I recently completed a Brief on Microsoft Live Communications Server. LCS is a great example of in-context collaboration, where the entire Office suite of applications is wired with presence information, and every Word doc, Powerpoint presentation, and Outlook appointment carries an implied buddy list. Since LCS enables workers to spend more time in their business productivity applications, it should drive productivity gains and time savings.

Imagine how much more quickly everyday business processes will be accomplished when every person working in an Office application can see the presence status of other employees or team members.

Live Communications Server offers benefits that may prove difficult, if not impossible, for current market-leader IBM Lotus and other competitors to match.

As a part of IBM’s move away from the venerable Notes/Domino technology, Lotus Sametime – as well as other collaborative technologies pioneered by Lotus – is being repositioned as a component of WebSphere, IBM’s enterprise application platform.

will be other product releases, and of course competitors like IBM won’t leave Microsoft unchallenged in the rapidly expanding real-time collaboration marketplace. However, Microsoft’s release of Live Communications Server has clearly positioned the company to establish itself as a market leader, and Microsoft’s vision for real-time collaboration will force a reappraisal of how we can and should work together.