When it comes to voice communications, Microsoft has long maintained a two-pronged approach: Office Communications Server on the one hand and Response Point on the other. The one is the corporate instant messaging server with increasingly robust VoIP functionality built into it. The other is a standalone voice system for small businesses with no more than 20 or so employees. Though the two products ostensibly serve a similar purpose - they give Microsoft a play in a business voice communications market previously closed to it - there's been this "Oh, OCS is OCS and RP is RP, and never the twain shall meet" air about them.This may soon change. At VoiceCon I ran into a start-up called Evangelyze Communications. They've developed a web-based interface for Microsoft OCS instant messaging, a tool that searches archived OCS message threads, and SmartVoIP, software that connects OCS to Response Point systems. SmartVoIP runs on Quintum gateways deployed at remote sites and main offices. Calls originating from Response Point phones are routed over SIP trunks to the OCS server at the main office. This lets Response Point phones at remote offices act as direct extensions off of OCS. When an Aastra-based Response Point system is deployed, the remote system accesses the same Active Directory server as the centralized OCS server. Active Directory integration is apparently not supported when connecting Evangelyze SmartVoIP to Syspine- and D-Link-based Response Point systems. Also, though Evangelyze is going to market with this solution with Quintum, it's my understanding that it works just as well on other vendors' gateways.
What's interesting about all this is that Microsoft OCS now apparently has an option that allows remote offices to connect to its voice services. Remote office connectivity has been among the strikes against OCS as businesses think about using it as a VoIP platform. The Evangelyze solution is a step toward resolving this. But just a step. My main concern here is Response Point lacking the corporate instant messaging services that are the hallmark of OCS. While the SmartVoIP allows a SIP trunk to connect OCS and Response Point, end users will have very different communications capabilities extended out to them. I''ve got a feeling that before Microsoft begins aggressively marketing OCS as a more viable PBX alternative we're going to see an OCS-based remote office solution very different from this Response Point-based solution announced last week at VoiceCon.
