The Innovative Communications Alliance, a partnership between Microsoft and Nortel, has come out with its first standalone product, Multimedia Conferencing 5.

An excerpt from eWeek:

The new MC 5.0 software, the latest deliverable in the Microsoft/Nortel Innovative Communications Alliance, spins out the multimedia conferencing capabilities in Nortel’s Multimedia Communications Server 5100 into a standalone offering that integrates with Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 and Office Communicator 2005.

The conferencing tool can work without any Microsoft products (i.e. it works with other SIP, PC clients, or external clients, and it also supports videoconferencing through any client designed for CS-1000). But the product does not yet support Microsoft’s Office Communication Server 2007.

More information:

Nortel Launches Conferencing Software Developed With Microsoft (Network World)