An App Store for OCS? Great Idea!

Recently The VAR Guy blog announced that an OCS app store was in the works. Not by Microsoft though - by Evangelyze Communications, an OCS channel partner (like us!).

(There's a nice write-up on No Jitter too. Eric asked some good questions.)

I find this idea very interesting. Honestly, I hadn't figured OCS as the type of platform for an app store. But as I think about what these posts have covered, it makes more sense. Let me explain what I'm thinking here.

As Companies Grow, Communication Needs Change

The larger a company grows, the more complex its communications needs become. Communications Server is quite flexible enough to handle more complexity (especially with OCS 2010 coming). But there's no shame in getting help. By building onto OCS, you can customize its setup toward more specific customer needs.

We've done that ourselves with the Dialogic VoIP gateway. No reason someone can't do it with apps in an app store.

Say one company needs video conferencing between interstate offices. Another doesn't care about conferencing, but wants VoIP on all their phones. Two different priorities. Two different OCS setups. Perfect opportunity for custom developers.

Advantages of an OCS App Store to Developers

A Showcase
Enterprise-level apps aren't always easy to market. (Not to mention custom development services!) You're mostly marketing direct to companies, without always knowing where they are in their buying cycle. Your marketing could arrive too early - or too late.

Contrast that with a profile in an app store. Then the customers come find you when it's time to buy. All you have to do then is make sure you have a solid product, and you deliver content that addresses their communications needs.

IP Security
Safety of your intellectual property, that is. Since this would be run by a Microsoft partner and not Microsoft itself, Evangelyze has a vested interest in keeping such a store buttoned down and protected. (I'm sure Microsoft will help at some point too.)

Project Focus
You can focus on one endpoint (Polycom desk phones, smartphones, laptops/netbooks) instead of trying to develop a big huge solution for everyone. The customers who want apps for that endpoint will come find you. We already see this kind of specialization in the Apple store.

Some OCS App Ideas

I'm throwing out some ideas for apps here, off the top of my head. If you want to use one (or you're already working on the same idea), email me.

1. Social media inter-communication. Plug in Facebook Chat and Twitter.
   • A LinkedIn chat module? Maybe create an app that bridges two (or more) LI profiles via OCS IM, letting them chat in real-time after connecting? You could even leapfrog LinkedIn development here.
2. Office Communicator versions for all smartphones. Maybe a wrapper for the Communicator client, or a duplicate (better?) app for each interface - Droid, Blackberry, iPhone/iPod, etc.
3. Video Conferencing add-ons.
4. Remote server access. Maybe turn OCS into a command prompt for Telnet or SSH?
5. Translation. Auto-translate Instant Messages into a different language, and back again.
6. Software Gateway. Hey, might as well aim high. I'm sure this is possible. Someone's already working on it, I'll bet.

Call me crazy, but I like the idea of a channel partner building an OCS app store. They have a different perspective from the team who made OCS. And it's also different from developers who'll be working on custom apps for OCS. That sort of “midway” perspective should translate to a platform everybody can take advantage of for better communications technology.

What do you think? What kind of apps would you like to see in an OCS app store? Shoot me a comment; let's talk about it.

Will the New Small Business Server Help Out OCS?

A few days ago Microsoft announced two new SBS previews. Named “SBS 7″ and “SBS Aurora” for now, their preview releases will be available at the end of summer. (But only to those who sign up to participate - sign up here if you want to try them out.)

Here's what I can glean from the information out there now. SBS 7 works much like 2008, with new software versions and management/security improvements. Exchange 2007 moved up to Exchange 2010 R1, for example.

Aurora is designed for a smaller user base (25 users max), and is cloud-ready. There's fewer details about the software included, but Microsoft did mention an automated backup/restore and an SDK meant for partners to build add-ins into Aurora.

Now, this is pretty big news by itself. But what I'm wondering is, what does this mean for OCS?

Will We Have Office Communications on Aurora?

From the initial news, it looks like more attention has been paid to remote access on these new versions. SBS 7 is promised a “richer remote access experience;” Aurora is described as delivering “traditional and cloud capabilities.”
Since much of OCS' capabilities are dependent on server access on- and off-site. So I'm not worried.

