Unified Communications @ Microsoft

One of the reasons why smaller organisation don't have access to the latest and greatest cost saving technologies (like their bigger cousins) is because they simply don't have the time or money to invest in it in the first place … enter Business Productivity Online Services.

BPOS is the best and easiest way of getting access to the cost saving MS productivity suite that I use myself every day and finally its available for people in the UK to purchase and start using.

BPOS includes (£10.04 per user per month):

· Exchange Online (£6.69 per user per month)

· SharePoint Online (£4.85 per user per month)

· Office Communications Online (£1.67 per user per month)

· Office Live Meeting  (£3.01 per user per month)

· Deskless worker (£1.34 per user per month)

If you are interested (and you should be – its very cheap),  I recommend you contact one of the UK BPOS partners or sign up on http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-gb/default.mspx.  If you are planning on doing 25 users or more (perhaps a 25 user pilot) then I certainly recommend you make contact as their might be something else we can do :-)

Two important points for any small business reading this

1. By the end of the week you could be using the same technology as your ‘bigger cousins’ in Enterprise.  Making your act and respond like a big organisation (in a good way).
2. People need to save money and they need to save money now.  Using BPOS gives you access to the cost saving technology (Livemeeting is an excellent example of this) without any deployment delays. 

Credit cards at the ready then !

I would like to announce the best thing since sliced bread …. RichCopy !

This tool has been available internally at Microsoft for as long as I can remember and over the years I have used it to copy virtual PCs and installations files over from Redmond or from a local server to my PC.  The problem is that I have never been able to share this little gem as its only been available for internal use.

I am glad to say its now available for download from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx get clicking,  get downloading and get copying.

My three top tips for using RichCopy

1. If you are copying one or a few big files,  set ‘File Copy’ attribute to more than '1’.   It uses up resources but copies big files down quicker

2. If you are copying lots of files then set the ‘Thread number’ attributes to 10-10-1.  This will copy multiple files quicker

3. If you are copying over a dodgy connection.  You can re run the download and it will go and find the files it didn't manage to get the first time.

This is a seriously cool application and the fact it has blue progress bars that fly across the screen when you are copying just makes it better than sliced bread itself !

This has been working its way round the ‘Twittersphere’ so I thought I would post it on my blog too.

Brett Johnson has put together some brilliant ‘tips’ on OCS R2.  Something there for everyone me thinks :-)

‘Share the love’ with Communicator Desktop Sharing

Communicator Voice Settings 

Audio conference calls – Part 1

Audio conference calls – Part 2 – Joining as a leader on a normal phone

Audio conference calls – Part 3 – Joining using the browser

I will keep this post updated as Brett puts together more pearls of wisdom

IE8 is available from today,  I have been running it for quite sometime in both Vista and Windows 7 and loving it. 

Enough of that for now though,  when you have 10 mins free,  pop along to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/nethistory/#fbid:cdOi6BnV9bB and watch the hilarious video on the brief history of the internet including the classic ‘Hamster Dance’

It’s been about a month since my blog post on ‘To Tweet or Not to Tweet’. I have done over 100+ ’tweets’ and have a modest following (as well as following approx 50 people) and the question I asked myself this weekend was “Has it been worth it and is it working?”

To answer that question I should really look at my main reasons for wanting to try it out.

1. Being two faced – Provide relevant status updates on my ‘work persona’
2. Faster than a speeding blog post – A way to share information I think wouldn’t constitute a blog post
3. Keeping your ears to the ground – Using twitter to keep in touch with the community

To a greater or lesser extent,  it has indeed delivered on these three ‘requirements’ list above.  Let me give you some examples taken from the last 30 days or so

• Shared my twitter URL at the beginning of a presentation.  By the time I was back in the office I had already had a few people contact me to,  either to compliment me on my presentation (which was nice of them) or to know more about UC. 
• Making contact with those ‘on the ground’ that are using and abusing OCS R2.  I have been talking to a few people that are either installing OCS,  using OCS as an employee,  writing about OCS as a journalist or analyst or going on OCS training organised by Microsoft.   The instant feedback and intel’ you get from Twitter just isn't possible with traditional forums.
• I have also been tracking the infrastructure deployment of camatmckesson who appears to be installing and using everything we produce at Microsoft.  Its great to see someone using the ‘stack’ to its full potential

Put simply,  Twitter is indeed a great corporate tool if you make the time to dedicate to it.  In fact I am putting together an internal virtual team to think about how we can get more people within Microsoft twittering.

