You may have seen Bill Gates announce the new Office Communicator 2005 product recently (if not, you can watch a recording). This is the future of comms - and you could try it now by signing up for the beta programme! (instructions here)
Mayur has written a great overview of the new software here. I'm sure there will be plenty of reasons for further posts about Communicator over the next few months - watch this space!
Here's the blurb from the product site:
Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 is an enterprise messenger that integrates communications capabilities (including instant messaging, rich presence, PC-based voice and video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and enterprise telephony) with productivity and other communications applications.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 will be the recommended client for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, which provides a standards-based, enterprise-grade, instant messaging (IM) solution and an extensible, real-time collaboration platform to connect people, information, and business processes seamlessly in real time.