Johann's Unified Communications : uc

Microsoft and Nokia Form Global Alliance to Design, Develop and Market Mobile Productivity Solutions

jkruse — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:43:51 GMT

This is huge… Microsoft and Nokia will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices.

This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote

• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile

• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server

• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

Read the press release at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-12pixipr.mspx

Getting Rid of Your PBX Can Be Liberating

jkruse — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:42:28 GMT

Jamie Ryan, CIO at Aspect, has written a great post about the benefits of replacing your legacy PBX or IP-PBX with Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

When I tell people that Aspect is the in the midst of a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 rollout, they often ask me if we are really able to live without our PBX’s. Believe it or not, many times they look wistful when they ask the question. It’s almost like they equate PBXs with an old friend who is moving to a far off land and will be sorely missed. My answer is always the same. I’m actually happy to be rid of my PBXs. We had too many - from too many different vendors. They were not integrated. And, they were expensive to manage. Plus, technology has come so far in recent years – why would I stay with the old, when the new is here and better?

Read it at http://blogs.aspect.com/2009/06/21/getting-rid-of-your-pbx-can-be-liberating/

HP and Microsoft Expand Alliance in Unified Communications and Collaboration

jkruse — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:42:30 GMT

At Interop Las Vegas 2009, HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced a four-year strategic global initiative to deliver an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration solution. As part of their Frontline Partnership, the two companies expect to invest up to an additional $180 million in product development, professional services, as well as joint sales and marketing, to help organizations lower cost and improve productivity.

The end-to-end solution, which is planned to span software, hardware, networking and services would enable customers to improve business output and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs. This would be accomplished by streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected applications and devices. HP and Microsoft also plan to provide the flexibility and control customers need to manage their communications infrastructure efficiently.

Product development and integration

The two companies will form joint teams to collaborate on products and services development across Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as HP ProCurve networking products.
HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for the HP dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC and select smartphones.
HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for new IP desk phones.
HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software will provide additional support for Microsoft Office Communications Server, including the ability to provide real-time quality of service metrics for the voice and video network over the IP infrastructure.
The two companies will provide end point interoperability with HP Halo Telepresence Solutions and Microsoft Office Communications Server-based unified conferencing, enabling remote participants at any Microsoft Office Communication Server-enabled PC to join telepresence conferences.

Professional services

Microsoft and HP will offer a full set of business productivity services ranging from assessment, architecture planning and design to implementation, monitoring, management and support for software, hardware, network, server, storage and infrastructure components in the shared portfolio.
HP will dedicate a global team of service professionals to support the joint solutions, helping customers achieve improved levels of network availability and response times.
HP and Microsoft will also target communications service providers, offering them the same technologies and services to enable hosted unified communications and collaboration services for small to medium-sized businesses.
HP and Microsoft will provide services for customers who seek to run their technology on-premise, fully outsource, or who opt for a combination of both.
Microsoft and HP will work together to address customers’ real-time collaboration needs using HP Halo Managed Services and HP ProCurve products.

Read the press release at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-19HPUCGPR.mspx

Microsoft Unified Communications 2007 R2 Adoption and Training Kit

jkruse — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:48:22 GMT

The Microsoft Unified Communications 2007 R2 Adoption and Training Kit provides resources and guidance for IT Professionals, Helpdesk and Support Professionals, and Trainers to support end-users who use Microsoft Unified Communications Technologies. Content includes:

IT Pro - Planning Checklist, Benefit Statements, E-Mail Campaign Samples, Success Metrics Examples, and User Education Materials
Helpdesk - Planning Checklist, Frequently Asked Questions, and Troubleshooting Guides.
Trainer - Planning Checklist, Quick Reference Cards, Tips and Tricks Flash Cards, How-to's, Getting Started Tours, and Web-based Tutorials and Training

Watch the video….

