Software vendor Microsoft has announced that it will acquire Parlano, developers of a group chat application called MindAlign, to boost its forth-coming unified communications platform Office Communications Server 2007. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition will further the company’s leadership of the hotly-contested unified communications market, as identified the latest ‘Magic Quadrant’ by IT analysts Gartner. Microsoft has powerful technology, a comprehensive alliance programme and, of course, a wide existing install base, the report found.

“Enterprises looking into UC, particularly those with Microsoft applications already in place, should understand the Microsoft portfolio because it represents a new paradigm for communication by a market leader,” writes Gartner analyst Bern Elliott. “Microsoft’s solution is comprehensive but is also the basis for a range of partner offerings.”

Last week, IBM announced that it is to license Siemens’s Open Scape unified communications software for Lotus Sametime – the instant messaging and online conferencing add-on for its desktop productivity suite. This will allow Sametime to be integrated with a much broader range of third party UC technology.

The race to corner the market in unified communications, whereby communications technologies such as voice over IP, instant messaging and SMS are managed alongside standard IT networking functions, has pitted software vendors against networking equipment manufacturers and systems integrators.

Just two weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer sat with his counterpart at networking giant Cisco, John Chambers, as they announced the continuing interoperability of each company’s respective equipment. The meeting was called to reassure customers that the two companies would continue to co-operate on technical standards despite the fact that in the unified communications space they are now bitter rivals.

Further reading

IA Today - Cisco and Microsoft make peace
Information Age feature - The unified foundations