The Office Communicator messaging tool is the latest
component in Microsoft's increasingly integrated strategy for
collaboration, but does it deliver?, asks Christopher
Harris-Jones
Office Communicator, the latest component in Microsoft's
collaboration software strategy, adds significant functionality and
complexity to a growing suite of software for collaborative
working.
The instant messaging and user presence tool has been much
trailed under the codename Istanbul. It is not as comprehensive as
was originally planned, but nevertheless does provide some
impressive features.
The user interface for Office Communicator features a panel that
lists colleagues (potentially both inside an organisation and
outside) and can group them to provide sections based on, for
example, different projects being worked on. The panel identifies
presence through status icons such as "available", "away", "do not
disturb" and "offline".
Individuals can also customise messages that can be viewed
directly from this panel and display Microsoft Outlook "out of
office" messages automatically. As well as identifying the presence
of individuals on the company network, Microsoft provides
connectors so that users can determine the presence of individuals
using AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant messaging products.
The software delivers voice over IP and can connect directly
into a PSTN gateway, which allows seamless use of VoIP and the
public telephone network. This means that, for example, once an
instant messaging session has been initiated, the user can add new
participants or convert it directly into a voice conference using
VoIP. If some participants want to use the public network, the
server will call each person automatically on their preferred
method of communication (office phone, home phone, mobile or
VoIP).
A Livemeeting web conferencing session can also be initiated
automatically, potentially in parallel with a VoIP or PSTN-based
teleconference.
In both cases, the process is completely automatic.
To share applications, a Netmeeting session can be automatically
initiated. The Netmeeting tool delivers video and audio
conferencing, white-boarding, desktop sharing and various other
collaboration facilities.
Unfortunately, the functionality of Livemeeting and Netmeeting
has not yet been integrated, despite the substantial overlap in the
business requirements for the two packages. At present, Livemeeting
remains a broadcast-only tool; it is necessary to use Netmeeting
for fully interactive meetings. Another integration issue is that
there are separate chat facilities in Livemeeting and Office
Communicator.
Office Communicator is available from within Sharepoint Portal
Server. One additional feature is that the act of loading a
document from a shared workplace will automatically provide instant
access to all the members of the workplace. A drop-down menu from
Outlook gives full access to Office Communicator functions.
Microsoft seems to have an increasingly integrated strategy for
collaboration. The high-level products appear very sound and seem
to be offering what end-users need to work effectively in a
collaborative environment.
The tools provide a comprehensive range of functions, although
many are duplicated in various products, which makes things more
complex for users. These problems arise largely because of the way
that Microsoft is organised into multiple groups around products,
rather than around the collaboration vision.
Although Microsoft will continue to play a leading role in
collaboration software, it suffers when compared with suppliers
such as Oracle and IBM. Both of these organisations have simple,
coherent messages for the collaboration tools they deliver, even
though the functionality is actually provided by multiple pieces of
software underneath the covers.
Christopher Harris-Jones is principal analyst at
Ovum