In a VoiceCon 2006 conference joint announcement, Cisco Systems and Microsoft said that they are working together to provide collaborative real-time capabilities for businesses through the integration of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and the open Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with the new SIP-based Cisco Unified Communications system.

Cisco and Microsoft have agreed to work together to create a converged solution that will provide desktop Internet Protocol (IP) telephony call control. Cisco's SIP interface allows customers to build solution sets to meet their business needs with flexibility and simplicity.

To enable this solution, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will interoperate with the new Cisco Unified CallManager.

"Our joint customers who want to improve the productivity of their knowledge workers have identified the interoperability of solutions from both our companies as the key to achieving that improvement," said Barry O'Sullivan, vice president and general manager of the IP Communications Business Unit at Cisco.

"The interoperability of Live Communications Server and Office Communicator with Cisco's communication offerings will lead to more effective real-time collaboration capabilities for our mutual customers," said Zig Serafin, general manager for the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft

The new communications solution from Cisco and Microsoft will allow customers to do the following:

- Click to call as well as transfer phone calls from Office Communicator, eliminating the need for users to act as human middleware

- Launch or answer a phone call from within Office Communicator, and choose to conduct the call from a computer or a desk phone

- View Cisco Unified IP Phone presence status from within Office Communicator, providing users with an expanded view of presence information

- Transparently escalate between Office Communicator instant messaging and voice sessions, enabling users to communicate more effectively

This phase of the Cisco and Microsoft interoperability solution is expected to be generally available in August 2006 for new installations and upgrades to existing customers.