….and download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=eb18d016-64f7-4aae-b491-65636a186c1a&displaylang=en

Unified Communications How-To

jkruse — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:44:03 GMT

The Microsoft Unified Communications “How-To” training tool is a Silverlight 2 application that provides step-by-step instructions for common UC tasks. You can customize the How-To application to your company’s needs based on the UC features you’ve installed. For example, if you have installed all UC features except Communicator Mobile and Communicator Group Chat, you can modify the XML file so that those features and topics do not appear in the interface.

The How-To training tool is delivered as both a desktop application and a Web application. It runs in all popular browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera.

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=aba240af-b5ba-4e14-bc12-c98eae1f6d15#tm

RTM’d today: Programming for Unified Communications

jkruse — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:41:00 GMT

Unified Communications is about much more than what you get out-of-the-box – it is a platform that you can use to build, extend and enhance your own applications & business processes. Looking at UC as a platform is about more than cost-savings, it's about competitive advantage.

As a software & platform company this is one Microsoft’s key strengths versus our UC competitors who still think very much inside-the-box – in fact this is why Gartner has had Microsoft as the leader in its UC Magic Quadrant for the last few years.

Microsoft Press have just RTMed a new book titled Programming for Unified Communications that explains how to use OCS R2 as a development platform, and to fully realise the benefits of UC.

More details at http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_press/archive/2009/04/30/rtm-d-today-programming-for-unified-communications.aspx

Exchange 2010 & Polycom @ Sydney UC

jkruse — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:00:03 GMT

Just a reminder that the April Sydney UC meeting is on Monday evening (the 27th) at Polycom in North Sydney.

Topics for this month are Exchange 2010 (technical overview & demo of the beta) and Polycom UC (including HD & Telepresence integration with OCS R2).

Meeting & registration details at http://sydneyuc.org/2009/04/08/april-sydney-uc-meeting-polycom/

Cisco UC v4/5/6 supported for Direct-SIP with OCS R2

jkruse — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:46:34 GMT

The UC Open Interoperability Program has been updated and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (aka Call Manager) versions 4, 5 & 6 are now supported for Direct-SIP connectivity with OCS R2.

This means that back-end integration can be configured between Cisco UC and OCS without the need for a gateway, and without requiring multiple client applications or softphones to be installed on the desktop.

Office Communicator can make/receive phonecalls using Cisco UC as a “PSTN gateway”, but without the need for client plug-ins which can cause version incompatibilities.

So mobile/remote users get the advantages of software-based wideband audio/video/conferencing with VPN-less access via the OCS Edge Server (without requiring an ASA or the associated remote-client licences), and people at their desk can still use their Cisco “hard-phones”.

IP-PBX Vendor	Tested Product	Supported Configuration	Software Versions Tested	OCS 2007 R2	OCS 2007
Cisco	Cisco Unified Communications Manager	Direct SIP	4.2(3)_SR3a
			4.2(3)_SR4b
			5.1(1b)
			5.1(3e)
			6.1(1b)
			6.1(3a)

Known Limitations:

The PRACK message sent by CUCM 4.2(3) is malformed by missing the MAXFORWARDS header. As a result, this configuration requires PRACK to be disabled. By default, PRACK is disabled in CUCM 4.2(3)

For Office Communications Server 2007, this support requires update package for Communications Server 2007 Mediation Server: August 2008 .

OCS 2007 may not appropriately normalize the PAI in the 200 OK or UPDATE, resulting in OC displaying a non RFC3966 formatted global number and in failed RNL on OC. When calling from OC 2007 to a Cisco phone number, after the caller gets connected, the name of the person on the Cisco phone may not be shown on Communicator, and instead OC may display the E.164 number (without a "+") for the person on the Cisco phone. This is resolved in OCS 2007 R2

When calling from OC 2007 to a Cisco phone number, where the Cisco extension is disconnected or out of service, the Cisco IP-PBX may not notify OC 2007 in a timely manner. This has been remediated in OCS 2007 R2.

