Microsoft, Sprint offer unified messaging product

Microsoft will team with Sprint to offer integrated phone and data services over a single PC server to small business clients.

The service, aimed at businesses with five to 100 employees, will provide PBX, LAN, Internet access and remote access server functions and unified messaging via Microsoft Exchange and selected business applications. The applications will be based on Microsoft's BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 and Sprint's Business Flex communications services. PBX functionality will be provided by COM2001.com's InternetPBX.

"This is an example of the type of next generation integration we'll see-not only at the software and service level but also at the hardware level-in terms of telecommunications offerings," said Microsoft President Steve Ballmer in his keynote address at Supercomm last Tuesday. "The knowledge worker accounts for about 60% of all PCs sold in the world. Those folks have a lot of unrealized information technology needs. The small business segment in particular is underserved."

The Microsoft-Sprint package will allow end users to check voice mail, e-mail and faxes from one mailbox on a PC, or from a Web site hosted by Sprint. Users can also transfer calls and mail between landline and wireless phones. The product is expected to cost about $10,000 for a low-end, four-trunk server, said Jonathan Usher, Microsoft's telecom industry marketing manager.

The hardware and software would cost about twice as much if purchased separately, said Jeff Anderson, assistant vice president for strategic development at Sprint.

The partnership with Sprint is part of a larger Microsoft strategy to accelerate the deployment of high-speed broadband and advanced Internet services in the market, Ballmer told the Supercomm audience. He pointed to recent alliances with Qualcomm, Qwest Communications, Nextel Communications, AT&T, Rhythms NetConnections and NorthPoint Communications as other examples of bringing products to market that provide faster Internet access to customers-and in turn, more customers to products made with Microsoft software.