eWeek: Microsoft adds voice, video to IM client
October 22 2004
I've been asked several times in the last few days what my opinion is of Microsoft's "Istanbul" announcement earlier this week. Having read a whole bunch of press and analyst coverage (thanks to Adam, PBOK, Peter, Michael, etc. for good links), here are some thoughts.
Istanbul will replace Windows Messenger as the preferred client for Live Communications Server,Again with the rip-and-replace story? Didn't Messenger 5.1 just ship? So now both Netmeeting and Messenger are still "supported", but clearly all new development is going into this new client.
And what's with that anyway -- why build a new client for something that MS is touting as
"The reality of contextual collaboration is here now," [Gupta] said.I thought the whole point of contextual collaboration was not to have purpose-built software -- but instead to find that collaborative capability embedded in other applications. Shouldn't MS be focused on integrating with Outlook and SharePoint, instead of making users deploy a third client UI?
Since it is a client , I fail to see how it really is contextual. And it also comes with all the extra caveats around integration and compatibility that a separate client necessitates.
Istanbul, which looks like a traditional IM client, allows for the searching of corporate and Outlook address books, where users can see other users' presence information, including out-of-office information from the Exchange server.Why make the user switch to a different client to do this?
IBM's approach there has been to treat IM and conferencing as services, capabilities to be accessed by integrating environments such as Lotus Notes or WebSphere Portal. I don't maintain a corporate buddy list -- I use awareness in the Lotus Notes client for locating most of my contacts.
What does sound interesting in "Istanbul" is the VoIP integration -- need to see more details on what exactly that is or isn't. Is it Skype for business? As for the over-hyped "presence" bit -- MS was demonstrating that stuff with Exchange 2000 Mobile Information Server and the E2K IM client -- it didn't work then, and it isn't exactly new on their list. Maybe they got closer to getting it right this time?
Link: eWeek: Microsoft adds voice, video to IM client >
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Huptus www.siriusonline.de | 10/22/2004 4:34:08 PM
Lotus delivers the backend Sametime and your awarded partner Instant Technologies integrates this into Outlook and Office. That´s collaborative capability embedded in other applications, i guess...
- 3
Peter de Haas www.peterdehaas.com | 10/23/2004 2:38:09 AM
@Randall
VOIP is already in the Windows Messenger 5.x client as well. VOIP (or IP telephony whatever you prefer) in this context means you that the client is a full softphone with all phonefunctions integrated (Call forward, callwaiting, etc.) for this it actually has to be hooked up to a IP-PBX (SIP based).
"way behind" is very relative. OK I am biassed, but very exited :-)
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Peter de Haas www.peterdehaas.com | 10/23/2004 2:52:34 AM
@Ed
No Rip and replace. This is called innovation (like Notes 7, 8 ,9 and 10 :-) )
Istanbul is simply the sucessor to WM 5.x.
No Purpose build software. Through presence itegration (or awareness as Lotus calls it) you access these features from within any application that support presence integration (and this is a webservice so easy to integrate). From the presence integration perspective Microsoft has done a better job so far compared the the level of integration in Notes 7.
And yes .. VOIP is the most exciting part of you ask me. and yes it is skype in the enterprise ...
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Carl http://www.iminstant.com | 10/23/2004 10:11:38 AM
To put a few things straight:
Outlook 2003 has LCS awareness today, although I might argue with Peter's comment that they have done a better job than the integration in notes 6.5 (I guess he means 6.5 as 7 hasn't shipped yet)
Sharepoint Portal has awareness
Office 2003 has awareness, and actually has some nice awareness when used in combination with Sharepoint Portal
Obviously all this awareness does also require a big commitment to Microsoft, Active Directory 2003, Windows XP clients, LCS server, SPS server etc. etc. The approach we took at Instant was to work with Outlook and Office 2000 and later, so customers weren't required to "rip & Replace" or perform major upgrades on 1000s of desktops.
The VoIP component is the big part of this announcement, although people that know me will know that I have been saying for a couple of years, Microsoft intends to own the PBX within a companies infrastructure with LCS, tleco companies are partnering with them, and we all know what happens to companies that partner with Microsoft...
As for Rip and Replace, I consider Istanbul the new version of MS Messenger. Notes 6.5 exists, but lotus still supports R5 and R6 etc.
Sametime today has more powerful toolkits than LCS, but that is quickly changing, many that use Sametime and watch Sametime say there has been a lack of innovation going into the Sametime on Domino platform. The 5 year lead that once existed has long since passed. Asleep at the wheel or driving another route, history will be the judge on that one.
What is clear from this blog entry is that IBM needs to get you guys a very updated overview and demonstration of Microsoft technology, Microsoft competes very effectively to end users and IT managers with "eye candy" if you aren't familiar with the "eye Candy" then you need to be, these are the niggly bits end users will use to say they should go MS etc when up against IBM/Lotus. Competitive strategy cannot be based purely on waht you read int he press, as we know how often they can be wrong.
Thanks to Huptus for his comments about Instant Technologies, we obviously believe there is a big future in Instant Messaging and integration into other applications, whether that be from Microsoft, IBM or someone else.
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Peter de Haas www.peterdehaas.com | 10/23/2004 12:27:19 PM
@Carl
No I meant ND 7. I haven't actually worked with ND 7 yet, so it is based on IBM's publication on the "enhanced presence awareness"
"Lotus Notes 7.0 offers enhanced presence awareness based upon Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (Sametime). With presence awareness, you can see a person's name in a document or view and tell whether or not that person is on-line (indicated by a globe icon), and if so, you can click the name to initiate a chat session. Presence awareness has been added to C&S views, Team Rooms, Discussions, To Do documents, the Personal Name and Address Book, the Rooms and Resources template, and the Domino Directory."
Sametime already has voip support. Before LCS was released Microsoft had video showing LCS as a fully functional business phone that could switch calls. There was another article about their VOIP plans "Analysts: Microsoft's VOIP Move Is Only Natural" ({ Link }
It's fairly clear that Microsoft is way behind in contextual collaboration.