James Akrigg .:. Out of Office : Exchange and UC

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.4

James Akrigg — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:59:41 GMT

.: Presentation notes :.

SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint... That's all you would hear me talk about during my first six years at Microsoft. Now in it's third version it has become the fastest growth product in Microsoft's product history reaching $1bn faster than any other product. I put this down to several key attributes. First the capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) are now vast spanning collaboration, content management, portal, search, business intelligence and business process management and this makes SharePoint the ideal 'information platform' for business. Secondly I would say that the extensibility of this platform has enabled the solutions our partners have been creating to address a wide and varied set of business problems across business functions and company boundaries. Having a technology that can be used for Intranet, Extranet and Internet solutions is of great strategic value when considering skills needed to support and drive your information platform.

The slide is hard to see in the scaled down image, but it basically puts SharePoint in the centre and illustrates that it requires Windows Server 2008 (or Windows Server 2003) and stores data in SQL Server. To the right (as you look at the slide) it shows how you may protect your information platform using ForeFront for SharePoint and Data Protection Manager (part of System Centre) to help with disaster recovery. To the left we have SharePoint Designer. This is a design tool to make it easier to customize the look and feel of SharePoint sites and more easily create solutions based on SharePoint. Finally at the top of the slide we have 'user experience'. Tight integration with Office 2007 and Office Communication Server really brings the solution to life as users can use familiar tools to interact with SharePoint. (slide 1)

We have been using Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) at Microsoft for sometime now and it is transforming the way we do business. Using Office Communicator 2007 client application to see presence information for anybody in the organization I may wish to contact is fantastic but it becomes amazing when I add contacts in partners that I work with so that we can communicate and collaborate more effectively. Applications that contain contact information (e.g. Outlook, SharePoint etc) light up with presence information when signed into Office Communicator so that I can communicate in context. So that's my business strength presence and instant messaging taken care of and you would think that was good. Well in the tradition of going from good to great let's throw in PBX integration to voice enable Office Communications Server. In a recent trip to Los Angeles I was able to make calls from my Vista Laptop via the Wireless Internet connection in the hotel and conference centre and significantly reduce my mobile roaming charges. More recently I have been testing using a Netbook with a small bluetooth headset to make calls. Those that attended the event should remember the demo :)

Piloting unified communications using Office Communications Server 2007 and perhaps collaboration with SharePoint is a great way to see the immediate benefits you can get in using these technologies. Many partners are doing this today and sharing their real world experiences with customers looking at ways to reduce costs and improve communication and collaboration capabilities. If you are not seriously looking at SharePoint and Office Communications Server you should and with the release of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in the first half of next year there will be even more solution possibilities. (slide 2)

.: Resources :.

SharePoint Server 2007 Homepage

Windows Server 2008

SharePoint Solution Templates

Office Communications Server 2007

Technical Resources for SharePoint Server 2007

Using the latest SQL Server 2008 features with SharePoint Server 2007

Using SharePoint Products and Technologies with Hyper-V

SharePoint Server 2007 Evaluation resources

Early information on Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Launch Event Registration Link

Don’t be Evil! Blah, blah, blah! Get Ready to be EVOL!

James Akrigg — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:10:41 GMT

New Products! New Thinking! New Opportunities! New dates for your calendar to meet Microsoft and learn all about Exchange, Vista, Office and Live. I've been in the office this week working through the details with Steve and Ben as we put the final touches to what I hope will be a great demonstration of just some of the possibilities this new wave of software will mean to businesses in the UK.

The Business EVOLution Roadshow will be all over the UK so I hope you can find a suitable date and location to join us. It's hard to believe that the last public beta of Office 2007 (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) and Vista RC2 (Build 5744) are out the door and we are just counting the days now until RTM (Release to Manufacture). Why not make time to ensure you have the information you need to help customers evolve into the New World of Work and deliver positive business impact.

If you are a Microsoft Partner then click here to register today.

If you don't think you are going to be able to make any of the dates we have. Then you don't have to miss out. Take a look at this sneak peak recorded at a recent Microsoft conference.

A Sneak Peek at Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, Including Exchange 2007 Server

James Akrigg

Out of Office : Meet my new assistant

James Akrigg — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:20:00 GMT

I recently created a demo machine with Microsoft Outlook 2007 Beta 2 TR (Technical Refresh) on a server with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and was impressed with the improvements made in the new 'Out of Office' assistant. I had heard that we were making improvements and I'm pleased to see that our 'Better Together' message really delivers value to customers updating to Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007.

There are some new options to baffle and amaze your business colleagues. Let's take a closer look.

As you can see you have much greater control on how being out-of-office is handled by Exchange.

I can now specify start and end times for when my out-of-office replies will be sent. This is great for planning ahead and not having out-of-office messages sent when you are in the office but have not got round to switching the out-of-office assistant off. Ahhh! That's much better.

Contextual out-of-office responses for internal and external emails. I can now set my out-of-office response for everyone inside my organisation to use internal phone extensions for alternative contacts, web sites and emails without disclosing this to the outside world. I can also be more descriptive as to my whereabouts without exposing company information to external contacts. For responses to non organisational colleagues I have even more control over the how these are handled. We have had rules for some time, but a simple option is now available to only send out-of-office information to my contacts so that they can be aware of possible delays in my response to email. Alternatively I could just select the option to provide this information to anyone that sends me an email. I think this is a great step forward in allowing the user greater control over the information supplied while out of the office with a greater focus on providing the right information to the right people.

If you want to see this in action then click here for a quick video and if you like what you see there are more here : Exchange Server 2007 Demos

But wait, there's more…..

You also get access to these options in the updated Outlook Web Access (OWA) on Exchange Server 2007. Click on Screen Image below for a more detailed view.

James Akrigg

Geek Gland Training : Archery

James Akrigg — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 01:55:00 GMT

Are you on target to having the right skills to develop the next generation solutions built on the new Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007? Would you like to get ready? Would you? Really? I've been asked about developing skills by ISV partners, Custom Solution Developers and Information Worker System Integrators for the new wave of technologies coming in 2007 and I'm happy to say we have been listening. Our training team has worked hard to get some developer training ready before we launch to customers. This is an opportunity not to be missed but spaces are limited and interest is very high, so please book early to avoid being disappointed. Add new strings to your bow and take aim on developing innovative solutions for your customers in these two day geek gland workouts.

If you are a UK Microsoft Partner then use the links below:

Office 2007 Developer Training

Windows Vista Developer Training

Exchange Server 2007 Technical Training