Microsoft - where do you get this stuff?

Thursday, 29 March 2007 06:12 Written by Peter Brockmann

Just by lustening to Jeff Raikes, you'd think that Microsoft invented the software-based enterprise telephony system (we used to call these things the IP PBX). I know they made a big splash at VoiceCon, and that Jeff delivered a terrific keynote (I wasn't in the room, so this is secondhand), and that the fine folks of Psytechnics provided the evidence that PC-based softphones deliver better audio quality than IP phones. (I did write about this).

As I have been gradually cleaning up my inbox and my new desk by sorting through the myriad of goodies collected from VoiceCon, the Microsoft press release bubbled to the surface and as I pondered its disposition I became enthralled with the language and rhetoric.

MSFT to deliver enhanced VoIP solutions, lead unified communications shift to software... trumpetted the headlines (March 7, 2007). Give me a break. There is nothing enhanced about their offer. There is no leadership position for them here. Why? because the industry is already been on this movement for nearly a decade. The transition to software is already well underway, silly!

This is like SaraLee discovering Splenda.