Microsoft, Aspect form global strategic alliance  
ConvergenceAsia staff
24/03/2008

At the VoiceCon Orlando 2008 conference last week, Microsoft and Aspect Software, a global contact centre company, announced a multiyear strategic alliance to help deliver unified communications (UC) to contact centres around the world.

Aspect will design its Aspect Unified IP contact centre solution to interoperate with Microsoft's platform for software-powered voice and unified communications and will offer it as the leading option to new and existing customers.

Microsoft is making an equity investment in Aspect to accelerate the development and adoption of the new solutions and services. "A key pillar of Microsoft's unified communications vision is improving access to the people and information you need to do your job better and more quickly, and, with Aspect, we aim to make this vision a reality for contact centres," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, Unified Communications Group at Microsoft.

Aspect will begin development of the optimised solutions immediately. Aspect plans to release a new version of its NET-based Aspect Unified IP product this year, which delivers interoperability with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and which will include a powerful ask-an-expert capability using instant messaging and presence technology in Office Communications Server 2007.

"The connection between contact centre technology and unified communications has not, to date, been at the centre of the conversation," said Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics.

"The decision of Microsoft and Aspect to create this strategic alliance clearly demonstrates that the contact centre plays an integral role in the evolution of software in the enterprise. Companies may now choose to make a choice to easily bring Microsoft UC into both their contact centre and their enterprise, realising the benefits of first call resolution and other metrics that a uniform UC strategy can deliver."

As part of the agreement, Aspect will also build a professional services and systems integration practice for Microsoft's unified communications software.

Aspect will help customers deploy, customise and manage Office Communications Server in its contact centres and throughout its organisations for software-powered voice, instant messaging, presence and conferencing.

advertisement