Old City VoIP provider Alteva scores Microsoft deal

Redmond needs a little help from Philly in its battle with Mountain View.
Microsoft has enlisted Old City-based VoIP provider Alteva to help integrate its popular Office suite with phone and communications systems in businesses. We spoke to Alteva CEO Will Bumbernick earlier this month. The companies hope that the partnership helps businesses become further entrenched in the Microsoft brand of business products while simultaneously preempting the inevitable Google Voice/Google Docs juggernaut.

By integrating telecom components, Microsoft looks to offer some of the benefits of “cloud” document services without having to force something like Windows Live.
When Technically Philly spoke with Bumbernick about his company’s future plans in September, he mentioned that the company was looking to offer an API for its telcom systems. The CEO said that Alteva unrolled the API feature due to customer demand and was looking to build an entire ecosystem of applications that integrated Alteva’s services. Presumably, the API played a role in giving Microsoft an easy way to hook its Office suite into Alteva’s product line.
The pair will have some pilot programs in place by the end of the month with the full production offering to be released in Q1 of next year.
The move lines up with Alteva’s strategy of serving small to mid-sized businesses likely relying on Microsoft Office products such as Outlook, Word and Excel.
Read the full press release announcing the partnership.