What’s your experience of Twitter as a professional messaging tool?  Good? Bad? Any tips?

Once every so often,  Microsoft has a think about what the company will be doing in the future rather than having to focus on the revenue targets and metrics for the next 12 months.  It’s during these times in particular that I remember why I work at Microsoft.

I remember seeing a video similar to this when I started Microsoft in 2001 and reflecting upon it a few years later when some of the ‘future’ technologies had become reality,  Microsoft Smartphone (as it was known then) being the one I remember the most.

Take a look at the video below of our vision for 2019,  then carry on reading the rest of this post…. no peeking !

Ok … so hopefully you didn’t peek and have a good idea of what we see the future looking like.  Now to share my thoughts on how it will happen

Remote classrooms – Already possible using LiveMeeting and similar video technology,  all we need now is the broadband speeds to increase and mass market cheap video displays/walls.  Both are dropping in cost and increasing in size so certainly possible within the next 10 years.  What was you internet speed at home and how big was your TV in 1999?

Touch screen surfaces – This is already available through Microsoft Surface.  I played with one of these a while back and it truly is an amazing piece of technology,  only a matter of time before it too becomes ‘mass market’ and more accessible to schools etc.

Integration into your child's school schedule – I have seen schools using SharePoint in order to provide access to calendaring etc so this is entirely possible now.

Projection – The guy at the airport uses location based technology to find the location of a colleague,  he then projects ‘directions’ onto the floor.  The IT world has already invented small projectors … examples here http://www.personalprojector.co.uk/ and RFID/GPS will make location based applications possible.

Room141 (4m3s) – Looking through the photos for Room 141.  This is Photosynth and is available now.

So what’s stopping all this happen you might ask yourself?  It’s a very good question and comes down to three areas in my opinion.

1. Availability of technology – Some technologies are still to be invented but that doesn't make them impossible.  If someone had told me about Microsoft Surface or Photosynth two years ago I would not have believed it was possible,  24 months later look where we are now.

2. Cost of technology – Video conferencing is an example of a technology that is available but yet to take off ‘mainstream’ i.e. on every desk.  This is partially down to the fact that its expensive.  In a similar way to how we are applying a software approach to a hardware world with UC,  bringing down the cost of communications software,  I think we can do the same with some of the technologies shown in this video.  As I mentioned earlier,  Flatscreen TVs are another example of technology that was expensive but is now becoming mainstream (although obviously Microsoft did not have anything to do with that)

3. User/Organisation acceptance – The other key areas is user/organisation acceptance.  A lot of people fear change and its those that are willing to accept change and ‘live on the bleeding edge’ that make technologies like this possible.  I run my laptop on Windows 7 and have been using OCS 2007 R2 for months now.  Yes it sometimes ‘stumbles’ but  that's the fine with me because I get to make the most of the technology before other people,  living the life in these vision videos as much as I can.

I look forward to reviewing this post 12 months from now and seeing how much of this has become reality,  getting us closer to 2019.

****** UPDATES *****

Augmented reality - During the video you see some examples of augmented reality.  In the video this is usually shown by holding one of the ‘tablets’ in mid air,  the best example of which is when they hold one up to the plant.  Looks like we are working on that already.  Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/msrtechfest/videoGallery.aspx?initialVideo=techfest_channel10_AugmentedReality

Just had a meeting today with a number of people around Microsoft using OCS R2.  We have three people in the room using LiveMeeting (in R2) and Roundtable,  another person joining remotely using their PC and one person dialling in on an ‘old fashioned phone’ from home.

Using this stuff everyday,  in particular speaking to people over R2,  I forgot how crap the quality of a normal phone call is,  quiet and muffled.  Today reminds me why traditional conf calls are ‘hard work’ and how much better using LiveMeeting and OCS is.

Can’t wait to do more meetings over OCS R2,  the days of traditional conf calls for me are numbered

One of the great things about blogs,  Twitter,  Facebook and other similar networks is if there is something your want to share with colleagues, friends and ‘followers’ then it only takes a few minutes.  This is ok if used appropriately,  I think this is one of those moments.

Once a year,  I break from the normal subject of Unified Communications and ask people for sponsorship.  A few years ago it was the British Heart Foundation as I was doing the London to Brighton bike ride but this year is Cancer Research UK and I am doing the Reading Half Marathon.

