More Companies Joining the VoIP/Unified Communications Market: Is This Good for OCS Users?

I received two interesting articles in this morning’’s Google Alerts for “Unified Communications.” (Got to stay informed!) What was interesting was that both articles discussed UC services others than Microsoft’’s. Both represent different ways to introduce the Unified Communications idea to businesses.

Both could also pose a problem to the whole Unified Communications/VoIP market.

The first article is: Skype Taps ShoreTel for Skype-to-SIP UC

Skype for SIP allows businesses to receive incoming calls from Skype users via SIP-enabled UC systems. ShoreTel customers can also make outgoing calls from their ShoreTel UC systems to other phones at Skype rates (very cheap).

The second is: Avaya Positioned in “Leader Quadrant” for Unified Communications by Gartner Inc.

Avaya’’s Aura is a UC package that interoperates with legacy communication systems like PBX. Much like OCS, it offers presence, IM, and SIP-based calling. It even works with Microsoft Office Communicator if you like.

What’’s Good About These Offerings

First off, it’’s competition in the Unified Communications market. Competition (even indirect competition) helps spur product improvement. Business users get better pricing, and more options.

Second, Skype for SIP makes for an interesting bridge between corporate Unified Communications and Skype. Skype, while mostly a consumer-level service, is popular for cheap international calls. This new offering could provide businesses a cheap-and-easy way to make those calls from now on.

What Problems These Offerings Could Cause

The UC market will get more confusing. With more and more UC services (some picking & choosing what they”ll offer) customers are left unsure of what they”ll get. That uncertainty will carry over onto other products, like OCS. When you don”t know if you”ll get what you need, you tend not to try.

Issues of security and scale crop up too. I”m sure Skype will take every precaution they can to protect business communications through their network. But the fact that Skype originated in the consumer arena (and most of its users are still consumers) will call their security effectiveness into question.

The consumer base raises questions about the very future of Skype, in fact. Will Skype make a further push into the business arena than this? Or is it just an add-on to nab business users? The latter may be true, according to comments on the topic. SkypeJournal.com actually decried the new Skype-to-SIP offering as “abandoning Skype’’s central tenets”!

So, IS This Good for OCS?

Actually, I think so. There’’s some competition (mostly from Avaya), but that can improve things for everyone. OCS 2007 also presents a very unified Unified Communications solution (if you”ll pardon my repetition there).

The best products aren”t necessarily the ones who are there first. They”re the products who are there to last. And with OCS 2010 on the horizon, this one’’s sticking around.

Technorati Tags:businessMicrosofttechnologyTechnologynewsOCS 2007 R2Office communications serverUnified CommunicationsSIPVoIP

Quick Tips on Easier Ways to Use OCS 2007

We”ve been using OCS for a while now. When you use a system day in/day out, you begin to pick up a few tricks. Ways to make chatting easier, taking advantage of lesser-known features, that sort of thing. Some questions along the same lines have come in from our OCS clients too. So I collected a few for today’’s OCS Insider post.

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When you”re done with a conversation, leave the window open for a moment. This gives OCS a chance to realize you”re through, so it can record the conversation in Conversation History. You”ll see a notice when it’’s done so like this:

	----------

	This conversation is being saved in the Conversation History
        folder in your Outlook mailbox.

	----------

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When in a conference call or chatting on IM, you may need to pass a link to someone. If you put an underscore ( _ ) in front of the link URL, OCS will not activate the link. Much easier to copy this way.

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If for some reason you want to “appear offline” in Office Communicator…long lunch anyone?…I have some bad news. It IS possible to appear offline. But it’’s not enabled by default.

You should really use Away for anytime you”re not at the keyboard. Or Do Not Disturb if you can”t have anyone bugging you. But, if you absolutely HAVE to get out, this is how you enable Appear Offline (warning: this involves editing the registry).

1. Log on to a computer running Communicator Web Access as a member of the local Administrators group.
2. Click Start / Run.
3. Type regedit in the Run dialog box. Hit ENTER.
4. In Registry Editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand Software, expand Policies, expand Microsoft, click Communicator, and then do one of the following:
   1. If the Policy key already exists, go to step 6.
   2. If the Policy key doesn”t exist, right-click Communicator, point to New, and then click Key.
5. After the new registry key is created, type Policy to rename the key.
6. Right-click the new Policy registry key, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
7. After the new value is created, type EnableAppearOffline to rename the value.
8. Double-click the new EnableAppearOffline registry value.
9. In the Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value dialog box, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

(Instructions courtesy of Enabling Users to Appear Offline, Microsoft TechNet)

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If you haven”t changed your Presence status message in more than 24 hours, do so at once. Leaving your status message unchanged for days means people don”t know what you”re doing. So they”ll often assume you”re available anyway, and bug you about their stuff.

