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Number of results 23 for microsoft

18/01/2012 - Radvision's Scopia reaches Microsoft qualification for UC

Telepresence vendor Radvision (Nasdaq: RVSN) said its Scopia Video Gateway for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Lync has achieved Microsoft qualification for video interoperability with Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Certifying the Scopia Video Gateway means Radvision customers can better maximize return on existing collaboration investments, allowing workers to communicate virtually anytime, anywhere with an Internet connection and browser--including with standards-based video systems and telepresence suites.

The Scopia Video Gateway's architecture is designed to meet the ease of use, scalability and affordability requirements of the broad UC market. It includes features like presence and click-to-call capabilities through the Lync and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 interface.

Radvision, based in Israel, has worked hard to establish itself in the fiercely competitive videoconferencing market. A former supplier to Cisco--before Cisco bought Tandberg--Radvision just last week revised its fourth quarter outlook upwards on stronger than expected infrastructure sales at the end of the year.

Radvision said it expected its Video Business Unit to see sales of $18 million to $18.5 million versus its forecast of $14 million. Its Technology Business Unit sales are expected to approximate $3.5 to $4 million.

"Our improved forecast for the fourth quarter... is a welcome indication that our effort to transform Radvision into an end-to-end video conferencing provider is taking effect." Boaz Raviv, the company's CEO, said Radvision saw sequential improvement in each of its regions in the quarter.

The company will report final results for the fourth quarter of 2011 on Feb. 8.

The positive revision is the first time in the past four quarters that the company has delivered that kind of news. In each of the past three quarters Radvision has been forced to lower guidance.

For more:
- see this release

17/01/2012 - Skype to integrate with Windows Phone 'soon…' maybe

The military axiom "hurry up, and wait," could well become Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s own when it comes to integrating its Skype VoIP and video calling app with its Windows Phone.

Skype--which was bumped from Windows Phone in favor of competitor Tango, at least as a placeholder in October--now is said to be poised to make its long-awaited appearance on the smartphone, well, "soon."

Microsoft originally had planned to roll out the integration by the end of the year (as in last year), but many pundits now expect it to be delayed until Mobile World Congress in February, with a full integration not happening until the entire OS is updated later in 2012.

Microsoft VP of the Skype division, Rick Osterloh, last week at CES said Skype was "working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon."

Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion last summer, but decided to use Tango's video calling service with phones that run on the refreshed Windows Phone OS.

While Microsoft has said it plans to aggressively integrate Skype into its products, the timing of the deal meant that the company had to turn instead to Tango for a quick fix.

But Tango, which also operates on iOS and Android devices, may be in for quite a ride. The company hopes to use the break as a springboard to dominance in the video-calling market. It currently operates on 450 devices, including 30 tablets, and it works cross platforms.

Tango has 25 million registered users in 190 countries and is adding about 500,000 users every week, meaning it's growing about twice as fast as Skype did when it first launched.

"We are growing at an unprecedented rate," said Uri Raz, co-founder and CEO of Tango, in July. "There are 1.5 billion PCs in use worldwide and 95 percent of the world's computers run Windows. With this launch, we are well positioned to reach our goal of 100 million customers by this time next year."

The service hasn't had a difficult time finding funding, announcing in July that it was closing a $42 million Series B funding round. The company said it plans to use the money to speed up its product delivery cycle.

"We've been extremely lucky with timing," admitted Setton. "We came out as handset manufacturers were adopting front-facing cameras. and people were comfortable with video-calling because of the iPhone 4 and [Apple's video-calling app] Facetime."

Skype reported more than 170 million "monthly connected users" in its most recently-recorded quarterly period.

For more:
- see this Telegraph article

17/11/2011 - Russian airport to start Skype check-ins for flights

Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport is allowing passengers to check-in for their flights using Skype.

The program, which the airport says is the first of its kind in the world, works along similar lines to Internet check-ins. Passengers call the airport using its Skype user name and are asked for their last name, flight information and to show their passport. Once the formalities are out of the way, passengers can print out a boarding pass. The airport expects 15 to 20 percent of passengers to use the service, which serves some 20 airlines flying into the airport.

"The main problem [for traditional Internet check-in] is lack of communication with a real person, as a passenger is afraid to do something wrong," said an aiport officials. "Here you will have straight communications, so there will be no fear during registration."

The airport said Skype will be available for check-in at Transaero, Air Astana, Royal Air Maroc, China Eastern Airlines, Estonian Air, Hainan Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Iran Air, Jat Airways, Turkish Airlines and other carriers.

European regulators recently approved Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) acquisition of the popular free VoIP provider.

For more:
- see this WSJ article

14/11/2011 - NextUC says its hosted Lync platform compatible with Polycom, Snom IP phones

Hosted communications service provider NextUC today said its hosted Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Lync platform is compatible with Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM) and Snom VoIP desktop phones that are designed especially for use with the Microsoft Lync client.

Among the Lync features on the IP phones include the Display buddy list and Presence, the color display for one touch dialing, advanced directory lookup via phone keypad, transfer and hold key for fast call execution or a color display to customize video. NextUC is now fully compatible with Polycom CX5000, CX3000 and CX700 and will be adding other providers.

