Get On the List: Putting Together OCS Contact Lists for Users
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications
In most IM clients you have to add new contacts one by one. It’’s annoying, it’’s piecemeal…and if you”re in a big office with lots of people, skipping it altogether starts to appeal after about 5 seconds.
Avoiding this is good. Especially if you want to actually use OCS for communicating with others. So the smart thing for an OCS administrator to do is push contact lists out. Formulate standardized groups and apply them to everyone’’s Office Communicator clients. (Whether they like it or not! Bwahaha…er, sorry. Got carried away.)
First, Group Your Contacts
Group them by department or by task.
Department groups could be Administration, IT, Project Development, Sales, HR, etc.
Task-based groups could be Main Product Team, Support Staff, Marketing, etc.
For starters, I”d recommend department groups for everybody. Then task-based groups as needed.
Next, Choose a Script or a Utility
Now that you have some groups built up with appropriate contacts, you”ll have to push them out to users. There are two ways to go about this right now - use a Microsoft scripting approach, or a third-party utility.
The Microsoft script is called “LCSAddContacts.wsf.” It’’s in the OCS Resource Kit available here. (Note: This version works with OCS 2007 R2 only.)
LCSAddContacts.wsf does one thing and one thing only: Adding contacts to OCS. It will even sort with Active Directory Containers. The WinXNet blog has a good tutorial on how to use it for pushing out contact lists.
The other way is to use a third-party utility called Office Communications Server Contact Manager (OCSCM for short) found here: http://www.ocscm.com/
I haven”t tried this one out. It has a user guide, FAQs and a support forum though. Plus it’’s free. Good to have as an option.
If you”re still on original OCS 2007, try OCSCM out. If you”re up to R2, go with LCSAddContacts.wsf.
A final note: Be sure to double-check your contact groups before pushing them out as lists! People WILL notice if they”re on a list that doesn”t correspond to their job function.
Do you know another way to manage contact lists for an OCS 2007 setup? Drop us a comment with a link below.
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Which Voice Gateway Should You Use for OCS?
Filed under: OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, OCS 2010, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
Here’’s a list (Microsoft Technet) of Direct SIP Gateway and IP-PBXs approved for use with Office Communications Server.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/bb735838.aspx#direct
Obviously, we haven”t tested them all. I can only give you what we”ve learned on our own install (and subsequent client installs).
Aculab - The ApplianX Gateway
The ApplianX Gateway for OCS 2007 was the first voice gateway we tested.
This gateway was designed to interface between OCS-based VoIP and the regular PSTN. One of the first to do so in the world, in fact.
The ApplianX Gateway is capable of handling 240 VoIP calls at once. In terms of voice quality, it’’s great, but I did notice one thing: the longer you were on a call, the more packets got lost. Words would start falling out of the conversation. I”m not sure this was a problem with the gateway however, or with our bandwidth allocations.
I do know that it went away before we switched to Dialogic.
Dialogic - The DMG2000 Media Gateway
When we upgraded our OCS to R2, we switched to a Dialogic Media Gateway. I don”t see any reason to change again.
None of the fabled VoIP problems happen - no “I can hear myself in echo,” “They can”t hear my voice,” or “The calls break up on us all the time.” Client installs have gone smoothly.
Another handy thing about Dialogic is the guides they post on their site. You can downoad white papers, datasheets and configuration guides for all their media gateways, free.
Dialogic.com Downloads
Other Choices
- Quintum’’s Tenor Gateway is highly-rated in the industry.
- Cisco has a gateway available, but some interoperability issues do exist. See the Cisco Interoperability Portal for more on that.
- As a general rule, avoid a gateway that isn”t rated for R2. You”re almost guaranteed problems when OCS 2010 is released.
Which is the Best Choice for a Voice Gateway?
The best gateway choice is the one that will allow everyone in your office to make voice calls, handle the load, and still be open for expansion down the line. So it pays to consider these factors in your research.
Size of business. If you”re a smaller business or startup, try Aculab or Dialogic. Over 40 employees? Dialogic is my first recommendation, but the Quintum may work well for you.
Expected call volume. If you”re enterprise-level and have a call volume in the hundreds (or thousands), consider the devices rated for “Direct Sip via IP-PBX.” Otherwise, look at Cisco or Dialogic’’s Enterprise Media Gateway.
OCS version. The Aculab ApplianX Gateway isn”t certified for use with R2. I”m hoping for an upgraded version by the time OCS 2010 rolls out. Go with any of the others rated for R2.
JBuddy Messenger: An Office Communicator Alternative
Filed under: Conferencing, Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007
The client app that ships with OCS 2007 is called Office Communicator. When you ask the average user what OCS is, they”ll point to their Communicator window (which looks like this) and call that OCS.