My request therefore,  is to consider donating tomorrows ‘lunch money’ (e.g. £5) and sponsor me for running in the Reading Half Marathon.

www.justgiving.com/markdeakin

Oh …. and for every £ you donate,  Microsoft will match,  so you are helping spend their money also !

It’s almost Feb 14th,  the card shops are getting ready for an onslaught of customers and the florist are busily increasing the prices of roses ;-)

Just ‘tweeted’ about this but thought I would do a quick post as well.  Follow this link for some top tips on how to ensure your Valentines day goes well.  Get your pen and paper ready and look out for ‘most important thing of all’ at the end …. recognise it?

I of course have implemented some Microsoft technology into Valentines day but can’t give any details here in case ‘she’ is reading this !……

Anyone else planning something using a bit of MS tech?

I like to think I am still able to keep up to date with what the ‘tech cool’ are up to and Twitter is the latest thing I needed to get my head around.

For the same reason it took me years to buy an iPod,  I didn't want to just follow the crowd and start ‘tweeting’ without having a purpose or reason so I set up my account, changed my Facebook status to “Mark is trying to figure out what twitter is for” and spent a few days thinking about it.  Eventually,  it clicked into place … or at least I think it has.

• Why update my status in two places? – The first thing I needed to figure out was ‘why would I update my Facebook status and Tweet the same thing’.  I looked for some status sync tools but in the end could only find a tool to update from Twitter to Facebook.  I did this a few times but eventually realised that all of my friends I wanted to keep updated on what I was up to were on Facebook anyway,  this is when the penny dropped
• Being two faced – One thing I try to do is keep my work and home life separate.  I like to think I do this quite well with a Facebook profile,  XBOX Live Gamer Tag and Windows Live Messenger account for my personal life and a blog and Communicator IM address for my work life.  There are a few people that cross over between these boundaries but for the most part I manage to keep them separate for good reason.  When I thought about this separation I realised that I didn't actually have the ability do ‘status updates’ for my work persona.  Could this be a reason for me to use twitter?  Yes.
• Faster than a speeding blog post – Shortly after realising I had at least one use for Twitter another one came along.  Quite a lot of the time,  I think of something I want to share via my blog but don't feel its worth a post because its either a little off topic (something cool but not UC related) or to short (an interesting article but don't have the time or ability to write much about it).  Twitter is the place for me to do this,  allowing me to keep my blog clear for more ‘deeper’ thoughts.
• Access is everything – Facebook is near enough my homepage,  so updating my Facebook status is not a problem.  Having to go to a different site to update my twitter status and checking see others updates is a pain. Twhirl and Blu mean I can now see peoples tweets easily on my desktop and update my own.  Problem solved.
• Keeping your ears to the ground – Rob Gray (ex MS employee) pointed out to me that Twitter and the search feature is also a very good way to understand what people are talking about.  In a similar way to how Facebook combined with CNN allowed me to understand what people thought about the Inauguration while it was happening,  Twitter will enable me to keep my ‘ears to the ground’ about subjects I find interesting e.g. OCS R2.

And so with this post my Twitter adventure starts.  It has purpose,  it has a plan,  but does it have legs?

Follow me at http://twitter.com/markdeakin

With snow falling in Reading as well as the rest of the UK on Monday (2nd Feb),  the country virtually shut down with 1 in 5 people in Berkshire not managing to get into work. Britain experienced the worst case of snow in the UK in at least 18 years .... all this in the same week that saw Microsoft launch OCS 2007 R2 across the world .... including the UK .... did this stop us ? NOPE !

Before I get onto the R2 launch,  I wanted to share with you an email I recieved earlier today.  Names have been removed to 'protect the innocent' but it just goes to show you how during times of adverse weather (remember the floods last year?),  we are using our technology to make sure it's 'business as usual'.

Below is 'Snowday Monday' for one of the managers at Microsoft

• "We transitioned our all hands meeting to live meeting with 68 attendees and 15 different presenters and it went flawlessly"
• "Our management team transitioned our monthly meeting to live meeting with web cameras, 12 attendees and it went flawlessly"
• "Personally, I transitioned several 1:1s to web camera based meetings. Again, no impact"
• "In the end, I did not have a single cancellation"

So,  for those of you reading this that were affected by the snow and had to cancel your meetings.  Bookmark www.livemeeting.com so you are ready for next time ... perhaps even trial/buy it now so you are ready to rock for when it happens again ... I hear there is more snow coming Thursday !