In fact, Aurora sounds like a great help to small-business OCS use. Think about this…

• It's designed to support up to 25 users. This means a lighter stack, easier to run and to manage (even on older equipment).
  
  

• Since Aurora can be accessed as a cloud-based service, building a hosted OCS solution with it becomes that much easier. It may even help with simplifying out-of-the-office connections.
  
  

• Presumably, Aurora will be priced lower than SBS 7.
  
  

• The software is in development now - during/after primary development on OCS 2010. So you could take advantage of both Aurora's cloud services and OCS 2010's virtual server needs all at once. Small, zippy OCS platform.

There's another article on SBS 7 and Aurora at MCP Magazine, if you want to read more.

We're signing up for the Aurora preview. If you're signing up too, please email us or leave a comment. I'd like to hear you about your Aurora experiences, with and without OCS. This one could be a big help for small businesses considering OCS.

A Peek at Next Year's Model - More Features of Communications Server 14

I'm back! I'd talk about my trip, but it's not OCS-related.

However, we did get a few responses to last week's query. The majority were questions about Communications Server “14.”

And as luck would have it, we have something to discuss along those lines!

Brent Kelly of the “No Jitter” blog posted a VERY thorough overview of Communications Server 14 on Sunday. (With pictures!)

He obviously gleaned much from the TechEd conference. The six-page article is a comprehensive discussion of CS14's capabilities, changes from OCS 2007, and so on. Read it for yourself here (but after you finish this post!):
Under the Hood of Microsoft Communications Server 14 - NoJitter.com

Really, I can't do a better job. All I want to do today is give a thumbs-up to Brent for his good work. And highlight a few of the points from his article here.

Four More CS 14 Features to Note

1. The “physical server requirement” that hampered OCS 2007 has been removed. CS14 allows you to host many of its servers on one physical server. Instead of four.
• (This is a separate consideration from the virtualization I mentioned last time. Virtualization is not necessary in this case - but you can still use it.)
2. CS 14 will support E911.
3. You'll be able to control the whole CS 14 from its new Silverlight-based Control Panel Interface. Configuration, routing, and policy rules are all accessible from there.
4. The “contact card” that shows a person's information has been expanded. It also comes up when you hover over the contact's name, instead of hitting Alt+Enter as in OCS 2007.

Finally, just something for OCS fans to remember. An official name for the next version of OCS has not been officially announced yet. So far, all the names by which this version's going are:

• OCS 2010
• Communications Server 2010
• Communications Server “14″
• “CS 14″

When the official name is announced, you'll see it right here!

When Support Calls Go Awry!

Or, The Many Components Involved in Running OCS-Based VoIP

A client of ours had lots of trouble getting Conferencing to work lately. We put in OCS for them only 4-5 months ago. Naturally, they called us and said,

“Your OCS is broken! We can”t conference now!”

“Quick, Fix It!” “Which Part?”

Of course we sent an engineer out at once. He quickly determined that the problem was not OCS by communicating with our office from it. But he COULD reproduce the conferencing problem.

So what was causing it?

It’’s times like this when we all remember that OCS is one part of a VoIP phone system. A critical part, but a part nonetheless. It’’s just the part that faces the user every day, in form of the Office Communicator application. So it gets the blame when another system component won”t behave.

And that’’s what happened with our client. After some investigation, it turns out the phone company providing SIP lines to their office was having issues. They told our engineer it would be fixed by the next day. It was.

To check, we conferenced with the client a day later. Sure enough, they heard us just fine.

Glad to Help, Once We Find the Problem

OCS has multiple components - servers (Standard, Edge, Mediation and CWA), SIP Trunking, IP-PBX Gateway, Internet connections, and Office Communicator. And sometimes it only takes one breaking to mess up the others. Aggravating, I know.

I figured this was a good opportunity to remind everyone about the many things involved in running VoIP. Every IT system has components. And they do their jobs for us. Most of the time.

How to Use OCS 2007 on Your Mobile

I'm still amazed at how many people use their phones for–well, everything! We've reached the point where almost anything you can do on a computer, you can do on a mobile phone.

So it's no surprise that we've received requests for using OCS on mobiles. Some companies want their employees to still have access to OCS functions while out & about. Sure, why not? We have the tech to do that. In fact, it's now possible to put an OCS client on all major phones out there.

