Telstra, Microsoft Team For Conferencing
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Microsoft and Telstra will work together to deliver integrated audio and web conferencing services via Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

It is the first time an Australian telco has offered Microsoft Office Live Meeting as a service and it builds on Telstra’s existing hosted solutions which include hosted Exchange and SharePoint services.

Launched in March, Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005 demonstrates Microsoft’s vision for integrated communication and enhances the previous version with the ability to launch a meeting from within Microsoft Office, easier and more cost-effective audio controls and powerful presenter control capabilities.

Dion Weisler, General Manager of Telstra Conferencing and Collaboration, the telco’s new emphasis on IP services has seen 16 competency centres managing specific IP applications and solutions arise.

“Importantly, we are very committed to our alliance  with Microsoft and believe the user benefits delivered by service integration with Microsoft Office software and continued development in their Real Time Collaboration suite will make life easier for our customers,” said Weisler.

The Microsoft Live Meeting service clearly demonstrates our combined leadership and commitment to delivering business value for customers, he said.

Based on Office Live Meeting 2005, the Telstra Web Conferencing service enables users to share presentations and other documents with customers, staff and suppliers, through the use of a phone, PC and an Internet broadband connection. The service will also offer text chat, online polling, whiteboards and recording and playback of presentations, enabling groups of people to collaborate in real-time from their desktop.

A second phase of development, scheduled for release in March 2006, will see additional enhancement of the Web Conferencing service, where customers will be able to seamlessly collaborate using Telstra’s audio conferencing services along with Microsoft’s Live Meeting.

Oscar Trimboli, Microsoft Australia’s Real Time Collaboration business manager, said “Telstra is a leading provider of audio conferencing in Australia, and we are pleased to work with them to bring the power of integrated audio and web conferencing to customers in Australia. This is an important step in making real time collaboration a reality for our customers.”

Available now the service is based on a flexible pricing structure that allows organisations to pay for the service based on the number of minutes, per seat, named user or named room based upon their organisational needs.

More information is available at www.conferencing.telstra.com/solutions.