R2 Launch - Today also marks the launch of OCS 2007 R2.  Given the weather and economy,  this event in the UK (and Europe) could have been ruined with people cancelling or not turning up through lack of travel budget or snow bound transport.  Great news then that we decided to run this 'online' and from the looks of my mailbox over the last few months this is the first of many (one of the internal conferences I attend is also going virtual). 

You are therefore invited to pop along to http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/r2-virtual-launch/event/ and save on the flight expenses and snow shoes.  I have had a look this evening myself and its a brilliant interface to a virtual launch event and you really do get the feeling you are attending an event but without the jet lag and evening based drinks/liver damage.  I recommend you look at the following in particular

• Partner Floor - Which partners are we working with
• Keynote - Find out what we are launching today
• Case Studies - Including the Microsoft case study

Well that's enough from me for now,  off to watch a bit of TV before I go to bed.  Before that though I leave you with two simple question .... how much did your company lose in revenue this week because of the snow ?  Could you not have mitigated some of that if you have been running Microsoft UC?

***** UPDATE *****

There are a few interesting posts on friends blogs about Snow Day at Microsoft.

• Darren Strange the Office Rocker
• Ewan Dalton

I made a post recently on how technology was playing a part in the Inauguration in a way that I expect it had not before.  One of the technologies I mentioned was Photosynth and not that people have uploaded their photos there are a number of new Photsynths to be viewed.

Lincoln Memorial Concert – With this one you can zoom all the way down the crowd and end up looking at the people on the stage. 

The Moment – Three Photosynths here capturing the actual moment

Cool as this technology is,  the applications now might not be obvious.  But 10+ years from now,  when kids are learning about this day at school,  its going to make an excellent tool to help them understand the moment,  something that a single photo on its own with no context just cant do.

One great to convey/share information is in a video,  people seem to remember things better when they see them rather than just reading about it.  Traditionally within Microsoft this is done by producing the videos and having a Microsoft microsite created around them,  something along the lines of www.microsoft.com/bpio/ucg/tdm/bmo/media/videos/list.aspx or something equally as lengthy.

Well I am pleased to say that in a similar way to how a number of Microsoft employees are using blogs to get the message out (its much quicker than trying to get a website updated),  the UC team in the US are using YouTube as a means to get the videos out there.

Pop along to http://uk.youtube.com/user/OCSR2Launch for the full list of videos and subscribe if you want to know when they post more.  I have however included a few links below of my favourites,  all of which show that people at Microsoft have a sensor of humour too …. although acting skills vary (not sure I could do better myself)

Question I ask myself,  is it a good thing that I can make a blog post or upload a video representing my company so easily a good thing or a bad thing?

Learn about Group Chat and the dangers of not implementing OCS 2007 R2

Video on Microsoft and Aspect Call Center integration

What is CEBP?

As I type out this posting,  I have the CNN website open with the live video stream of the inauguration.  Watching this sort of thing over the internet is not special but some of the technology that they are using in combination with the video stream show how technology can enhance the experience.

1. CNN.com Live with facebook – While I watch the video I can see people updating their facebook status live.  What a brilliant idea and an amazing way to see what the public is doing and thinking as history is happening.
2. Photsynth – With so many people at a single location,  there will be 100,000s of photos being taken,  each showing a different view of this historic moment.   Well the Photosynth team have teamed up with CNN to create a PhotoSynth of the inauguration.  More detail here,  I look forward to seeing the final Photosynth,  should be pretty amazing.

Right … back to the video for me. 

Cya !

A while back,  I visited ‘The Register’ for a webcast about how to deliver information across the enterprise. I have done a few webcasts over the last few years but this was certainly one I will remember. 

First of all,  it was ‘The Register’ so I wasn't sure what to expect,  a warm welcome or a frosty one.  Actually it was the former :-)

What I remember the most however was the conversation we had both on and off camera with Tim and Martin about how technologies like Facebook,  Windows Live Messenger and ‘desktop search’ are being used by consumers and are creeping into enterprises.

The question we ask is….

a) do you stop these tools being used?

b) do you consider implementing them but wait until the economy is a little more stable?

c) do you make the most of everyone else ‘stalling’ and gain a little competitive advantage now?

My feeling is go for option C … this IS a great opportunity to race ahead of the competition by making your employees more productive.

Have a look at the video and let me know your thoughts on whether you think organisations should

a) shutdown the apps

b) temporarily halt your deployments

c) make the most of others ‘stalling’