Microsoft adds IM to Office

Microsoft has added a corporate IM product to its Office suite. The company hopes the software will be used as a 'bridge' between the PC and telephone.

Microsoft on Tuesday added the Office moniker to its upcoming enterprise instant messaging software in a branding move intended to heighten the product's appeal to potential business buyers.

The software giant said the application will now be called Microsoft Office Real-Time Communications Server 2003. The branding change comes nearly two months after the company said the product would be called Real-Time Communications Server 2003. The software was developed under the code-name Greenwich.

Office RTC Server 2003 will have one principal function when it's released in summer: convince businesses about the merits of enterprise instant messaging. Microsoft is trying to sell a secure IM client to companies already using its server software. Enterprise instant messaging has become a new market that technology heavyweights such as IBM, Sun, AOL and Yahoo! are all scrambling to dominate.

The interest stems from the proliferation of instant messaging in the workplace. Since IM allows real-time exchange of text messages between users, the technology has become a popular way for employees to communicate with business contacts. This has posed a conundrum for industries that embrace IM's effectiveness while fearing the difficulty of managing the security of its communications flow.

Leaders in consumer instant messaging such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo!, which have amassed hundreds of millions of nonpaying users, all have launched enterprise IM products. Established software vendors - including Microsoft, IBM and Sun - are using their inroads into corporate technology departments to sell their own products.

While Microsoft hopes companies will use RTC Server to set up their own corporate IM networks, the company has loftier ambitions for the software. Company executives including chairman Bill Gates are touting RTC Server as a platform for communications features such as internet phone calls and videoconferencing