All about Unified Communications : Unified Communications

OCS 2007 and Response Point

markdea — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:51:27 GMT

Last month Microsoft Research announced a product called Response Point and I quickly noted down some of my initial thoughts and linked to more information here.

Since then a number of people, mainly channel partners, have asked me how this fits into our Unified Communications strategy. The simple answer to this is that currently its not part of the Microsoft Unified Communications stack and when compared to OCS 2007 it caters for a different customer segment and different usage scenarios.

The UCG blog explains it all in more detail, if you want to know more I recommend you take a look there.

Exceeding expectations

markdea — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:35:18 GMT

About a week ago I popped into the Reading Audi garage to book an appointment to get my Audi looked at as I had been having problems with the back window. I booked it in for Tuesday (today) and my expectation was for them to pick up the car from work, do the work and drop it back off at work.

As well as fixing the window, they also fixed the engine cover on the underside of the car, washed and cleaned the inside and outside of the car, serviced the car including topping up the coolant which was below the minimum and finally phoned me to update me on the progress during the day. With a tiny bit of effort on their side they have exceeded my expectations and have a very loyal and happy customer.

What might you ask does this have to do with Unified Communications? I have two examples where exceeding expectation by a tiny amount can benefit your internal and external customers and create loyalty.

Deliver more than just 'telephony over IP' - One of the things I have said a number of times in the past is that when deploying IPT, don't just swap an RJ11 connector for an RJ45 as this is what the customer, your employees or users, are expecting. Instead why not replace their existing telephony system with a solution that not only delivers it over IP but also provides presence, voice, video and data collaboration, enabling them to communicate quicker and easier and ultimately spend more time with their customers and less time battling with technology. Exceed the expectations of your users by providing something extra!

Exceed your external customers expectations - I recently phoned a structural engineer to confirm an appointment and because the guy was busy at the time, the person on the phone said to me "Jim isn't available at the minute, can he phone you back later when he is around". I have heard this a number of times before and to me that means I would probably need to phone back a few hours later to chase things up, not a great experience. Instead, wouldn't it have been better if they had said, "I can tell he is on the phone the minute but has said he will be finished in a second" or "I can see he has availability to come next Thursday, is 3pm ok for you?". This tiny but extra piece of information, obtained by either IM'ing, checking someone's presence or calendar, would have made me feel more in control of the situation and would have provided me with more detail than I would have expected. Again, a little extra goes a long way!

So no matter whether your customer is an external one or an internal one, think about the way in which they communicate with you currently and how you can improve on this experience. Make it either easier to communicate with you, easier for them to do their own job and ultimately deliver more than they are expecting!

Review of Office Communications Server 2007 on ZDNet - OCS in a 'nutshell'

markdea — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:01:28 GMT

One of the parts of my job I really enjoy doing is speaking to customer, partners and journolists about our Unified Communications and how its going to change the way in which people will communicate with each other in the future. The problem I am presented with however is how to explain the range of technologies and scenerios this technology brings to life into an hour phone call or presentation.

After a meeting with Paul Duffy (another great export from Microsoft UK ;-) ), David Berlind has done a great job of summerising the new features and scenarios supported by Office Communications Server 2007 into his posting here. In particularly I like the section below that explains where Unified Communications fits into the whole Office System.

"If there will be an amazingly compelling reason to go all-Microsoft for your office suite (as in Microsoft Office), your document sharing infrastructure (as in Sharepoint), your e-mail and scheduling system (as in Microsoft's Exchange and Outlook), your data/voice conferencing (as in Microsoft's NetMeeting), and your instant messaging, then Office Communicator is it. So deeply and contextually can Office Communicator's DNA be integrated into the rest of Microsoft's solutions that there is probably no other glue in all of Microsoft's portfolio that so elegantly demonstrates the company's strategic vision for making knowledge workers more productive at what they do"

Spend some time to take a look at the blog post and 13 minute video starring the one and only Paul Duffy ;-)

Office Communications Server 2007 Beta now live!

markdea — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:32:53 GMT

Finally the wait is over, we have now made public the betas for :-

Office Communications Server 2007 beta and Office Communicator 2007 beta

Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server beta

Documentation for Office Communications Server 2007 beta

Go forth and download !

