Get Chatty with Microsoft

Microsoft made yet another step designed to evolve its current unified communications portfolio with the acquisition of Parlano, a leading enterprise group chat provider. Following the acquisition, the Redmond company will be able to integrate Parlano's MindAlign application into its unified communications lineup. In this context, in addition to presence, instant messaging, conferencing and VoIP capabilities associated with its server and client products, Microsoft will also be able to offer group chat. According to the Redmond company, MindAlign will be added to the Office Communications Server and Office Communicator as a new feature.

"Parlano has been successful in meeting the rigorous communications needs of companies in financial services and other vertical markets," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. "Parlano's expertise and technology, added to Microsoft's unified communications offering, will deliver customers the most complete presence, instant messaging and group chat solution on the market."

Neither Microsoft nor Parlano have disclosed the financial terms of their agreement. However, the two companies did point out that they expect the acquisition to be completely finalized by the end of 2007, with a focus on the final quarter of this year. Currently, Microsoft plans to integrate Parlano into its own Unified Communications Group in Redmond.

Essentially, following the swallowing of Parlano and MindAlign, Microsoft will begin offering multiparty instant messaging capabilities built on top of the newly acquired group chat technology. And as MindAlign currently supports both Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Office Communications Server 2007, by sharing the same open standards and protocols, blurring the group chat functionality into the upcoming Microsoft unified communications server offerings is just a matter of time.

"Parlano has helped many organizations enhance operations, improve service delivery and increase sales through more effective ongoing group communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing," said Nick Fera, chairman and chief executive officer of Parlano. "The resulting competitive advantage will be further enhanced as we bring Parlano technology together with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Office Communicator."