The Siemens Communications Group and Microsoft announced a multi-year agreement covering enterprise-grade, presence-enhanced calling, video and Web conferencing, and collaboration solutions. The companies said they share a "common vision of presence-enabled communication that integrates voice, video, instant messaging and Web conferencing into a comprehensive tool suite to improve worker productivity and team collaboration."
Under the alliance, Siemens and Microsoft will align market development and sales activities to deliver:
- Microsoft Office Live Meeting, a Web conferencing service that enables employees to participate in interactive meetings and share documents with just a phone, a PC and an Internet connection.
- Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, Microsoft's enterprise instant-messaging and presence-enabling platform, which improves business efficiencies by enabling information workers to find and communicate with people in real time via an enterprise-grade environment that is integrated with the Microsoft Office System.
- "Istanbul" -- the newest member of the Microsoft Office System -- an integrated communications client that provides real-time collaboration capabilities. Designed as the preferred client for Live Communications Server 2005, the product will bring instant messaging, extensible presence, PC-based voice and video, and telephony integration together in a single desktop experience.
- Siemens HiPath OpenScape , a complete presence-enabled collaboration portal built on Live Communications Server 2005 and "Istanbul." OpenScape provides both device and user presence controls across multiple communication media (instant messaging, e-mail, work phone, mobile phone or home phone, for example).
- Other real-time communication and collaboration products as they are developed.
