1.) Don’t discount Microsoft and don’t discount how compelling OCS is. If you don’t believe me, dig around for some videos and screenshots or install it.

2.) Worry about Microsoft’s channel. They have a lot of feet on the street and those feet are firmly planted in small-medium businesses.

3.) With all that said, don’t be afraid of Microsoft – yet. It takes them years before they “get it right” when it comes to new markets for them.

4.) OCS and Asterisk are not mutually exclusive. With Asterisk 1.6, we now have SIP over TCP and it is possible to interlink with both OCS and Exchange 2007. If you are an Asterisk integrator, you better get to know your competition and have a game plan for working with Microsoft products. Don’t panic, though. You have time. The IP-PBX market is going to be strong for years to come (it’s actually getting stronger).

5.) OCS and ResponsePoint are not the same thing. Know your competition. There are a lot of things that need to happen for Microsoft’s proclamation of the “end of the PBX” to become a reality.

Nemertes Research principal analyst and program director Irwin Lazar says “We don’t see enterprises buying into Microsoft’s strategy of OCS as a next-generation telephony platform just yet. All the enterprises we’ve spoken with in the last year are continuing to move forward with VoIP plans based on other vendors, but they expect that their VoIP systems will eventually integrate with LCS/OCS.”

According to Infonetics Research, Companies are not yet convinced Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 is the way to go. Instead, they’re sticking with their existing IP PBXes and layering UC applications on top. Microsoft is seeing success by leveraging their penetration in email messaging and desktop environments but incumbent IP telephony players (code for Cisco) are also faring well.

What about adoption of Microsoft Exchange 2007, a required piece in the total OCS 2007 strategy? According to Internet Research Group, “Microsoft Exchange dominates the landscape of enterprise e-mail systems and the upcoming migration to Exchange 2007 is the most important change in the market that will occur during the next five years,” according to John Katsaros, co-founder of IRG. However, “the move to Exchange 2007 is complex and enterprise managers will reconsider every aspect of their e-mail systems as they re-engineer their messaging infrastructures.”

Lastly, check out the Magic Button for Asterisk. If you thought ResponsePoint’s voice control functionality was cool, the Magic Button with blow you away. Check out http://www.schmoozecom.com/magic_button.html. And yes, it was designed for the Asterisk platform.