Microsoft Response Point

markdea — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:23:58 GMT

One of the problems with most telephony systems is that small business don't want to spend their time configuring and repatching phones when someone moves from desk to desk. They have enough to worry about without having to become PBX technicians as well.

To that end, a small team in Redmond has been working on a solution and today we announced Response Point and three vendors we will be working with to bring this solution to market.

This natty little telephony system has a number of features including an automated attendant, speech recognition, voicemail, voicemail to email, incoming call popup's on your desktop and integration into Outlook.

This is an interesting and exciting piece of news and it I would love to get my hands on one of these to play with :-)

The end of the phone ? - Part 2

markdea — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:36:56 GMT

I raised this question in a post a while back and after receiving a big box from Redmond today I thought now might be a good time to ask the question again :-)

For those of you who have me on your IM list and had read my 'note', you would have noticed that from the 1st of Jan I stopped using my desk phone as I wanted to prove to myself that I could live without a desk phone. Instead, I planned to use a combination of Communicator and my mobile phone depending on the circumstances.

Over the last three months, its gone quite well and I even went as far as sticking Post-IT notes over the keypad on my deskphone to ensure I didn't use it :-). Today my experiment when another step towards 'no deskphone' vision when I plugged in this reference/test device sent to me from 'Corp'.

So far, I am impressed with the design and weight of the device (it feels like a 'proper telephone') but more importantly I am impressed with the voice quality of the calls. I phoned my friend Julian Datta on this device a number of times today and the voice quality was really clear, even better than a standard phone I would say.

Is the desk phone dead? ... well not quite ... but for some people its going to be hard to find a reason to have a 'traditional telephone on their desk' rather than something like this. Will let you know more once I have had a few days to play with it.

Are you a Tech-No?

markdea — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:12:33 GMT

Today I spent ten minutes reading an article on 'tech-no's', found here, and thought I would share it with you. Its actually a really interesting article and I wanted to bring it to your attention.

Although technology can help you communicate faster, quicker and more efficiently, if you don't want to be contacted or simply don't need the information then all the technology in the world isn't going to change that. One must always to ensure that the technology benefits the user and is not in place for the sake of technology.

Unified Communications in a nut shell? - All you need is the 'Electric Wand'

markdea — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:47:10 GMT

At times it can be quite hard to sum up Unified Communications and more importantly why its useful to have presence and instant messaging rather than using the tried and tested technologies of email and the phone.

Darren Strange today pointed me in the direction of the Electric Wand aka Ewan Dalton. Ewan has excellently summarised his experiences of Unified Communications, how he thinks the technology is changing the way he communicates and how it compares to the phone or email. Well worth a read I have personally added it to my Outlook RSS list.

There is much to learn from the Electric Wand :-)

Let Santa know your last minute present requests!

markdea — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:20:31 GMT

I spotted this on someone's blog today and wanted to share this with you :-)

It appears that in order to communicate with a new younger generation of kids, Santa has had a meeting with the Windows Live Messenger guys at Microsoft and has signed up for Windows Live Messenger. As you can see, I had a quick word with him myself to see if I can get a Zune and an XBOX 360, lets see what comes down the chimney !

If you want to have a quick chat with Santa then add northpole@live.com to your Windows Live Messenger list and as long as you have been good then you should find he talks back to you.

Safe in the fact that I have been a 'good boy' this year, I will be tracking my imminent Zune/XBOX 360 combination on the Santa Tracker and hopefully I should find a large Zune/XBOX 360 shaped box at the end of my bed :-)

I am now off work until the 2nd of Jan during which time I will be eating mince pies, playing with the toys/gadgets that I hope to get for xmas and generally chilling and reflecting on the busy 2006 we have all had and the exciting 2007 to come.

