The first technology preview of Microsoft Response Point SP2 has been released to early adopters lately. Microsoft Response Point (RP) is an advanced software-based telephone system developed by Microsoft. Response Point, a PBX system targeting small businesses with less than 50 employees, was launched in March 2007, with systems available on the market in the fourth quarter of that year. Response Point is VoIP-based, and uses SIP as its’ signaling and call setup protocol. Response Point supports voicemail and multi-party calling in addition to two party VoIP calls. It features innovative voice recognition technology to manage calls and voice mail. Voicemail messages can, optionally, be sent to e-mail where they can be retrieved and archived. Response Point voice dialing can works with the Response Point phone directory which is currently limited to 1100 contacts per user. Contacts may be imported from the Windows Address Book or Microsoft Outlook. Response Point automatically detects gateways and phones connected to the network.

The Response Point homepage can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint/default.aspx.

Some of the new features are:

• After hours
• B2BUA (from 8×8)
• Conference Room phone (from ClearOne)
• FXS Gateway (from Quintum)
• In-band DTMF improvements
• Intercom
• Incoming Call Toast Customization
• T1 Gateway (from Quintum and Sangoma)
• VPN/WAN support

The RP Service Pack 2 release is expected to be in the Feb 2009 timeframe or before.