Некоторые цитаты из пресс-релиза Cisco:

ORLANDO, Florida, March 6, 2006 – Today, at the VoiceCon 2006 conference, Cisco Systems and Microsoft Corp. announced they are working together to provide collaborative real-time capabilities for businesses through the integration of Microsoft® Office Communicator 2005 and the open Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with the new SIP-based Cisco Unified Communications system.

Cisco and Microsoft have agreed to work together to create a converged solution that will provide desktop Internet Protocol (IP) telephony call control. Cisco’s SIP interface allows customers to build solution sets to meet their business needs with flexibility and simplicity. To enable this solution, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will interoperate with the new Cisco Unified CallManager.

The new communications solution from Cisco and Microsoft will allow customers to:

• Click to call as well as transfer phone calls from Office Communicator, eliminating the need for users to act as human middleware.
• Launch or answer a phone call from within Office Communicator, and choose to conduct the call from a computer or a desk phone.
• View Cisco Unified IP Phone presence status from within Office Communicator, providing users with an expanded view of presence information.
• Transparently escalate between Office Communicator instant messaging and voice sessions, enabling users to communicate more effectively.

"Integrating phone capabilities into the rich productivity environment on the desktop PC can dramatically improve collaboration and productivity," said Ettienne Reinecke, group chief technology officer of Dimension Data. Dimension Data is a US $2.7 billion global IT solutions and services provider and a Cisco channel partner. "This solution will make it possible for employees to collaborate instantly in real time by choosing the most efficient mode of communication, whether that’s an instant message, a phone call or a data-collaboration session."

Interoperability Built Using Standard Protocols

The solution is based on the industry-standard protocol stack of SIP as well as SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). Cisco and Microsoft will continue to work together to deliver standards-based interoperability. The Cisco and Microsoft interoperability solution demonstrates both companies’ commitment to providing the best collaboration solutions without compromise.

…

Это хорошая новость, т.к. Cisco более чем активно продвигает свои ip телефоны, да и вообще сетевую инфраструктуру. Соответственно стане гораздо проще и удобнее использовать все это с офисными технологиями Microsoft. 

Quote

News @ Cisco: Cisco and Microsoft Collaborate to Enhance Real-Time Business Communications