Microsoft made a big splash in the small business community recently (whether you realize it yet or not!) with the announcement of their expected entrance into the unified communications space.

Why is this big news? By entering this space with a software solution, Microsoft is saying that they want to replace (or dramatically enhance) your phone system with a solution that will run on their servers. A growing percentage of small businesses are making the transition to VoIP phone systems; Microsoft’s solution competes directly with these systems and even potentially gives the small business all of the advanced VoIP capabilities they are looking for while keeping their current system.

As is always the case with new Microsoft releases, you should give this a bit of time to work through the inevitable bugs, but Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says this platform has been rigorously tested already because they know it has to compete with always available phone systems.

Time will tell, but I bet this becomes a huge business for Microsoft.