More information and updates at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb735838.aspx#direct, and example configuration for Call Manager 4 at http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/09/30/302.aspx

NBN + UC = :D

jkruse — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:19:00 GMT

The recent National Broadband Network (NBN) announcement in Australia is the best piece of news I have heard in some time.

Fibre To The Home (FTTH) with speeds of 100Mbps is going to dramatically change how Australians work, play and socialise online. I haven’t heard yet if these speeds are symmetrical or asymmetrical (i.e. if uplink speeds are equivalent to downlink, or not), but I guess it may be too early in the process to know.

At home I have a Naked ADSL2+ connection from Internode (via an Optus DSLAM) which is great in theory, but in practice I only get about 4Mbps down and 384Kbps up.

I work from home a lot, and at the moment at least 10% of my time is spent video-conferencing with customers and workmates. With reductions in travel budgets this is likely to increase in the coming years.

384Kbps uplink is sufficient for CIF video in Office Communicator 2007, but now in R2 we support VGA and HD video which of course have greater bandwidth requirements. Currently I have to physically travel to the office in North Ryde to send VGA or HD video, which kind of defeats the concept of Unified Communications (collaborate from anywhere – work is something you do, not somewhere you go).

So this is why I’m excited about the NBN – faster uplink speeds will enable higher fidelity video-conferencing at home, which will provide more opportunities for remote collaboration, travel reductions, flexible meetings, and work/life balance.

Now if only they could get it up and running in < 8 years :)

The Office

jkruse — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:19:36 GMT

This is why mobile Unified Communications & collaboration can help your business have happier, more productive employees; and retain them longer.

Doing my Mid-Year Career Discussion preparation this morning – in peace & quiet, and without the interruptions, conversations, and “let’s-get-a-coffee”s of being in the office. I start work earlier, I don’t get stuck in traffic, and I get more done!

I don’t need a VPN, I don’t need any special software or hardware… it just works.

Jabra Dial 520

jkruse — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:57:33 GMT

Jabra have recently announced a few new products for Office Communicator – the M5390 headset and the Dial 520 OC handset.

I’ve managed to get my hands on the Dial 520 handset, and am happy to say that it is now my preferred device for softphone calling when in my “mobile office” (i.e. anywhere I’m working for >1 hour). It’s a USB device is small and simple to use, and doesn’t require drivers (tested on Windows 7 and Vista).

“Optimised for Microsoft Office Communicator”

Nice and small

It automatically integrates with Office Communicator (e.g. dial buttons, answer/hang-up buttons, LCD display) and gives really good quality audio for such a simple device.

So with the GN9350 in my home-office, the BT530 on-the-road, and now the Dial 520 when semi-mobile, I’ve got a pretty good road-warrior setup for UC and collaboration. (I’m not paid or sponsored by Jabra, I just like their hardware and it fully integrates with OC)

Where to download OCS 2007 R2

jkruse — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:03:29 GMT

Today is the official launch of OCS 2007 R2 (sign up for the Virtual Launch!).

What’s new?

Streamlined Communications

Call management capabilities let receptionists and team assistants take a large volume of incoming calls and quickly route them to the intended recipients. Delegation allows executives to give complete management of their phone calls to assistants.
Desktop-sharing capabilities allow users on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms to collaborate with one another while they talk to each other using enhanced audio conferencing features.
Group chat lets organizations set-up searchable, topic-based chat rooms that persist over time, which allows geographically distributed teams to collaborate with one another efficiently while preserving organizational knowledge.

Operational Flexibility and Control

On-premise audio conferencing capability puts IT in control of audio conferencing infrastructure while saving on outsourced audio conferencing costs.
Single Number Reach allows IT to log business calls placed from mobile phones for accounting purposes. It also helps to ensure that the same dialing rules that apply to calls from a work phone extends to mobile calls.
Video monitoring capabilities allow IT to monitor the quality of video calls and conferences on their network and make adjustments if necessary.
Support for SIP-trunking removes the need to manage on-premise gateways.

