicator’s voice connectivity numbers and status information, plus the new presence notes.

SP1 also introduces a new "do not disturb" presence state that tells other Communicator users that the person is reachable but shouldn’t be disturbed.

"Spim" controls. Because, as with e-mail, IM users can become targets of unsolicited commercial messages, SP1 includes some as-yet-unspecified means of blocking so-called spim. With the introduction of PIC, these controls are particularly important.

Live Meeting 2005

The Live Meeting Web-conferencing service has been updated and is now named Live Meeting 2005. The service enables users to deliver presentations and get audience feedback over the Web, typically in conjunction with a separate voice teleconference. Web conferencing services like Live Meeting continue to gain ground as a way to avoid business travel for in-person meetings.

Among the new Live Meeting 2005 features are the following:

Present from any printable document. Presenters can now present pages from any printable document, such as Adobe Acrobat documents, rather than being limited to PowerPoint slides. However, if they choose PowerPoint, participants will now receive "full fidelity" shows that include slide transitions and animated builds.

Conference call controls. Attendees still must dial in to a separate voice-conferencing service if they need to have a voice conversation with the presenter or other attendees. However, with Live Meeting 2005 conferences using MCI, BT, and InterCall audio-conferencing services, presenters now can use the Live Meeting user interface to see the conference call status of meeting attendees, such as who’s connected, and to mute and unmute participants.

Audio VoIP broadcasts. Unlike earlier versions, Live Meeting 2005 includes the option to stream presenter audio over the Internet without having to arrange Managed Event Services (who in turn arranged separate streaming services from a Live Meeting partner).

Greater Office integration. Live Meeting 2005 will have greater integration with Office 2003 applications. For example, presenters will be able to launch Live Meeting sessions from Office applications. Outlook will get an improved bidirectional Live Meeting synchronization plug-in that allows users to schedule conferences, even when offline, and to invite attendees. Once an attendee accepts, the meeting and connection information is automatically entered into his schedule calendar.

More languages. Localized versions, including support for multiple languages in a single meeting, will be added for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

No changes were made to Live Meeting's pricing.

More Conferencing Options in 2006

In 2006, Microsoft plans to add more conferencing capabilities to both LCS and Live Meeting.

Live Meeting 2006 will add support for two-way voice and video capabilities, allowing participants with headsets and cameras to communicate with the presenter or others in the meeting directly over the Internet, rather than having to dial in on a separate phone line.

LCS 2006 will get built-in group conferencing capabilities similar to Live Meeting 2006 and will integrate tightly with the Live Meeting service. Unlike LCS 2005, which supports only two-party voice, video, and data sharing without the addition of third-party multipoint conferencing products, this future product will allow organizations to have many of the conferencing benefits of Live Meeting 2006 without having to use fee-based services.

Resources

Microsoft’s real-time collaboration products are described at www.microsoft.com/rtc.

PIC is described in "Live Communications Server 2005 to Link with AOL, Yahoo, MSN" on page 14 of the Sept. 2004 Update.

LCS 2005 is detailed in "LCS 2005 Takes Corporate IM Beyond the Firewall" on page 3 of the Jan. 2005 Update.

Live Meeting is detailed in "Live Meeting Updates Aid Corporate Web Conferences" on page 16 of the Jan. 2005 Update.