How to IM People on Other Networks (AIM, Yahoo, MSN) from OCS — Part 1
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2
Everybody asks the question when they find out what Office Communicator does. “Oh, this is instant messaging too? Can I chat with my friend in San Francisco on AIM?”
And then Management’’s hair goes white. Employees spending all day IMing! Nothing will get done!
Yes, there is a risk of this (though much less than what most people think). But there’’s plenty of good reasons to IM people on other networks. Discussions with partners and vendors. A direct line to Tech Support. Telecommuters. Even conversations with clients!
So, how do you go about installing the capability? It turns out to be pretty easy, provided you have the right information. And the right license.
Prerequisites for Provisioning
Adding the capability to connect to the public IM networks is called provisioning in OCS. This will require configuration changes on your side. Here’’s what’’s needed:
- Public key infrastructure (PKI) support
- OCS servers must support federation
- Edge Servers must be configured to enable support for each public IM provider (MSN/Windows Live, AIM, Yahoo) you want
- This information is needed as well:
- Microsoft Agreement Number
- Access Edge service fully qualified domain name (FQDN)
- Primary Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) domain
- Any additional SIP domains
- Any additional Access Edge service FQDNs
- Contact information
The provisioning process is determined based on your licensing. A standard CAL for OCS 2007 allows access to the MSN/Windows Live IM network. In order to provision servers to access AIM and Yahoo IM networks, you”ll need an OCS Public IM Connectivity License. (Contact Microsoft to see if you”re eligible.)
Today I”m going to list how to connect with a standard CAL to the MSN/Windows Live IM network. Next week I”ll detail how to connect to AIM and Yahoo.
Connecting to MSN/Windows Live
It’’s actually very easy to provision OCS for MSN/Windows Live. You simply:
- Contact your Microsoft account manager to request the provisioning.
- The account manager will send you a URL to a website. This URL initiates the process.
- Enter the requested information on the initiation website. Submit.
Wasn”t so hard, was it? Provisioning can take up to 30 days to complete. But once it does, you”ll be able to talk with friends on MSN/Windows Live right from Office Communicator.
However, note: Windows Live may require a change to your existing IDs in order to work. You must change your ID if it matches a domain that’’s the same as the domain you request be provisioned for public IM connectivity. (I would think this would make things easier, but who knows.)
Apparently submitting a domain for provisioning “reserves” that domain for use with your company’’s IM setup. So the user ID must be changed. For instructions on how to do this, go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/Messenger/
Part 2 next week!
Australian Credit Union (with 155K Members) Deploys a Unified Communications Call Center
I find the reasons for this credit union’’s UC deployment really interesting:
Teachers Credit Union Mitigates Risk with New UC Call Centre Deployment - CIO Magazine AU
Notice that Colin Thomas, the IT manager, talks a lot about mitigating risk/disaster recovery. Secondary servers in place, failover branch gateways, Web authentication…they”re using Unified Communications to not only to communicate with their membership. But to plan against problems too.
It’’s not hard to see why. They have a membership of 155,000 people! I”d want backups in place too, just in case anything went wrong.
I bring this up here because I like the seriousness with which this credit union approached Unified Communications. OCS 2007 had some early stability issues, which have been since corrected. However, first impressions carry…and the ”unreliable” keyword got stuck onto the application.
This is one example that shows OCS, and the Unified Communications platform it exemplifies, can be relied upon. Yes, they”ve added in backups. Any prudent IT manager should for their important systems. This obviously qualifies.
Mr. Thomas was even thorough enough in his quotes to give some basic examples of backup procedures to use. If you”re curious about ways to build failovers into an OCS-based communications system, there’’s some tips in the article.
Excellent Process Diagram of OCS 2007 With SIP Trunking
(And I Didn”t Even Write It!)
Glub…glorp…
Yep, still drowning in this new website version. But today I have a really good article to share with you.
Joe Schurman posted an article to his Microsoft Voice and UC blog on Saturday (July 11th). The article gives an overview on replacing PBX phone systems with OCS 2007 R2 and SIP trunking.
(For anyone who doesn”t know, SIP trunking uses a dedicated digital channel through a major voice carrier like AT&T or Sprint for its communications. It’’s explained well in the article too.)
He’’s more into making a case for SIP trunking than how to go about it. It’’s a solid case though. And he’’s included those nifty system diagrams my laptop doesn”t like making.
Check out the article here:
Replace your PBX today with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 & SIP Trunking
I agree with Joe - SIP trunking is a great way to go for office communications. I”ll write more on it soon. (Once the new website’’s up and running, of course!)
Is there an OCS-related topic you”d like more about? Leave a comment!
Why Posts Have Been Slow: Using OCS During a Website Rework!
