In a video conference on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it will make the components of its Unified Messaging system available October 16. The announcement was timed to co-incide with VoiceCon. Microsoft will make available Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007 and Office Live Meeting. Microsoft's Unified Messaging platform also includes Exchange Server 2007.

The Unified Messaging package is designed to cut into the PBX telephone gateways that many businesses use, and make it easier for software developers to integrate desktop communications utilities into programs. Unified communications platforms represent the next logical development step for VoIP systems, which have gained in popularity in the past five years. Initially, companies were slow to adopt VoIP technologies, but the maturity of the products, along with the growing need for advanced telecommunications services, shrinking support dollars and a desire to leverage large infrastructure investments have substantially accelerated the adoption rate of VoIP as the preferred means of corporate telephony solutions.

Telecommunications and IP convergence issues are the theme of the day for Microsoft, which held a joint press conference with Cisco Chairman John Chambers on Monday to discuss the ways in which Microsoft and Cisco plan to work together. The press conference highlighted the fact that while Microsoft and Cisco are competitors in the convergence arena, they also plan to cooperate.

The companies' plan to cooperate on convergence includes a roadmap for each company's planned development, customer consultation and input, the creation of open standards, and competition. Microsoft has been the subject of complaint regarding its development and incorporation of proprietary standards and modified industry standards into its products.

The press event on Monday marks the first time the companies have appeared together to talk about their development plans. Cisco's Unified Messaging platform is probably more established and is more focused on hardware. Microsoft's approach is more focused on software. Ultimately, the overall success of IP-based corporate messaging solutions will require interplay between hardware and software, so the "competition" between Cisco and Microsoft is likely to be safe and soft for both companies.