Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has purchased Parlano, a software company that allows enterprises to create chat rooms among their employees. According to Reuters, the company already has large customers including Deutsche Bank and Putnam Investments. The news service says" Microsoft plans to offer the group chat application as part of its "unified communication" offering, which delivers telephone, e-mail, messaging and Web conferencing over Internet networks."

The move shows that Microsoft has decided that to sell its highly profitable OS and office and server applications into large organizations, it needs more than just the most widely used software platform. Microsoft has to offer customers a way to interconnect their employees so they do not have to buy these products from companies that could use them as a toehold to pick up more business.

The action puts the company on a collision course with several large rivals from Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Cisco is anxious to get VoIP and video conference customers at large companies and Google offers voice, chat, and e-mail software either for free or at low prices.

Microsoft clearly does not want to be outdone.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.