Expanding their existing strategic alliance, Microsoft Corp. and HP announced a joint effort focused on accelerating the transformation of telephony, audio-, video-, and web-conferencing and instant messaging into a single unified communications platform.

Under this initiative, HP will provide enterprise systems and systems integration services for new and enhanced products within Microsoft's unified communications platform, including Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office RoundTable™, Communicator phone experience and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

HP's effort, coupled with Microsoft's vision for unified communications, will help to enable simpler collaboration among information workers, providing businesses new capabilities to leverage existing infrastructures and increase productivity.

This announcement expands Microsoft and HP's long-standing relationship dedicated to developing and delivering industry-standard information technology in both core businesses and new strategic markets while offering unmatched ownership satisfaction and value.