By Richard Edwards, Senior Research Analyst, Butler Group

Recognizing that the world of corporate collaboration is moving on beyond that of Instant Messaging (IM) and non-Instant Messaging (e-mail), Microsoft last week snapped up privately-owned Parlano and its MindAlign group chat application in order to bolster the company's unified communications offering.

Real-time businesses require real-time communications, and so Microsoft gets a small nod from Butler Group Analysts with this recent acquisition. Built from the ground-up to sit neatly alongside Microsoft Communications Server 2005 and Office Communications Server 2007, MindAlign extends native IM functionality by providing persistent group chat and presence management facilities.

After the deal closes, Microsoft will add the group chat functionality to Office Communications Server and Office Communicator, and plans to offer group chat as part of the standard client access license for Office Communications Server 2007 Software Assurance customers. Current Parlano customers, many of whom already use Microsoft unified communications software, will have increased access to the breadth of this software.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2007, after which members of the Parlano team are expected to join Microsoft's Unified Communications Group in Redmond.

This acquisition comes at an important time for Microsoft, as its arch enemy in the corporate collaboration space, IBM, readies new, improved, and re-branded products under its Lotus logo. Moreover, with Google et al snapping at its heels, Microsoft is now under constant pressure to demonstrate leadership and innovation in this important market.

Microsoft is doing quite well when I look down my list of 'must have features' in the corporate collaboration space, although it still needs to get its act together in the document collaboration front, as, in my opinion, Microsoft Word is still lacking in important collaboration features. It is not as though the company is lacking the technology, as OneNote features some very powerful team collaboration facilities that would fit perfectly with the way that many of us would like to use Word today. Please excuse the pun, but take note Microsoft!

The battle for control of the enterprise collaboration market is still raging, with Microsoft and IBM locking horns at every turn. However, neither one of the colossal collaborative solution stacks offered by these two companies addresses the very common everyday scenario of inter-company document collaboration, and so e-mail looks set to remain the de facto collaboration mechanism for some time to come; albeit with a hint of IM. ENS