Verizon Business Adopts Hosted Microsoft Office LCS

Verizon Business will use Hosted Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, including Microsoft Office Communicator client software, as the platform for its newly launched Hosted Secure Instant Messaging (IM) Service.



Verizon Business is the first announced network service provider to offer a service based on Microsoft's Hosted Live Communications Server.



The new Verizon Business service will provide enterprise-class, security-enhanced instant messaging and presence awareness.



Verizon Business can host thousands of customer organizations on a single instance of Live Communications Server 2005, helping reduce system management costs and enabling Verizon Business to scale the service rapidly to its customer base.



With Hosted Live Communications Server, Verizon Business can integrate Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server and instant messaging, connecting employees through e-mail and instant messaging applications. For example, if Microsoft Exchange Server is in use, presence information such as "busy in a meeting" or "out of office" is derived from the user's Microsoft Exchange Server calendar and displayed in the presence field of Office Communicator.

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