Another Microsoft partnership, this time with the Siemens Communications Group. Announced today, this collaboration between the two companies will focus on marketing and selling a suite of software tools for enhanced corporate Web conferencing and communication.

Siemens will integrate its HiPath OpenScape Telephony Control Link with Microsoft's Office Live Communications Server 2005 and "Istanbul" instant messaging client.

This integration will permit some interesting things, including the ability for Microsoft Office users to click their mouse to make a phone call through a PBX or Internet-PBX connected phone sold by Siemens or other phone vendors. All of this is designed to use a normal, regular desk phone.

Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 and Istanbul will work with the software giant's Web conferencing service, Office Live Meeting. Combined, the technologies will be able to integrate telephony, video, instant messaging and Web conferencing into a suite of software tools. Siemens' HiPath OpenScape, meanwhile, is a collaboration portal that allows workers using a variety of devices from work phones to cell phones to locate each other and communicate.