WebProNews

The Supercomm announcement says Outlook users will be able to integrate voice and other media with the Outlook 2003 e-mail client.

The Multimedia Office Client lets users do voice, video, and text messaging through Outlook. It will work with Nortel's Multimedia Communication Server 5100 and 5200 platforms, which provide multimedia over IP for enterprises and carriers, respectively.

Those platforms use Session Initiation Protocol to translate IP multimedia traffic between existing analog phone switches and IP devices.

Nortel provided demonstrations at Chicago's Supercomm today. The Multimedia Office Client will appear as a toolbar in Outlook 2003. Users will be able to click on a contact's name and initiate a voice, video, or text session with that contact, as long as they also have the capability to participate.

The toolbar will indicate what type of communication the contact can accept. Further, users can define rules for the various communication methods, just as they can define rules for e-mail today.

Nortel also will work with Microsoft on building support for Nortel voice switches into Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005. Microsoft has figured prominently at Supercomm, announcing partnerships with AT&T, Sylantro Systems, and Amdocs on VoIP and other technologies.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.