NextUC clients can sign up for a free trial in the self-provisioning portal.

For more:
- see this release

12/07/2011 - Level 3 Delivers SIP Trunking with Nomadic E-911 Solution for Microsoft Lync

Level 3 Communications has announced that it is working with Microsoft to provide SIP Trunking with nomadic E-911 (enhanced 911) designed to integrate with Microsoft Lync.

10/05/2011 - Microsoft to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion

Microsoft and Skype have just announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake.

17/09/2010 - Alteva Offers Free Complete UC Solution Through Its IP Phone Rental Program

Alteva has announced another affordable way to leverage Microsoft Communication Services integrated with Alteva’s enterprise hosted VoIP service. Together, Microsoft and Alteva are providing hosted UC solutions for smaller businesses that integrate communication and business processes.

15/09/2010 - Microsoft Lync: A New Name for a New Generation of UC Solutions

Microsoft announced the release candidate of Microsoft Lync, the next generation of Microsoft’s unified communications software. Lync is the new family brand for the products formerly known as Communications Server, Communications Online and Communicator, and it also now includes Lync Web App, and Lync Online.

09/08/2010 - Polycom and Microsoft sign agreement on UC push

Polycom and Microsoft announced a partnership today, signing a multi-year global agreement to offer integrated end-to-end unified communications (UC) solutions for the enterprise, small-to-medium sized business and government markets.

The offerings the two companies will produce involve software, hardware, networking and services solutions. Polycom offers integrated solutions spanning voice, video and application integration for Microsoft UC and with this latest agreement can count itself as one of the major players in Microsoft's global alliance. Polycom plans to deliver new and next-generation Polycom CX series endpoints optimized for Microsoft UC with HD video and voice technologies as well as new room-based video systems designed specifically for Microsoft Communications Server "14."

"Microsoft and Polycom are committed to a roadmap that will deliver interoperable UC solutions with choice and innovation in video conferencing and customer devices that will help transform enterprise communications," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Unified Communication at Microsoft in a release. "By integrating video, voice, instant messaging and conferencing solutions, Microsoft and Polycom give customers the ability to be present, anytime, anywhere."

For more:
- read the release

12/07/2010 - Polycom offers demo of MS Comm Server '14' solutions

At this week's Microsoft World Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., a number of VoIP vendors are showing off their new products that play nice with the Microsoft brand.

Polycom, for one, is offering a sneak peak of some of their IP phones and integration plans with the new Microsoft Communications Server "14."

The Polycom CX series offers two new network-based IP desktop phones: the CX500 and CX600 as well as the industry's first and only IP conference phone designed for MCS "14" the CX3000. The three phones will offer Polycom's HD Voice to the server. The company will also demo more UC solutions like the CX700, the CX5000 Unified Conference Station and Polycom's personal and room-based HD telepresence solutions.

For more:
- read the release

28/06/2010 - Inside Microsoft Communications Server 14

Find out what's under the hood of Microsoft Communications Server 14 over at No Jitter. They have a cool review of the features you should get to know and love. Feature

15/06/2010 - Xbox LIVE Video Kinect Brings Video Chat to Your Living Room

Along with the announcement of Kinect for Xbox 360 (formally known as ‘Project Natal’), Microsoft yesterday unveiled Xbox LIVE Video Kinect that lets you chat with other Xbox 360 users, and, in the near future, with hundreds of millions of PC users around the world.

17/05/2010 - Microsoft dropping Response Point support, wants SMBs to try OCS

Microsoft's small business VoIP product is biting the dust. The company declared that the market they thought might be their's when they released Response Point just did not materialize as a major revenue source.

Response Point is a small business VoIP product targeted at businesses with 50 or less employees. The product team actually functioned as its own startup company within Microsoft, but last June its parent declared that it wouldn't be releasing further iterations of the product. Response Point was only tangently related to Microsoft's main VoIP thrust--Office Communications Server (OCS)--which the company believes can handle the needs of customers that Response Point originally targeted.

Microsoft plans to stop supporting Response Point on August 31, but customers will still be able to use the system after that date. They plan to keep the website up until November 2011. Microsoft hopes customers will migrate to OCS when they decide to stop using Response Point. This of course might open up all sorts of opportunities for other VoIP providers targeting the under-50 employee business market segment.

For more:
- read the article

13/05/2010 - Skype: No plans for Windows Phone 7?

We reported a little while back that Skype was turning its back on the Windows Mobile platform. Today more reports are coming out that the company has no plan to even develop software for the new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

According to ZDNet (who in turn quotes Australian tech website Smarthouse), Skype's VP of Asia/Pacific revealed at an event in Sydney the company had no plans for VoIP software on the new Microsoft platform. While the VP did not want to go into further details, he did reveal that the plan was to focus on software for Android, iPhone and iPad. It seems like an interesting turn for a successful VoIP company to turn away from a leading mobile platform, but with new shiny interfaces hitting phones, the Windows phone market seems to have taken a beating.

Back in February we picked up a story that Skype had pulled their Windows app from being downloaded. The company claimed it felt like Skype Lite compared to other phone experiences. At the time we speculated that Skype was just pulling the software until they got a better version for the future Windows Phone 7 OS, but these new developments point to the company jumping the Microsoft ship. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that unless Phone 7 really crashes and burns, we are going to see a Skype app on Microsoft smartphones no matter what the rumors say now.

For more:
- read the ZDNet article

25/03/2010 - VoiceCon: Microsoft launches newest UC effort - "14"

Using their keynote as a launching point, Microsoft made some waves at VoiceCon this week by revealing its latest unified communications (UC) offering. Called Communications Server 14, the offering provides enterprise telephony while integrating with Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and Exchange.

In the keynote address, Gurdeep Singh Pall, VP of Microsoft's Office Communications Group, demoed the new software showing off the system instant messaging, presents and cloud computing features. The demo revealed the '14's' skill search feature which extends presence features to find the right person for a job based on a qualifications and availability. Just type in a skill tag and the right people show up on the screen. The software also finds people based on location using wired and wireless connections.

Microsoft's powerful software-based UC option was just one of the suites on display at the show. Simplified communications and presence features were on display all over the show floor. "With software at the center, innovation in this industry has accelerated, leading to the introduction of new capabilities that leapfrog traditional hardware-bound communications systems," Pall said.

For more:
- read the release for all the details

01/02/2010 - Zeacom adds gateway to Microsoft OCS

Zeacom, a Unified Communications (UC) and contact center software company, has introduced their Zeacom Gateway for Microsoft Office Communications Server. The OCS is a desktop app that allows enterprise companies to communicate across the business and outside using any Microsoft Office application or the OCS app.

The Zeacom Gateway will allow small- and medium-size enterprises to integrate their existing phone systems with the Microsoft OCS system making it easy to upgrade their systems to a UC platform. Using the Zeacom Gateway to upgrade their existing phone systems and connect to the Microsoft OCS companies will have access to new functionality like presence, Click-to-Dial, remote presence, and desktop sharing.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles
Zeacom rolls out UC ROI calendar

26/08/2009 - JAJAH Brings SIP Trunking Services to the Enterprise

JAJAH, the IP communications company, is working with Microsoft to provide SIP Trunking services to Microsoft enterprise customers globally. According to the firm this will allow companies to make high quality voice calls over JAJAH's IP Platform in the cloud, without requiring an infrastructure upgrade.

15/07/2009 - Toshiba Integrates VoIP System With Microsoft OCS RCC

Toshiba's telecommunication division has announced integration of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 Remote Call Control (RCC) capabilities with its Toshiba Strata CIX family of VoIP business communication systems.
Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Information Systems, Telecommunication Systems Division, said that with the integration, enterprise users of Toshiba's Strata CIX family of VoIP business communication systems can Click-to-Dial from Microsoft OCS 2007 using a Toshiba Strata telephone device.

25/06/2009 - JAJAH Connects One Billionth Call, Promises "Genuine" UC

JAJAH has announced that it has just connected its one billionth call - a 29-year-old woman in San Francisco who was calling her mother in India.
Not bad going for a company that launched just three years ago as a web-based consumer VoIP service and which now has over 25 million users and partnerships with the likes of Intel, Microsoft and Yahoo!

06/05/2009 - Microsoft forbids VoIP services on Mobile Market

VoIP applications are one of 12 application types that will be verboten at Microsoft's Windows MarketPlace for Mobile store when it launches in the second half of this year. Microsoft also doesn't like apps that change the default browser on a device.

Microsoft is winning praise for posting a clear set of rules as to what can and can't go up in its applications store, but is likely to get criticism by open networks/network neutrality types who will ask why. Third-party VoIP services that run over an operator's data network, thereby bypassing the billable voice minutes bucket, aren't the sort of thing that service providers really want to see available.

PC World speculates that the ban is limited to "VoIP services" and "presumably" developers will be able to offer VoIP apps using Wi-Fi, but there's no way of truly knowing until we see the apps out there. Developers are also being forbidden to offer up programs that change the default phone dialer, SMS or MMS service interfaces.

For more:
- PC World details Microsoft's Marketplace for Mobile store. Post.

06/02/2009 - TringMe Offers VoIP Calls From Silverlight Apps

TringMe has launched a widget that allows users to make VoIP calls from Microsoft Silverlight applications.
Silverlight doesn't allow access to a mic - a problem for VoIP calls - so TringMe used a backdoor Flash widget to access it.

07/01/2009 - fring Mobile VoIP Gets WinMo Approval

Microsoft has awarded fring's mobile VoIP application its “Designed for Window Mobile” certification.
The approval is the latest for fring, which has been working to develop its popular IM/ VOIP application for different platforms.

23/12/2008 - Snom Favors Italy Over UK For Expansion

The VoIP phone maker and developer Snom Technology is opening an office in Milan.
In what could be a barometer of the current state of Europe's economies, the German company ruled out a move to the UK.
Heike Cantzler, marketing manager for Snom Technology, said both the UK and Italy were considered for the expansion.

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