Let me list the clients I know about. (If I miss one and you know it, leave a comment and share it with us!)

If You Have…

a. An iPhone
Use the “iDialog” iPhone OCS client. Ironically, this app is not made by Microsoft or Apple. It was released in 2009 by Modality Systems, a UC consulting firm.
Find iDialog in the App Store. Documentation and links are available on Modality's website here.

b. A Droid (Google Android Phone)
Right now the best way to use OCS on Droids is Communicator Web Access (CWA). Like Outlook Web Access, this framework allows web-based use of a Microsoft app - in this case, Office Communicator.
The Communicator Team blog has an overview on CWA here.
(I mentioned the Web Scheduler component in February, too.)

c. A Windows Mobile Phone (Palm Pre, Nokia)
Those of you on Windows Mobile phones luck out here. There's a mobile OCS client available straight from Microsoft: Communicator Mobile 2007 R2.

d. A Blackberry
There is no native Blackberry OCS client to my knowledge. You can use the Communicator Web Client though, like you would on a Droid phone. However, if your company limits Web access on Blackberries, you're stuck. (Maybe this can help you successfully argue in favor of Web access…?)

I should note that in terms of capabilities, OCS mobile clients and CWA are practically identical to Office Communicator. Aside from screen size and a couple formatting differences, you won't lose out on anything by using OCS 2007 on your mobile.

Do you use OCS 2007 on the go? What mobile phone do you use? How's it been working for you? Let us know in the comments.

Introducing New Employees to OCS 2007: 4 General Rules on How to Use It

We brought a new network engineer on board this week. I didn't give him “the tour,” but apparently he breezed through all of it and got to work right away.

Then he had a question about OCS.

He just wanted to know who to add to Office Communicator's contact list. Easy answer. But this pointed out something important regarding new employees. He already knew how OCS worked technically; he just wanted to know our policies around it.

What are the Rules for Using OCS Around Here?

That sparked a little discussion (and this blog post). Do we have any rules in place for how we use OCS? If so, what are they? How did they come about?

Turns out we did have several rules in place. They came into existence by the whim of a nutty systems administrator who journeyed to the Forbidden Server Room–

Okay, we just used common sense when it comes to business communication.

4 General Rules for OCS Use

These are 4 of the rules we came up with. I included questions our newest employee asked.

Who Do I Add to My Contact List? Why?
Add everyone you'll communicate with regularly. Use Contact List Groups or Access Levels to group people by priority and/or proximity to you. My first group is “Team,” direct co-workers in the same department. Another group is “Company,” which holds people I don't regularly talk to, but who need to talk to me now & then.

How Often Should I Update My Status (Presence)?
Rule of thumb for us: Update Presence once a day or when you change projects, whichever is more frequent. Above all, keep it up-to-date. Avoid what happens when you don't change your Presence status.

When Is it Okay to IM People?
Depends on the severity and length of the request you have. If you have a problem that can be answered quickly, then go for IM. If the problem is more extensive, and you may need input from more than one person, then use email.

Should I Use OCS to Answer the Phone?
Yes. Our phone system runs through OCS first and cellphones second (OCS is set to auto-forward). So we answer phones via OCS whenever possible. That's what the VoIP is there for, after all.

Does your company use OCS 2007? What are your rules concerning office use? Do you have different rules than ours? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft business technology OCS 2007 OCS 2010

Remember: With VoIP, Wait for the Line to Connect Before Talking

In recent client discussions, we've observed communications going awry. Our clients, when calling us, start talking immediately upon the line connecting.

Now this is pretty normal. The line connects and you start talking. Pretty basic.

But! Here comes VoIP to make this parade turn down a side street.

We're bringing this up because several of our clients are getting cut off at the start of their conversations. They'll start talking immediately, but the first few words will never reach us. And we'll have to ask them to repeat. Naturally, this gets a little frustrating now & then.

This is one of those little kinks in new technology we have to work past. It happens because the tech is still relatively new, and disparities between data and voice are still being worked out.

Call Routing and Why You Should Be Aware Of It

The thing with VoIP is that it takes a second or two to connect to a regular POTS phone line. This is because the VoIP gateway must route the call between data and voice. Bridging the two networks, essentially. Here's an overview on VoIP gateways from TopBits.com to help explain.

