MCI, Microsoft collaborate on conferencing service

LAS VEGAS—MCI and Microsoft announced that they have formed a strategic alliance to develop and market conferencing and collaboration solutions that combine Microsoft Office Live Meeting and MCI’s Net Conferencing services.

The new service set, which will be marketed initially at both enterprise and small and medium businesses, also establishes Microsoft and MCI as preferred partners in future collaborations including Web conferencing services. For users, the combined service allows them to collaborate over the Internet using a phone or a PC and with a contact list that is populated by Outlook.

“The real key is it supplies seamless integration,” Michael Capellas, MCI president and CEO, said during a press briefing at Networld+Interop here.

The agreement, which expands on an existing relationship between the two companies, comes at the expense of WebEx. MCI previously had sold the company’s video conferencing and online meeting service, but will transition customers to the Microsoft platform as they request it.

MCI chose Microsoft in part because of the large market share the company holds in collaboration applications and is looking at the current announcement as the first step toward fully integrating telephony into the enterprise desktop, Capellas said.