Microsoft Readies New Services

According to Mary Fo Foley of Microsoft-Watch the giant software company is planning new services following the much talked about "re-org" of the company last week.

New services that are currently on the horizon include a new small-business bundle of VOIP (voice over IP), instant messaging and data conferencing which is likely to be similar to Live Communications 2005. The company is also toying with the idea of managed high-availability Exchange servers.

According to Microsoft-Watch a hush-hush Microsoft team known as the Unified Communications Services group is working on the hosted SMB (small/midsize business) bundle. The offering will likely include e-mail, unified messaging, instant messaging, VOIP and data-conferencing capabilities all rolled into a single, hosted collaboration suite.

Microsoft plans to target the offering at SMBs who are interested in an integrated communications experience that will be managed by others — most likely Microsoft partners, or maybe even Microsoft itself — partners said. Microsoft will pitch the hosted bundle as an easy way for smaller companies to enjoy features such as intelligent call routing, auto-attendant voice response, and the like.

Microsoft announced the "realignment" of the company nearly 2 weeks ago and has split the company into several newly formed divisions. It's likely that the Microsoft Business Division will be handing such services in the future.

View: Microsoft-Watch Story