Microsoft has kicked off its unified communications push at a company event in San Francisco.

Centred around Exchange and the Office 2007 suite of products, Microsoft wants to unify its software communication devices and software services.

The company will also introduce new products including a so-called soft-phone, an application that acts like a regular telephone.

"Unified communications will be at the core of a great opportunity to drive business results," Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's Business Division, said at the event.

"The PC will replace the older, less functional phone experience. Our approach puts you at the centre of your communications."

To enable the new features, Microsoft plans to release a series of updates in the second quarter of 2007 to existing products such as Exchange, Sharepoint and the Office Communications Server, which is currently marketed as Live Communications Server.

The updates promise to bring presence information for contacts across applications and let users get in touch with a range of devices.

The ability to see whether a contact is available is a major feature for future communications services, argued Brent Kelly, a senior analyst with Wainhouse Research. "Presence is the dial-tone of the 21st century," Kelly told vnunet.com. 

A user receiving an email, for instance, will be able to see the online status of the sender. Right clicking on the name allows him to contact him by phone, mobile phone or instant message.

The sender will be able to set his communications preferences, forwarding phone calls from an unknown contact to his voice mail while a company manager gets to reach his mobile phone.

The unified communications services use the Session Initiation Protocol, an industry standard supported by a range of vendors including Cisco, BT and Nortel. 

The standard allows devices and services to share presence information and establish connections.

As unified communications untie communications from individual devices and services, users can expect a single voice mail box for both their office and mobile phones.

Microsoft also demonstrated a feature that gives users access to their calendar through a voice response system and make changes to existing appointments.

The company also plans to unveil the Microsoft Office RoundTable service. It enables video meetings through the use of a new collaboration device, a 360-degree camera and voice directed microphones that allow it to automatically zoom in on the person speaking.

A video demonstration of Microsoft's unified communications vision as well as the Roundtable communications device are available on the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog.