8. CRM vendors in the VoIP market

Of the following vendors, which was last to enter the VoIP market? (Hint: Its partner is Nortel)

a) Oracle
b) Cisco
c) UCN
d) Microsoft

ANSWER: D

Microsoft recently joined the VoIP market. According to a column on SearchCRM.com by Zeus Kerravala, who manages Yankee Group's infrastructure research and consulting, the big question is is, how business ready will Microsoft's products be when they're finally available? As he points out, history is certainly not on Microsoft's side when contemplating this question.

"To all of you considering Microsoft as a VoIP vendor, go in with your eyes wide open," said Kerravala. Be prepared for the normal onslaught of services packs and hot fixes and then months of tuning. Realistically it will take Microsoft a few years to get VoIP to the point of being enterprise ready. In the mean time, push Microsoft into federating information with the other vendors. This will allow you to deploy someone like Cisco or Avaya today and then integrate Microsoft in the future. "

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