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!
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