If you're talking during the few seconds while the call is still being routed, those words won't make it through. They vanish. You'll be rambling on in mid-sentence by the time the other person is able to hear you.

Start the Conversation with a Breath

The way to prevent this little communication mishap? Take a breath before speaking. That's all. The amount of time it takes to route a VoIP connection is the same as how long it takes to breathe once.

And since breathing is good for you, it's an easy tip to remember. Relax, breathe, and then say Hi.

OCS 2010 Gaining Industry and Media Attention

There's been a spate of news lately surrounding the recent VoiceCon unveiling of “Communications Server 14.” That's the development name for Office Communications Server 2010, the next version of Microsoft's OCS. I've collected some links below to illustrate what's being talked about.

Microsoft OCS Update Promises to Replace PBX - NetworkWorld. Discusses Communications Server 14's announcement at VoiceCon 2010 in Orlando. Mentions 14's most anticipated feature: the ability to replace the PBX as a primary voice communications system. It makes an important point about Microsoft's OCS strategy: they aren't manufacturing hardware for use with OCS (phones, VoIP gateways, etc.). They've just put forth required standards for manufacturers to meet.

Screen Shots: What's New in Microsoft OCS 14? - ZDNet. ZDNet's gone one further on this, providing a series of screenshots of the new OCS 14. Some of them depict tools currently available in OCS 2007 (like the Dial Pad and Presence status) but others are new. Notifications of voice mails waiting for you showing up in Communicator, for one. Choose which audio device you want to talk with (Bluetooth headset anyone?), for two. ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley also posted a reaction to the OCS 2010 announcement.

Microsoft Office Communications Server: Reaching Critical Mass? - MSPMentor. This article points to a very important issue in unified communications - the question of hosted vs. on-site communication services. Which will win out in the market? What will the MSPs favor? (We like both here.)
Both Microsoft and Cisco are feuding over this space right now, so it's hard to say. But this is good information for those connected with Unified Communications in some form or another.

Time to Toss the PBX: Microsoft Unveils Office Communications Server '14' at VoiceCon - TMCNet. This last blog post goes into more detail on Microsoft CVP of Unified Communications Gurdeep Singh Pall's statements about moving “past” the PBX to OCS 2010. The notion is a bit ahead of the game; we're still very much in transition phase. But at least he's enthusiastic!
The author, Patrick Bernard, did mention something really interesting too - a software app that links up IP phones to OCS. AudioCodes is releasing SIP Phones Support (SPS) for Microsoft Unified Communications in July. Definitely a helpful step to moving more companies toward OCS.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft business technology OCS 2007 OCS 2010 Communications Server 14

How to Fix a “CertEnroll” Certificate Private Key Error in OCS 2007 R2 and SharePoint

Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2 servers require certificates for several authentications between servers. SharePoint servers do too. These certificates require keys in order to maintain their security.

Today's post will give a solution for a cert error that pops up occasionally: When OCS or SharePoint fails to detect your cert's private key.

1. When setting up a new certificate for Office Communication Server 2007 R2 or SharePoint, you may receive this error.
   
   “CertEnroll::CX5090Enrollment::p_Install Response: ANS1 bad tag value met. 0×8009310b (ASN: 267)”
   
   
   This error is most likely caused by a missing Private Key on the certificate you're attempting to install.
2. In order to resolve this issue, access the MMC for certificates.
   
   
   Select the certificate you are trying to install and view its Properties. Select the Details view and copy the Serial Number you find there to Notepad.
   
   
3. Once you have it in Notepad, remove the blanks between the numbers. So it looks like this:
   
   

4. Once that's done, run the command certutil to append this now-corrected Private Key to the certificate. Enter the command as follows:
   
   “certutil –repairstore my (insert serial Number)“
   
   An example screenshot is below.
   
   
5. Once this repair finishes running, the certificate will be ready to use in your installation.

Save this private key, along with its relevant cert name, in another location. Just in case OCS or SharePoint prompts you for it again.

Did you encounter this error? Under what circumstances? Tell us in the comments if this solution worked for you.

What Happens When You Don”t Change Your OCS Presence Status

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!

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