Remember, the default status is Available. Unless you illustrate that you”re not, people will act like you are.

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That’’s it for now. We”ve got more though; you”ll see them soon.

Have you found a useful tip while using OCS? If so, please list it in the Comments.

Technorati Tags:
office communicatorbusinessMicrosofttechnologyocsOCS 2007 R2Office communications server

Why Posts Have Been Slow: Using OCS During a Website Rework!

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!

Virtualized OCS: Middle-Ground Between Hosted Plans and Hardware-Heavy On-Site Setups

Our Three UC Amigos snuck one by me! On the 13th, they announced Microsoft’’s added virtualization support for 3 Office Communications Server 2007 R2 functions. IM, Presence, and Group Chat.

Companies installing OCS 2007 on-site can use the Hyper-V virtualization server in Windows Server 2008 for these functions. Instead of separate servers for everything.

How Does Virtualization Help OCS?
Right now there’’s pretty much two options if you want to put in OCS: Install it on-site, or go through a hosted provider. This virtualization offers a middle-of-the-road type of solution — install OCS on-site, but at a lower total cost than the original setup.

Most businesses use virtualization to cut down on their hardware footprint and reduce power usage. It’’s the same thing for OCS. By using Hyper-V, you reduce the hardware needed to run Office Communications Server AND save on your utility bill.

(In fact, our Hosted OCS platform uses Hyper-V in its setup for this very reason.)
Read more

Is There a Reason to Use Instant Messaging in Business?

Ah ha! I knew it would happen. Sure enough, one of our prospective clients asked us “the” question.

“Instant Messaging? Like AIM and Yahoo? We lose tons of time to those. If this OCS system has IM in it, then we could lose even more productivity!”

(I”m paraphrasing. He was a bit more flustered.)

Danger, Personal Use, Danger!
There’’s a lot of truth in his concern. Instant Messaging can be a distraction to workers. People get sucked into conversations (recall the infamous water cooler), time drains away, nothing gets done…

However, this is really an issue with people interacting. Not the technology they use.

The one technical concern everyone SHOULD worry about is users sending confidential information over IM. OCS has security in place to protect messages. But if an employee IMs a friend outside the company, someone could eavesdrop on that message.

So long as the “no confidential information” rule is respected, there’’s really no reason OCS Instant Messaging can”t be another useful office communication tool. Read more

OCS Components: Presence

Next up in our OCS Components series is Presence. This is one of those little functions few people even think about — but they love having it around.

Presence is a real-time status indicator in your OCS client, Office Communicator. (That’’s a fancy way of saying it displays your “current status” to everyone else. ) If you”ve ever used IM, you know that means you pick from a few standard options. Away, Available, Busy, etc.

The Presence controls, at the top of Office Communicator. Currently, I”m Available and have no note set.

The available Presence options in Office Communicator are:

• Available
• Busy
• Do Not Disturb
• Be Right Back
• Away

To see them, click the green button. Ta daa!

To the right, you”ll see ”Type a note”. That’’s the Note field. This is where you write a small note to indicate what you”re doing.

Clearly, I”m succeeding.

So what’’s this good for?
Presence tells you when you should (and should not) try to communicate with someone. Conversely, it also tells them when they should (and should not) try to communicate with you.

Think about it. Let’’s say you needed a little input to finish that customer quote. So you emailed a co-worker…and you waited. And got coffee. And waited. And stared out the window. And waited some more.

You didn”t follow up right away because you didn”t want to nag. You don”t want the stigma of constantly nagging everyone in the office, right?

With co-workers using Presence, you don”t have to. You just check what they”re doing. If they”re Available, send an email or IM them. If they”re Busy or set to Do Not Disturb, don”t. If they”re Away (depending on their note), try calling.

It works in reverse too, right?
Of course! Set your Presence status to Busy or Do Not Disturb whenever you have things to do. Then write a brief Note so everyone understands. Use it whenever you”re busy. For example, when you”re:

1. Solving a customer problem
2. Wrestling with the Paperdemon
3. Concentrating on budget issues
4. Attending a client meeting
5. Avoiding Susan in Accounting

(Don”t write that last one in the Note field though.)

