Thinking about avoiding VOIP for just one more year? It"s a great technology, but with several competing standards, a rickety interoperability record, and so many implementation models that it can make your head spin, it"s not so hard to understand why many IT managers wouldn"t mind putting VOIP on the back burner until a clear direction presents itself.

Well, forget it. VOIP is infesting everything and spawning several new technology marriages in the process. Microsoft is right out front with Live Communications Server and the recently released Office Communicator 2005 . I had a chance to play around with Communicator, and it"s a given that users will be screaming for it once they figure out what it is.

Communicator is IM on steroids. Picture an IM client that has full integration with Outlook, including accessing the Outlook address book and integrating with your local Exchange server. Now add Live Meeting-style functions, including multiparty chat, limited document sharing, and the ability to "upgrade" seamlessly to a full Live Meeting session without reinitiating the chat. Now tack on some user refinements, including an intuitive interface, the ability to organize and save IM chat threads, and more.

Now comes VOIP. Using Live Communications Server, Communicator is enabled for voice (including VOIP PBX support) and video (again with a compatible supporting platform). This is more than just a soft phone. For instance, with a real PBX behind it, you can accept voice IM conversations or simply forward them to another employee, who then might answer that ping with a VOIP handset rather than the Communicator client. All of a sudden, there"s a lot of new life in things such as notebooks and Windows PDAs, once Communicator extends that far.

Communicator is worth a much closer look overall, if I can talk my editor into it. But the problem for IT administrators isn"t that Communicator is coming down the pike. The problem is that it"s not alone. IBM, for example, is looking to release an API in a month or two that will link its Lotus Sametime instant messaging platform to VOIP platforms. This API will allow third-party developers (read PBX vendors with brains) to build solutions that effectively enable the Sametime IM client with voice and video.

Another popular IM platform is Jabber, which is available in both an open source and commercial iteration. Jabber has had SIP compatibility for a while now, intending its use primarily as a way to exchange IM messages between outside platforms like the ones above. Because most new VOIP PBXs and gateways also have SIP compatibility, it"s not going to be long before Jabber or a third-party developer tacks voice communication and PBX integration onto the Jabber platform, as well.

Then, of course, there"s Skype, hot on the trail of Communicator with its release of the Skype Toolbar for Outlook. This add-on allows Skype users to integrate their address books easily with their Skype contacts, and to see contacts" presence information for voice calls and IM chats. Even nicer, Skype offers them a one-button ability to call telephone numbers in their Outlook contact database and to initiate an IM chat right off an Outlook e-mail message. In order to do so, the contact also has to be part of the sender"s Skype or Outlook contact database and have IM client information.

You can even get the toolbar in an Internet Explorer version rather than an Outlook version.

How to decide between all these new client communication hubs? My best advice is to wait as long as the suits will let you, and then choose one platform for the entire enterprise. Giving vendors time to finish testing is going to be a crucial factor here. Once users get used to these new communications methods, you don"t want them shorting out. Sticking to one platform for your enterprise won"t save you from compatibility battles with other organizations, but at least you won"t be fighting those same battles at home.