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Voice over IP
Yes, it’’s true - posting has been slow on the OCS Insider. I have a reason why though! In fact, that reason is the subject for today’’s post.
My company has been going full-speed-ahead on a new website version for the past few weeks. We”ve been planning it since March, and the timetable has now rolled right on top of us.
We”ve been using Telerik’’s Sitefinity CMS platform to build our new website. It’’s fantastic and a huge timesaver (Telerik’’s our partner; we recommend it to all new website clients). But porting over 200+ pages into a whole new layout with new content, new SEO and new Web services takes a while.
Of course we”ve been using our OCS setup to communicate through this. Without it, we wouldn”t be nearly this close to done.
OCS Has Come in Handy
HELPFUL INCIDENT #1 — Just yesterday, I emailed one of our programmers with a Telerik question. He called me (through OCS VoIP) right afterward to discuss my questions. Said, “It would be quicker for me to explain it this way.” And it was. He told me where to find the right code snippet in no time at all.
HELPFUL INCIDENT #2 — Last week our network connections went sideways for about half an hour. (Murphy’’s Law. Had to be.) We couldn”t see each other’’s Presence status, get email, log in, nothing.
Except we could still make VoIP calls.
I found this out by getting a call out of the blue. I blinked at it a couple times before clicking. But lo and behold, it actually worked! I”m not quite sure how - apparently the VoIP connection wasn”t as affected as the network. The issue was fixed and we went about our business.
HELPFUL INCIDENT #3 — We had a meeting 3 weeks ago to gear up for the final stages. Our boss shared her desktop to show us where the new tools would be displayed in the new layout. Anyone who’’s ever used VNC knows how fun it is to watch your screen highlight things on its own.
Add to these all the IM conversations, Presence reminders (”Working on Portfolio, don”t bug me”) etc., and OCS has played a huge role in getting us through this rework.
So Why Blog About It?
Merely as a real-world reminder of how handy OCS 2007 can be. Last year, before we began using it, I wouldn”t have even considered using IM in a business setting. I”d heard all the myths: “It’’s not secure!” “People will waste all day chatting!” And since I use IM at home, I figured that’’s where it belonged.
Nowadays, doing work without OCS” tools would take too long for my scrambling work schedule.
Pretty soon we”ll have a brand-new website up at www.planetmagpie.com for everyone to enjoy (and make use of). OCS helped!
Nortel Liquidating Unified Communications Assets
Filed under: OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
Where Will Enterprises Get VoIP in the Future?
There’’s a problem on the horizon for OCS!
In 2006, Microsoft and Nortel announced a partnership called the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA). This alliance was intended for developing/selling Unified Communications & VoIP systems to corporations.
However, as we see here…
Nortel’’s Liquidation Could Cripple UC Relationship with Microsoft
Nortel has had to enter Chapter 11, and must liquidate its assets to satisfy bankruptcy concerns.
What did Nortel do for the partnership?
Through the ICA, Nortel helped develop telecom products for use with Office Communications Server 2007. Specifically, a platform for connecting IP-based communications to PBX phones. Nortel also provided consulting to enterprise businesses on putting in VoIP communications systems (running OCS, naturally).
So what does the liquidation mean for Unified Communications and OCS?
It means we”ve lost one good option for VoIP-related technology. However, other options are forthcoming.
The ComputerWorld article indicates that Nortel may sell its enterprise division to Avaya Networks. Since Microsoft already has a partnership with Avaya, it could continue offering Unified Communications technology that way.
Microsoft could even snap up Nortel’’s former VoIP customers themselves. Though I think having their partners handle those is an easier course.
Competition Brewing
Luckily, Nortel wasn”t the only one working on Unified Communications technology!
The ICA was due to end in 2010 anyway. So, other companies have been working on VoIP-related hardware. For example, this article discusses a new OCS gateway due out from Dialogic and ESTOS this month.
Dialogic’’s gateway solutions are used by small and mid-market businesses to build VoIP PBX replacements, or integrate OCS 2007 into an existing PBX system.
(Disclaimer: We”ve recently partnered with Dialogic to provide some of this very hardware to our own clients.)
What Will Happen to OCS 2007 Enterprise Integrations?
Nortel worked largely at the enterprise level. Dialogic and the up-and-coming solutions work more toward the small and mid-market areas. So there’’s still a potential disconnect at the enterprise level.
If Avaya gets Nortel’’s enterprise division, they”ll be able to provide enterprise-level VoIP systems. But this is a perfect opportunity for smaller, more targeted companies to offer alternatives. The waters for OCS in the enterprise may get choppy for a little while.
This should be a good thing though. With OCS 2007 adoption growing like it is - many companies looking for a cheaper, more full-featured PBX alternative - demand is solid enough to whip up competition.
I”m sad to see Nortel go - they had some great products. But, you know what they say about one door closing.
