Microsoft pushes software solution to UC woes

Software solutions offer to break the vendor strangehold on unified communications while also offering new sales and support opportunities says Microsoft.

With customers and staff spread across the country - and often the world - Australian businesses are facing a communications overload and rapidly increasing costs.

Add in the fact that companies use numerous disconnected communication systems that are often unable to talk to each other and you have a business nightmare - but also a golden opportunity for resellers.

Microsoft is pushing a range of software solutions it claims will appeal to both SMBs and the larger enterprise. The vendor claims that resellers with smaller customers who do not wish to make large-scale investments in hardware will be able to offer a cost-effective unified communications solution that can easily integrate into an existing network.

According to Harold Melnick, unified communications product manager at Microsoft, an opportunity now exists for resellers to sell a recognisable product that can harmonise diverse communications equipment. He said that a key selling point is that Microsoft's offering will allow organisations to leverage their existing technology as the software integrates existing legacy hardware.

“The Microsoft UC approach is that everything works from a software perspective. Keep your existing hardware, keep your existing firmware, keep your existing applications, but put a UC foundation in and you’ll be able to actually maximise your business productivity,” he said.

Melnick added that resellers will also be able to sever the traditional tethering of many businesses to vertically integrated communication systems. He said that Microsoft's offering will free businesses from locked supply relationships with vendors across the hardware and network infrastructure, firmware, software and devices.