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        Skype Gets Analytics Boost with Microsoft's Event Zero Buy
        
        
        
			- By Kurt Mackie
- January 13, 2016
Microsoft on Wednesday announced it has acquired technology from Event Zero, an Australia-based maker of software  tools   for Skype for Business with a focus on operations reporting.
As part of the deal, Microsoft said it will acquire Event Zero's "technology assets   underlying  the UC Commander product suite." UC Commander is described   by Event Zero as  "the core framework"    behind its other products, such as the Dossier Skype analytics tool, a   Polycom  phone Provisioning tool and an Operations tool.
Support for current Event Zero customers will continue after  the purchase, but those customers will be moved over to a future Microsoft  solution, according to an announcement by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Zig Serafin. 
"Event Zero will continue to provide its award-winning  support to its customers now and in the future as they migrate to Microsoft's  offering," according to an Event Zero announcement.  
Microsoft plans to improve its Office 365 Administration Center  with   Event Zero's technology. The Office 365 Admin Center currently has a Call  Quality Dashboard feature,   which tracks Skype for Business phone and  conferencing quality issues.   Microsoft is promising that Event Zero's  technology addition will add   "strong diagnostics and troubleshooting  capabilities with even more   extensive reporting and analytics for online audio,  video conferencing   and media streams -- all within a unified management and  admin system."
Microsoft's partner community that builds monitoring and  reporting   tools will be getting an easier way to connect premises-based networks    with Office 365 services as a consequence of the Event Zero technology    acquisition.
"We plan to extend the platform to complement partner  solutions and   integrate their monitoring, reporting and analytics capabilities  with   Skype for Business Online management tools," Microsoft promised,    although no details were provided. 
Financial aspects, as well as any potential organizational changes    associated with the deal, weren't described in the announcements. The   timeline  for integrating Event Zero's software technology also wasn't   described.
Event Zero got started 10 years ago, with a focus on troubleshooting    backend systems using complex event processing (CEP) technology. The   company engineered  a CEP system that works not just on short-term   transactional data but can also track  issues over a longer term, from   90 days to a year, according to Event Zero's Web site description.   The CEP  platform eventually was rebuilt to create Event Zero's   Enterprise Commander  solution, which is used for tracking PC use. That   effort led to the creation of  its current Lync and Skype monitoring   solutions.
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.