I was stunned to receive the notification from a Microsoft spokesperson regarding "a new Office Online column from Jeff Raikes on real-time collaboration," only to learn that there was no way for me to subscribe to Raikes’?musings via RSS. Instead, I guess I’ll have to remember to check Microsoft’s site on a regular basis for anything new, or wait for the next e-mail.?How inefficient! Speaking of efficiency, perhaps that’s the silver lining to this cloud. Raikes’ note describes how Microsoft, being the large international company that it is, has been a pretty good proving ground for how its enterprise collaboration tools (Communicator, Live Communications Server, and Live Meeting) can grease the wheels of group productivity while saving the company money. Against a backdrop of presence detection and management and context-sensitive communications, Raikes says, "At Microsoft, we have more than 35,000 people using Live Communication Server-based IM and we send roughly 7.5 million instant messages per month." Using the financial returns as another proof point, Raikes writes, "Live Meeting is used extensively within Microsoft and it provided immediate returns. At Microsoft in FY04, Live Meeting replaced 1 in 5 business trips and saved the company over $40 million U.S.; in FY05, that savings is expected to top $70 million."