…with a variety of applications, including Microsoft's own Office software. On Wednesday, Cisco is expected to announce even deeper levels of interoperability with Microsoft's Office applications.
For example, Cisco's Unified Personal Communicator client will be able to work inside Microsoft's Exchange server, so users can see all voice mails in their email inbox and make schedule changes through the client that will end up in their Microsoft calendars. Leveraging built-in Microsoft smart tags, users can click on names or phone numbers in Outlook (or in any Microsoft Office application) to make calls using the Cisco VoIP software. Cisco has not yet integrated its software with Microsoft's Sharepoint software.
"We recognise that not every customer will choose a Cisco solution from top to bottom," said Barry O'Sullivan, vice president of IP communications for Cisco. "I'm sure that Microsoft has developed deeper integrations with their own products and their unified communications software, but our strategy is to be open and integrate with as many applications as we can."
Cisco isn't just working with Microsoft. On Wednesday it will also announce that it has deeply integrated its unified communications software with IBM desktop applications. Specifically, Cisco and IBM have created a tool based on open development technologies Eclipse and OSGi to help software developers easily include communication and collaboration features into custom-built business applications.
"About half of our enterprise customers use Microsoft at the desktop," O'Sullivan said. "But the other half is still using IBM desktop applications, so we need to integrate with both."
In addition to Microsoft and IBM, Cisco is also working with other corporate software companies. For example, it has integrated Cisco Unified Personal Communicator software with Oracle's customer relationship management (CRM) software, so that an operator in a call centre can click on a client name and make a call directly from the application.
"Users just want an easy and intuitive way to communicate," O'Sullivan said. "So that means that we have to bring communications to different applications. Whether they use Microsoft, Lotus Notes, SAP or Oracle, we can easily integrate our technology."
Microsoft also claims that it is taking an open approach that will allow its communications software to work with any application. Raikes said that a shift away from hardware-based communication to communication based entirely on software will help spur innovation.
"How much has your desktop phone changed in the last 10, 12, 15 years?" he said. "Very little. Yet, how much has your experience changed for mobile computing, for email, for instant messaging? The real challenge that's held back this part of the industry is that they don't have a broadly accepted software platform that enables the pace of innovation.
"We are putting in place the software platform that will enable this pace of innovation, and the result will be much greater value for customers, because it will be a part of their user experience in doing their work."