Extensible Communications Platform

Automate business processes with instant messaging, voice, and e-mail workflows with familiar development tools like Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
Agent Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, built using the published platform APIs in Office Communications Server 2007 R2, gives call center agents the ability to see presence information and the ability to “click-to-communicate” from within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM screens.

And of course the most important bit – where can you download it? There is a 180-day trial available now. It’s also worthwhile checking out the FAQ and release notes before installing. Enjoy!

UC Case Study: Cisco

jkruse — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:14:56 GMT

Alex Lewis has written an interesting post over at Network World about Cisco and their UC stack. Alex’s view is that Cisco have a very wide Communications portfolio and a great VoIP product, but they don’t yet have the “Unified” part.

In summary, Cisco has a great VoIP solution but is lacking in the other areas of UC. I'd argue they're irresponsible in claiming to have a "UC offering". They have UC only by the most liberal definitions. Rebranding Cisco Call Manager to "Unified Communications Manager" is classic marketing; all sizzle, no steak. Ranting a bit, doesn't a unified communications solution need to be, you know, unified? Cisco's offering is a kludge of nearly 40 products on distinct platforms with minimal interoperability and synergy.

Check out the full article at http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/35827

Microsoft uses software edge on Cisco in Unified Communications war

jkruse — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:16:35 GMT

There is an interesting article over at SearchUnifiedCommunications.com about how the tables have turned between Microsoft and Cisco in Unified Communications. Two years ago the Yankee Group recommended Cisco, but that now seems to be changing.

Quote from the article:

"It's pretty safe to go with Microsoft now," Kerravala said. "The thought process was that VoIP is the foundation for unified communications, which meant Cisco was pretty safe. I think the conversation has changed."

Gurdeep Sing Pall commented on this recently at the OCS Team Blog:

In early 2007, Cisco was touting their three year lead on Microsoft in UC. Now, Cisco seems to have decided they were running in the wrong direction - and perhaps even in the wrong race. In the last month, Cisco has added two new software pieces to their UC puzzle and are now playing catch up to companies like Microsoft and Nortel who have long seen that the path to UC was in powerful, well-integrated software, not wires.

Cisco’s offering is the definition of “un-unified” communications. With more than 40 products, their solution is a patchwork of technologies and networking. The risk for customers is that a patchwork system is slower to roll out, harder to train users, and more expensive to manage and maintain over the long term.

By contrast, software-based unified communications is just that: “unified.” It provides customers with the power of one – one infrastructure and one user experience that simplifies and speeds deployment and adoption, and it interoperates more easily with existing systems. Businesses save costs with software-powered UC – an all-important consideration in today’s financial climate. Our customers tell us that our system slashes their overall telephony costs by 30 to 60 percent, with their long distance charges reduced by up to 76 percent, and almost one-third sliced off their mobile telephony overhead. Those are some pretty compelling economics.

We shipped Microsoft’s UC platform in Office Communications Server and Exchange Server 12 months ago, and today, more than half of Fortune 500 companies are using the technology.

My question is…… what do you think is more likely to happen – Microsoft becomes good at telephony, or Cisco becomes good at software and collaboration?

Watch this space.

OCS VoIP in a disaster zone

jkruse — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:56:22 GMT

Massive storms in Brisbane recently left many people homeless, and in fact it was declared a disaster zone.

One of the people who had their home destroyed in this storm was my mate Bill Lockett from Dimension Data. Our best wishes and thoughts are with him and his family during this time as they rebuild.

Bill’s house lost all power and landline communications, but fortunately Telstra’s NextG network was still online.

Bill was able to use a generator to power his laptop, and with a Polycom CX200 USB handset (which in fact he had to dry out as it was in an inch of water) and Office Communicator 2007 he was still fully able to use his work phone. No special hardware, software, or VPN required. Microsoft’s adaptive RTAudio codec ensured that call quality was excellent, despite the conditions.

Nice one Bill :)