Your current status is only a little bit of information. But it affects who/when someone communicates with you, and vice versa. I find the biggest value in Presence is simply knowing when not to bug a co-worker. Now, if I could just get them to do the same…

OCS Components: Conversation History

OCS has so many components, there’’s no way I could cover them all at once. Especially if I want to get any serious information out there. So I”m writing a series of posts to talk about each one in detail. Today we”re starting with Conversation History.

A big frustration with Instant Messaging: the clients don”t usually log conversations. Even when you turn logging on, you often get a code-jammed block of HTML/Text that HAL 9000 would have trouble reading. I can”t read that, Chris…

Fortunately for us, OCS includes a type of logging that’’s breathtakingly easy to read. When enabled, it saves your IM conversations in a folder in Outlook! Which is called, of course, “Conversation History.”

So right away you can treat them like emails - sort by date, by the people you talked with, search through them, etc. And the Conversation History logs are formatted all pretty, just like the original instant messages.

It’’s easy to enable Conversation History. Here’’s how.

1. In Office Communicator, click the Options Arrow (the small downward-pointing arrow on the top left).
2. Select the Tools menu. Navigate to Options… and click.
3. The first menu you”ll see is the Personal menu. The second-to-last option reads, “Save my instant message conversations in the Outlook Conversation History folder.” Check the box.
4. Check the box below it too, if you”d like to save a log of your calls through OCS (this can be handy; I recommend it).
5. As a precaution, click the General tab up top. At the bottom of this menu, you”ll see “Turn on Logging in Communicator.” Check this box too.
6. Click OK. You”re done!

Think of it like someone following you around with a digital recorder all day. Every time you mumbled something out loud, like “Huh, I should tell so-and-so I”ll send this file tonight,” it was recorded. So you can check yourself anytime.

Conversation History has probably saved me a dozen times already. Can you imagine how handy a running log of on-the-fly conversations is? Say I talked with a co-worker about a client’’s website over IM. Then I forgot the URL she gave me. No problem - I grab it out of Conversation History, boom. And I don”t have to bug her again.

What is OCS 2007? What Does it Do?

We can”t have an OCS Insider Blog without the obligatory “what is OCS 2007″ post to start us off, can we? I know many people are still confused over what “OCS” stands for, what this program does, why people get excited over it, etc. So I”ll try to put together a reasonable overview here.

What OCS 2007 Is

“OCS” stands for “Office Communications Server.” It’’s the abbreviated name for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. The current version is OCS 2007 R2 (stands for “Revision 2,” naturally).

OCS 2007 is a software platform for communicating with people. It gives you several communications options from existing Microsoft products, like Outlook. (Yes, this means it’’s even easier for people to bug you in the middle of a project. Or does it? See the “Presence” stuff below.)

OCS exists in two primary parts: the main OCS server, and the Office Communicator client application. Office Communicator is what 95% of users will see every day. It acts much like a commercial IM application - but the server behind it has more capabilities than AIM or Yahoo! Messenger.

What You Use OCS 2007 For

• Talk with co-workers via Instant Messaging/”IM”.
• Hold a group chat if you need several opinions (or approvals).
• Set your current status - Available, Do Not Disturb, Away, In a Call - with Presence. Leave a note as to what you”re doing.
  • See? With Presence you can notify everyone when you”re working on something important. That doesn”t necessarily stop them from bugging you, but it”ll help!
  • You can see other peoples” status like this too.
• Hold a conference (video conference or audio-only) anytime, with as many people as you want.
• (if VoIP is set up) Talk with anyone, even non-OCS phones, either through your computer or using a SIP-enabled phone.
• If you want VoIP functionality through OCS, you”ll need a SIP gateway between the OCS server and the main POTS network. Only a few of these are available: Aculab has one; Sprint is working on it too.

OCS” Role in Unifying Communications

OCS is part of Microsoft’’s Unified Communications (UC) platform. Microsoft intends to streamline all forms of communication - phone, fax, email, voice - using Unified Communications software. OCS is something of a vanguard for this platform, since it plugs communication into almost every other Microsoft system.

So, What Have We Learned?

There’’s a LOT more detail about OCS 2007 out there. I”ll get to much of it here, in future posts. I”ll also link to other blogs and articles, to build up The OCS Insider as a central resource for this ridiculously-handy application.

Welcome to the Inside, everybody!

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