2006 has seen a number of events including the launch of Exchange Server 2007, Unified Communications disclosure day in June, a first look at Office Roundtable, Office Communications Server 2007 beta, Nortel & Microsoft alliance, Office Communicator Phone Experience, details on PC Peripheral devices and a number of other partnerships with organisations like Motorola, Siemens and HP and finally me getting my new job (not important for most people but a really big event for me).

That said, I think 2007 is going to be even more exciting as it will see all of this years announcements become a reality as the code is finished, the CDs start to get burnt and we actually have these technologies available to everyone and not just the beta testers. For me, 2007 is going to be the year when changes started to happen in the way people communicate and possibly how the telecoms and IT industry work together, because of the products we have coming out in 2007. I don't doubt for a minute that its going to take time for things to change but I think in years to come we will look at 2007 as the year when it all started to happen.

Finally, this week will be the last week I use my deskphone at work. In order to prove a theory I have, I plan not to use my deskphone in 2007. I will rely solely on my mobile and Communicator 2007 to make calls. Will let you know how I get on :-)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

The end of the phone?

markdea — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:54:21 GMT

Is it really possible to live without a phone on your desk? Is that a little too far fetched? Well lets find out !

People ask me if such a thing is ever going to happen and for now I think its kind of hard to tell. As with a lot of stuff in Unified Communications, its not only about having the technology in place to make the changes but also about changing the way in which people work and use the technology made available to them. You can give people the ability to check someone's presence before making a phone call but if they don't remember or learn to check it themselves then they wont see the benefits.

As mentioned in my last blog posting, there are a number of people 'dogfooding' Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 within Microsoft and a few of them have made the jump to remove their deskphone totally!. Take a look here where Mu Han talks about his experiences so far as well as some of the technology that has gone into Communicator, OCS and even Windows Live Messenger to make this possible ... it actually a really interesting read into what the future may hold and should give you an idea of how soon its coming !

Exchange RTMs ... now its the beta for OCS 2007

markdea — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:21:51 GMT

Working at Microsoft, I rarely find myself running a machine with RTM software on it, but with the RTM of Exchange 2007, Windows Vista and Office 2007, I have found myself running fully released code.

I am glad to say I have now managed to fix this 'problem' and got myself onto the Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 beta at Microsoft a few weeks back. Its strangely pleasing to be running beta software again and with the recent announcement of OCS 2007 going beta it means that I should be able to start talking more about my personal experience of this software so far without giving away too much :-)

First of all, I have noticed an increase number of emails I tend to escalate from Outlook to Communicator. This has been possible in previous versions but we have made it a lot more easier and a lot more prominent, this really proves that its not just about making the technology available but its also about making it easy to use.

The second thing that I think I will find useful but don't at the minute (because not enough people are running it), is the 'IM with a subject'. This is, as my mate David Hinson would say, a 'slice of fried gold'. Basically, when someone responds to an email via IM or phone, it will put the subject of that email in the pop up. This means that when I get an IM from Darren Strange I know if its going to be something work related or something well .... not so work related :-). I have been known to screen my email via interestingness of subject and I can now do the same with phone calls and emails :-).

Last of all, Communicator 2007 solves a problem a number of the people I have spoken to in the past experience. One of the things about IM is that even when you set yourself to Busy or Do Not Disturb, there is always going to be someone who will IM you, its just a fact of life. Personally, I have the ability to ignore the flashing IM in the corner but I know that others are not so strong willed and feel they need to read the message. Since installing Communicator 2007, any IMs that get sent to me while I am in 'Do Not Disturb' go directly to my Outlook inbox as a conversation rather than appearing on my taskbar. As an addition, I have all of my conversations logged and deposited in my inbox which means if its in an email or IM then its possible for me to search for it from Outlook. Once we have voicemails and faxes configured for the UK I will truly have only 'one inbox'

One small step for Mark, one giant leap for the way I communicate!

