What Happens When You Don”t Change Your OCS Presence Status
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications
Let’’s talk about OCS Presence for a moment. Specifically, what happens in the minds of others when you leave yours the same for days on end.
Do You Do This?
If your office use OCS at all, you know someone like this. You never know what Bill or Mary is doing–because they haven”t changed their Presence status in days. They”ve been “Updating the server” or “Meeting with Joe.”
Since last week? Really?
Presence is there for a reason. It makes others aware of what you”re doing. Just like IM. Are you here, available to talk? Away, not at your desk? Busy on a project, so please don”t disturb?
These are things co-workers need to know. And it frustrates the heck out of them when they can”t tell.
Why They Do It
Now the reason people don”t change their Presence status is simple. They”re lazy.
No, it’’s not “I just don”t have time” or “It’’s new, so I forget about it.” Those are excuses. They”re lazy and don”t value what help Presence does bring them.
It takes what, five seconds to update Presence? Nobody is so busy they can”t spare five seconds. (And if they think they are, they need to offload some duties.)
It’’s Poor Communication - Why Presence is Something to Remember
There’’s a very good reason why those five seconds matter. If you”re not updating your Presence status while working, it casts a bad shadow on you in the minds of others.
Little things like this can make people lose trust in your effectiveness. “He/she can”t be bothered to let us know what they”re doing? Are they not working at all? Or maybe hiding something?”
That’’s the kind of thought process this starts. With stale Presence status, your productivity can be called into question. If nobody knows what you”re doing, how can you prove you”re doing anything?
Something else to consider: If management monitors employee productivity (and there’’s no reason why they shouldn”t, if they do use OCS), then a days-old Presence will make them wonder. What are you up to? Anything?
Now you see where this can become a problem.
Loss of (Your) Value - What Happens as a Result
Without others able to determine what you”re doing, your value as an employee could drop. (I”m not saying this will happen. But it could.)
Why? Because people will stop relying on you. They”ll assume you”re not available for whatever reason and go about their business. They stop seeing you as a person who can help them do their job. That becomes a real problem for you. Fast.
And if management makes the same assumption? That you can”t keep “the rest of us” in the loop, so you could be screwing around not doing work? Well…
An Easy Way to Remember to Update
Like I said before - five seconds. And here’’s an easy way to remember.
Plan to update Presence before & after lunch. This way you put Presence in your thoughts related to lunch. (You”ll remember lunch, right?) Associating Presence with another idea like this makes it easier to recall afterward. A little memory trick courtesy of modern psychology.
OCS Presence status should be updated every day. Five seconds. Keep it up, and retain the impression of a reliable, productive worker in the minds of others.
The OCS Insider will go on holiday from today until January 1st. Join us again after that for more exploration of OCS 2007 - and the upcoming OCS 2010. Happy Holidays!
Top 3 Questions People Ask Us Re: Voice Over IP
Filed under: Conferencing, OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
For my third & final post regarding Top 3 Questions (related to OCS naturally), I”m putting up the questions we get on VoIP.
I should point out that we field a lot of questions on all these topics. OCS is a popular technology, and growing. We”re expecting 2010 to show an even bigger jump - mostly due to the cost savings clients get over PBX phone systems. Voice over IP makes for an appealing low-cost alternative.
However, the questions we get on VoIP itself usually veer toward the negative. I think it’’s because of old perceptions about the technology (from when it was first introduced) that still linger. Doesn”t worry us; every new technology had its initial troubles. If you”ve called us in the past year, then we”ve spoken via VoIP. Couldn”t tell the difference, could you?
Anyway, here are the Top 3 questions we get, and the answers we give.
1. If your network goes down, doesn”t VoIP go down too?
This one’’s repeated to us all the time. Verbatim. I think it’’s a leftover catchphrase from a telecom guy trying to stifle competition. For the most part it’’s true - if your VoIP runs through the same Internet lines as your network, it can go down if you lose your Internet. However, by using a dedicated line (as many of our OCS clients do), you avoid this problem.
2. I”ve heard this (VoIP) breaks up on you all the time. Is that true?
Not “all the time,” no. Every phone call runs the risk of breaking up when certain conditions are met - you”re driving, you”re in a tunnel, the weather changes, a hiccup on the phone network (it happens all the time)…
This arises because of the packet-transfer method VoIP employs to send voices. If packets get lost along the way, the person you”re talking to could lose a word here and there. However, VoIP these days builds in packet redundancy to avoid this exact issue.
