Microsoft to Link Enterprise Instant Messaging Server With Rival Networks

IDG News Service - In a move that advances instant messaging interoperability, Microsoft Corp. will open up communication between its enterprise IM server and the IM networks run by its MSN division and by rivals Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc.
Microsoft's Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005, due to ship in the fourth quarter, will allow users to exchange instant messages with users on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger.
"This has been the top request from our corporate customers. They have told us that anything we could possibly do to make this happen would make them the happiest," said Taylor Collyer, Microsoft's senior director for LCS.
Graham Lawlor, chairman of the New York-based Financial Services Instant Messaging Association, which represents seven Wall Street financial firms working to promote IM standards, called the LCS release "the most significant announcement in the enterprise IM industry since there was such an industry."
IM is critical to investment banks for trading, sales operations and more, he said, but the challenge has been that users have had to run multiple IM clients. Being able to connect users to all three of the largest IM systems using LCS brings a "fundamental sea change in the industry," Lawlor said.
The link between LCS and the three IM networks will be provided through add-on modules that will be sold separately, Collyer said. Pricing for the modules will be announced later this year.
Representatives from AOL and Yahoo indicated separately that the collaboration with Microsoft is a significant step for their respective IM services in the corporate market.
"This will open up new opportunities for all of us," said Brian Curry, senior director of AIM network services at Dulles, Va.-based AOL.
"Through our relationship with Microsoft LCS, we are able to increase the distribution, usage and presence of Yahoo Messenger while providing our users with a secure, convenient and seamless experience," Lisa Mann, senior director of Yahoo Messenger at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, said in a statement.
Robert Mahowald, an analyst at market research company IDC, said the LCS announcement will change the market dynamics for companies such as IMlogic Inc., FaceTime Communications Inc. and Akonix Systems Inc., which make gateway software that lets different IM clients interact. "They're definitely going to have to sort out a new role" that stresses how they can help customers gain control over IM use for compliance with logging, archiving and other regulatory requirements, he said.
Francis deSouza, CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based IMlogic, said LCS will do for IM what SMTP did in solvinga bottleneck for e-mail. "We've been waiting for this for almost eight years," deSouza said. "This is very exciting for everybody."
Dmitri Shapiro, co-founder and chief technology officer of San Diego-based Akonix, said LCS interoperability will mean "much wider adoption of IM" in the workplace. Customers will still want Akonix to provide its layers of management, security, archiving and auditing, he said, even after LCS is in use.
"This in no way damages our business," said Shapiro. "This dramatically increases our business."