Featured Article from Unified Communications Headsets

Switch UC Plays Well with Microsoft Office 365

By Kyle Piscioniere
Web Editor

Switch Communications debuted its cloud communications platform last January, gaining some major traction with Google’s (News - Alert) productivity product users. Switch’s product brought the conference call back to Google users, helmed by tech giant (and former Google employee) Craig Walker (News - Alert). Now the company has made its flagship product compatible with Office 365, including full integration with Outlook Mail, Calendar, and LinkedIn.

Switch, which originally billed itself as “the business phone for Google Apps,” is responding to Microsoft’s (News - Alert) swift ascension to cloud productivity prominence. Its new offering will allows users to log into Switch with their Microsoft credentials, and then use the service for $15 a month.

As CEO Craig Walker told VentureBeat, “Google created this cloud category, was an early innovator, but Microsoft has quickly closed the gap, so it only makes sense that we would build a product that supports those users as well.”

This sudden shift in the Switch business model goes against what most news outlets have speculated it would do, especially because the company’s founders are all ex-Google employees. Most industry analysts thought Google would snatch up the company – Google Ventures did partially fund it – after the tech worked out the bugs or received widespread adoption. But now the company is acting out of some serious self-interest, and perhaps even pressuring Google into making a decision: buy us, or we’ll offer the same product to your competitors.

The change is intuitive, even in this age of shifting and uncertain software-hardware compatibility. End devices define user experience, and customers tend to be far more attached to end devices than the software they download on them; thus, software companies need to meet hardware on its turf to increase their user base.

As Walker commented, “This is a two-horse race; we want to enable all businesses to use Switch.” It’s exciting news from the communications company, and Google’s response – if they respond at all – should be interesting.