The Devils Does Unified Communications - Part 2

markdea — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:29:00 GMT

"A Tale of two meeting rooms"

Hot of the heels of the first video, I am pleased to say we have another that concentrates more on Office Roundtable.

Roundtable is a cracking device which enables people to video conference from a room of their choice rather than forcing people to go to a specific room. I look forward to being able to talk to you more about this next year!

Finding a spare meeting room a Microsoft ... easier than you think ... for now!

markdea — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:28:00 GMT

First of all I would like you to know that I am giving away a little known Microsoft employee internal tip here .... hopefully not enough Microsoft employees read this blog for it to be a problem :-)

Within Microsoft in the UK, we have a number of video teleconferencing rooms which are available for video conferencing if you wanted to. Strange as it may seem, although there are only three of these rooms, most of the time they are available because no-one seems to use them (this is why I book meetings in them from time to time and thus why I don't want everyone else in the company to know about them :-).

This got me thinking, why would no one be using the rooms if they are available. The answer to this is a) the amount of meetings that require video interaction is minimal b) their existence is not known by everyone because of this c) no-one knows how to operate the equipment in the room.

I do however expect this all to change :-(. Next year we will release Microsoft Office Roundtable and we are expecting to have a few of these in the UK at the beginning of next year. Without going into too much detail, if the UK events team want to have a 'video conference' with the French events team, all they need to do is find any room (or spare table), plug one of these devices into their respective PCs at either end and your done. No booking of special rooms required, no swapping of video conferencing call details, just a few clicks and you are away, it should be that simple.

More detail will come as time goes by but for now its also worth mentioning that not only does it stitch together several video images to create a panoramic view of the room, it also highlights the current person talking in the meeting room. No more video conference calls with people all staring down at one end of the room and trying to figure out who is currently speaking.

I best get booking those video conferencing rooms before the word gets about !

The end of 'hold music' is nigh!

markdea — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:06:15 GMT

This week I experience problems with my XBOX, to cut a long story short I can't talk to people online and to be honest this is half the fun. Like most people, after doing a little investigation I phoned xbox live support and after 10 minutes or so of listening to Beethoven I was put through to someone in first tier support, no doubt they had a number of other people in the queue and on the phone to them at the same time!. Perhaps then, this is why we have recently acquired Colloquis, a software companies that make natural language bots for instant messaging platforms.

This is something I have discussed both on this blog as well as internally and its great to see that we have gone ahead and acquired a company with such talents. The plan for the service is to act as a line of support for XBOX but I hope we extend this out to a number of other areas such as

Virtual Account Manager - Ask your virtual account manager for the latest update on the your support case, how many hours you have left on your premier contract
Virtual Partner Account Manager - Our PAMs get asked a lot of questions which some of the time get passed onto the Partner Technology Specialist team, perhaps some of these could get resolved by the virtual PAM or virtual PTS
support.microsoft.com - Wouldn't it be great if you could say to the virtual support engineer "When I open an email in Outlook I get an error 432". It could then reply back and tell you that you need to run scanpst or send you a link to a support article.

I think there is a lot of potential here, not only for support from Microsoft but also to branch out into different areas, perhaps even a virtual product manager ;-).

Feel free to post your comments on how else you would like to see Microsoft use this technology to make your interactions with us more productive!. I will see if I can get some of them to happen !

Partner Exchange-Vista-Office (EVO) site goes live!

markdea — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:45:00 GMT

One of the things I get asked from time to time is can a partner go if they want to find out more information on EVO ... especially the E part i.e. Exchange 2007.

Up until now, the answer has been www.microsoft.com/exchange/ which although has lot of information on Exchange 2007, it isn’t targeted towards partners. I am pleased to say thought that the guys over in 'partner land' have put together this excellent site that not only provides some great information on Exchange, Vista and Office but also looks 'Vista-eske' ... brilliant!

Any partners reading this post should pop over to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/evo/ where they can find more information on Exchange 2007 as well as the V and O part :-). As time goes by I am sure this site will grow so certainly add it to your favourites!

Happy reading people :-)