Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, described various functions that can create a single identity for users who want to work across a number of communications modes. The Microsoft applications will work atop a company's Internet Protocol-based communications base.

Among the products Raikes announced for the second quarter of 2007 was Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, which is Microsoft's new name for its Live Communications Server. It will include Voice over IP (VOIP) call management, as well as audio-, video- and Web-conferencing and instant messaging communication with and across software applications and devices.

Also in the second quarter of 2007, Microsoft plans to release its Office Communicator 2007, a unified communications client that works with Communications Server 2007 to provide enterprise VOIP through a softphone. Microsoft also announced Office Live Meeting, which includes audio and video capabilities for conferencing from a PC and is due out at about the same time.

Raikes took part in a demonstration via Webcast showing off the Office RoundTable, a piece of hardware that looks like a desktop lamp and stands about two feet high. The RoundTable is actually an audio-video collaboration device with a video camera at the top that offers a 360-degree view. The device will allow panoramic views of everyone in a conference room, and will be released by mid-year 2007.

He also touted a small handheld phone with a message screen that displays text of the subject of an incoming call based on input from the party on the other end. No other details about the phone were immediately available.