Office Communicator Window
Communicator does its job very well. (I actually prefer it over most IM apps out there.) For a while I assumed it was the only OCS client app. You wouldn”t find a third-party alternative for a big Microsoft server, would you?
Well, it seems you would.
Here’’s JBuddy Messenger. A third-party OCS-capable IM app that runs in Java. I came across it in the TechNet OCS forums.
JBuddy Messenger Window
For Business IM
JBuddy starts out like Trillian or Adium - as a free multi-protocol IM client. But with licensing it becomes a business-level communications tool. In other words, you need a license to connect to OCS 2007 with it.
Because JBuddy is written in Java, it works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
As far as I can tell there is no support for voice or video. JBuddy is focused on Instant Messaging.
Why and When You”d Want to Use JBuddy
If you”re running OCS without VoIP
Say you aren”t planning on a VoIP install yet. Perhaps your office uses all cellphones. But you still need IM capability, and group chat would be nice.
Your Employees Use Different Instant Messaging Systems
While it’’s possible to set up third-party IM accounts in Office Communicator, JBuddy allows use of AIM, ICQ and Yahoo Messenger right away. With licensing it will operate with Jabber server, Lotus Sametime, and of course OCS 2007.
If you just want a fast, simple IM client for the office
JBuddy does the job.
In the end, it’’s nice to have choices. JBuddy is the first third-party messenger app to support OCS I”ve come across.
Because it doesn”t do conferencing and you need an enterprise license first, I”d only recommend JBuddy for small companies who use multiple IM systems and need a way to consolidate those. Otherwise, stick with Office Communicator.
Downloading JBuddy Messenger is free, but you”ll need to purchase an enterprise license to use all its business features (including OCS connectivity). http://www.zionsoftware.com/products/messenger/
If you”d like to try it out, request a 30-Day Evaluation License (free trial) here:
http://www.zionsoftware.com/products/messenger/request-eval.shtml
Four Predictions on OCS in 2010
Filed under: OCS 2007 R2, OCS 2010, Reference, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
Welcome to 2010! Are we back to scrambling already?
Before we get too crazy, let me make a few predictions about OCS. (It’’s the thing to do this time of year.) We”re headed for another year of big shake-ups and racing towards better-priced options. I”m sure Office Communications Server will be involved in some of it. Though I”ll freely admit, I may deny one or two of these by the time 2011 rolls around.
Prediction #1: OCS 2010′’s release will come with calls to end the PBX. It won”t…not yet.
Office Communications Server 2010 is slated for release either in Q2 or Q3 2010. We”ll hear a lot of buzz beforehand, along with calls to 100% replace PBX phone systems with OCS. (I”m not actually the first to say this.)
If it truly is a PBX-killer - and I”m hopeful it is - then these calls will be justified. However, OCS adoption over PBX won”t begin in earnest until 2011. It takes time to make such a big change - time to get used to the idea, and time to plan the change itself. Smaller companies will get a jump on OCS 2010 instead. They don”t always have a PBX to replace.
Prediction #2: OCS 2007 R2 will grow as a hosted service, even with OCS 2010′’s release.
I”m no economist; I won”t even try predicting what the markets will do this year. What I will say is that more companies will look for more ways to save. Startup costs, trying to grow without much budget, no desire to buy all-new servers…these factors will push more companies toward hosted services as a lower-cost option. Judging from the adoption rates and interest we”ve received, I”m expecting companies in the mid-to-upper range of SMBs to take the most advantage here.
Prediction #3: We”ll see a growing comfort with VoIP as a phone system.
Voice over IP is becoming a more accepted alternative to regular phone lines. In a way, we have Google and Skype to thank for this. The rampant popularity of Google Voice, and the popularity of Skype (even in business use) shows people are more comfortable with the idea of using the Web for voice communication now.
When OCS 2007 first came out, many people didn”t trust its VoIP capability as a reliable phone system. That was just 2 years ago. Now that technology has caught up and social adoption is higher, that lack of trust won”t be applied to OCS 2010.
Prediction #4: OCS 2010′’s 64-bit structure may discourage some from upgrading.
There is a problem in all this. OCS 2007 R2 is available only in 64-bit. Exchange 2010 just shipped with a 64-bit version. It’’s not hard to imagine that OCS 2010 will be 64-bit only. This will cause some sticking for those companies who haven”t moved to 64-bit servers yet; upgrading to OCS 2010 would mean buying new 64-bit servers. For those companies looking to SAVE on communications, spending extra is a contradiction. And a big upgrade objection.
(There’’s always the hosted option though!)
A few things to think about. Overall I think OCS” prospects are good, even with the 64-bit snag. Some will say the new smartphones coming out are a danger to OCS, but I think they have a more complementary role than a competitive one. We”ll have to see where 2010 takes us, won”t we?
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