3. Is it true you can”t make emergency calls?
Yes and no. 911′’s still a viable number. I think the concern here isn”t making the call, it’’s getting the full use of it. I”ll explain.
Because it’’s not on the phone network, emergency personnel may have difficulty tracing your location via VoIP like they do with regular phone calls. A very legitimate concern. That’’s being dealt with by hardware developers; soon it won”t be an issue. In the meantime, we recommend keeping a cellphone available in case of emergency.
Any more OCS/VoIP/related questions you”d like us to tackle? Leave a comment or email me.
Next week we”ll have a quick cautionary article about Presence, and then a holiday break. Hope your shopping’’s all done!
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Top 3 Questions People Ask Us Re: Exchange 2010
Filed under: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2010, Reference, Unified Communications
Sorry about not posting this yesterday. We”re embroiled in a big new client website (yay for that!).
Last week I blogged about the 3 most frequently-asked questions we get on OCS 2007. I promised I”d do the same for Exchange Server 2010, so here you go. We get easily the same amount of questions on Exchange 2010 as OCS. More sometimes. But far and away, these are the most common.
1. Is it out yet?
Yes it is. Exchange 2010 has been available in full release since November 9th. The RC has been out for a while now; if you run it, best to switch to full version ASAP. (Luckily the RC can auto-upgrade to RTM.)
Here’’s Microsoft’’s Licensing and Pricing FAQ for some help on that.
2. Does the Exchange 2010 Standard Edition support Archival and discovery?
It’’s recommended that you use the Enterprise Edition if you want Archival and discovery. Archival for Enterprise has been delayed until Q1; I believe to test some additional workloads. But once it’’s finalized, that’’s a more secure, better-running bet.
3. What do we need for the upgrade?
- A 64-bit-capable server. If you don”t already have one, that is.
- Windows Server 2008 (or 2008 R2).
- Backups of your existing mailboxes.
- A day or two. (Really; it’’s a fast upgrade.)
Pretty simple huh? All too often we skip over simple things though, assuming everyone else “gets it” right away. Dangerous assumption. Someone else may be distracted, or too busy, and they miss the obvious. So it pays to remind.
(By the way, another reminder - Exchange 2010 also works great as a hosted option. Email me if you want to hear about that!)
Next week, Top 3 questions we get on VoIP.
Got a question of your own on OCS 2007 or related technology? Leave a comment or email me.
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The Top 3 Questions People Ask Us Re: OCS 2007
Filed under: Conferencing, Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, Reference, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
When you”re experts in something, people ask you questions. The same questions. Over & over again.
I”ve blogged about many of the things our customer ask us in the past. Still, a recap now and then doesn”t hurt. And since we”ve had several sales meetings that were almost cookie-cutter when it came to the questions they asked, I figured now’’s the time.
This is a trio of very common questions we get asked about Office Communications Server. (There’’s actually about 6 or 7, but I”ll save the rest for a later post.) If you”ve had a burning questions about OCS but thought it was too basic to ask? It’’s your lucky day.
1. What can we use it (OCS) for?
Use it to communicate with co-workers, clients and partners. Via text, voice or video. It runs all of that through the Office Communicator client on your desktop or mobile.
2. Does it work like a regular phone?
Yes, but not 100% the same. There are handsets you can use with OCS; that’’s pretty much a regular desktop phone for you. Otherwise, you can use the mic & speakers in your computer to have a voice conversation. Kind of like Skype, except OCS is more secure and incorporates tool for sharing business information while you chat.
Note: When people ask us about this, they”re also curious if OCS lets you talk with regular desk and cell phones too. The answer to that is yes, if you have an IP-PBX gateway installed. (We use gateways from Cisco, Aculab and Dialogic.)
3. Will it work with our phones?
Unless your phones are SIP-capable , no. Regular phones use standard telephone lines. OCS 2007′’s voice capabilities run through VoIP, which uses Internet connections. The tech’’s too new for the older phones to use. You”ll have to make some changes.
Any other OCS questions you”d like an answer to? Leave a comment, or email me. Next week I”ll post the Top 3 Questions we get about the new Exchange Server 2010.
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