Next to Gartner Group (focussing on Unified Communications rather than ‘just” Enterprise IM), Forrester Research recognises Microsoft as a leader in the field of Enterprise IM :
In the fall of 2007, Microsoft released Office Communication Server (OCS) as a major upgrade to its existing Live Communication Server offering. New to OCS are on-premise Web conferencing, videoconferencing, improved presence capabilities, and a host of partnerships to extend the value of the underlying platform. With excellent integration into Office 2007 and SharePoint and a strong unified communications strategy, the value of OCS extends well beyond basic chat.
Source: Microsoft Is A Leader In Enterprise Instant Messaging
Author: “Rob Koplowitz”
Date Published: Tue, 30 Oct 2007
Oh course you forget to add the little detail from the report. “IBM Leads, Followed Closely By Microsoft”
Alan,
The quote is not in this article, I can not publish content from the actual report.
And .. yes I am biased
I also did not include any quotes from the Gartner report. Which is, as you know most likely, mutch more benefitial to Microsoft.
A leader, not THE leader.
Darren,
As you very well point out, there are many aspects to leadership 😉
Remember 2003 ? Microsoft didn’t even have an Enterprise IM solution, IBM was leading with SameTime. We’re only 4 years in the game and already part of the leaders.
Please take the time to read the Gartner report …