Introduction
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Microsoft Unified Communications Technical Launch event in Toronto, and I’d like to share some of its highlights. Walking into this event, I had anticipated it to be primarily focused on the usual “benefits of VoiP” arguments, things like the potential cost savings, with an added twist of how this could all fit in with productivity software – after all, it was a Microsoft event. At the end of the day however, I walked out refreshed. What Microsoft, along with a bevy of hardware/software partners had showcased was extremely promising, and based on the live demonstrations – it worked.
Unified Communications?
What is Unified Communications (UC)? You’ve probably heard this word thrown around a lot lately, but what does it mean? Well, simply put, Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of the many disparate communications systems, media, applications and devices. In almost every office, a clear division can be observed and experienced, especially between what can be done on the phone, and what can be done on the computer. We’ve all experienced this division, and it’s definitely not a good thing. Having to dial into voice mail is always a pain (not just for users, but for the help desks as well – password resets are quite common). Not being able to see when someone else is on the phone is also an annoyance – in fact, there are so many issues – both large and small – which are a result of this division. As Gartner states, UC’s largest value is it’s ability to reduce “human latency” in business processes, and that’s definitely true.
Microsoft’s Platform
I’ll break down some of the main areas that benefit the most from this UC platform, but first I’d just like to quickly explain how the platform works, and what is required.
Microsoft’s UC platform is powered by their Office Communications Server (OCS). This server software is highly scalable, with different configurations allowing anywhere from 5,000 to 105,000 users. The actual architecture is very flexible, allowing for any number of configurations to exist, and extra features can be easily added through additions of servers. The basic features offered by OCS are enterprise IM (Instant Messaging), online presence, audio/video conferencing and web conferencing, all on one platform. OCS is connected, by way of a “mediation” server, to either the company’s IP-PBX’s or legacy PBX’s, and as a result, provides CDR, IVR and a plethora of other features. A company can still reap the benefits of VoiP using a legacy PBX system, as OCS provides “software-powered VoiP” out of the box. Active directory is a required component of the platform, and allows for very easy management of services (no more command line – settings have full user interfaces).
Microsoft Office Communicator is used for the client side of things, and is available in PC, hard-phone, web and mobile versions, allowing for continuity and ease of use across any platform and any location (due to advanced protocols, VPN connection is no longer needed for users to check mail or make calls from outside the office). The client is integrated with all of Microsoft’s office programs, adding more value to the user’s experience. Click to call, like the implementations seen in most current VoiP roll outs, is also very easy to use, and can be used from within the majority of Microsoft applications (if you are editing a document for example, you can see who wrote/worked on it, and click to call them).
Online Presence
While most companies already have presence displayed through Instant Messaging (IM), the information provided is usually very limited, and unfortunately quite useless. In Lotus Notes for example, while Same Time IM allows for a user to select their status (Online, Away, DND…), this status is completely manual, and its effectiveness requires a certain level of diligence by the user. The presence available through Microsoft’s UC however, is vastly more useful. A user’s presence can still be manually selected (so, you can select DND if you are really busy), but now it takes the onus off the user, and handles it transparently.
With this enhanced online presence, a user’s status is changed depending on what they are doing, or what they have scheduled. If a user is on the phone, that will be displayed as their status, so anyone who would have been trying to contact them, would wait, or choose another type of communication method. If a user has a meeting scheduled in their outlook calendar, that info is fed into the live presence. No longer will it just say “in a meeting” but it will provide the details (no need to worry about privacy, the amount of detail shown to users depends on their “class” – team members for example, can view everything, while a regular company employee can only see what you want them to), without requiring the user to enter these manually.
If a users status is set to DND (do not disturb), an instant message sent from a regular employee would be delivered as an e-mail, and calls would go directly to voice mail. If a team member was trying to contact that user though, the IM would be sent, minimized, and the notification of an incoming call would also appear on the users screen, minimized.
By leveraging the live presence offered by Microsoft’s OCS in combination with Exchange Server, companies can significantly improve their personnel’s “communication latency”. The days of “phone tag” and IM’s of “can I call you” are coming to an end. This feature rich presence isn’t only limited within a company, but can also be “federated” to any partner companies, adding even more value.
Visual Voice Mail
Voice mail has been, and is largely still, unintuitive and primitive. You have to dial in to listen, you can’t “see” who left the messages or what their online status might be. Users also have to remember yet another password to access their messages, something which often helps increase support tickets (password resets). With Microsoft’s OCS, voice mail becomes much more user friendly and powerful – it becomes more like e-mail. When a user receives a voice mail, they are notified right on their desktop, and receive that voice mail in their e-mail inbox, just like a regular e-mail. They can listen to it right at their desktop if they like, and they can see who sent it, and prioritize their messages. This experience is not limited to your PC, but can also be experienced via mobile devices (like the Apple iPhone’s visual voice mail), or through a users OCS Edition phone (these phones are colour and touch screen, very nice).
Conferencing
Conferencing is probably one of the most used and most critical service voice systems provide. With UC, conferencing has the opportunity to become more engaging, easier to use and more flexible. Currently in most offices, if one wishes to have a conference with more than three people, a conference bridge must be booked. While this booking process can usually be done online, it has to be done well in advance, or else you must call to request. This simply is not convenient for users, as conferences aren’t always a planned matter, and they shouldn’t be. Let’s say a user is talking to someone else, and they want to bring in two more people into the conversation, essentially making it a conference, they can’t do this currently. With UC, regular calls can be easily escalated into full scale audio conferences, just with the click of a button – it’s instant. This also applies to video and web conferences as well. These features, and more allow conferences to be more interactive and more spur of the moment. With the use of improved codecs, bandwidth is rarely an issue, allowing users to work from wherever they are, and have perfect clarity of voice and video.
CDR
The OCS also has built in call detail recording (CDR), which can log and archive IM’s, conferences (audio, video and web) and regular voice calls. This means that you won’t need another device to do this, although for storage, you’ll require an Archiving server. Having this integrated, advanced CDR capability, allows companies to more easily meet their corporate compliance requirements, as well as act as a “library” for users (what I mean by this, is that for audio/video conferences, if a user was unable to attend one, they could simply replay it at a later date).
IVR
IVR can also be implemented, although for the most features, Exchange would also need to be used. A user can call in to access and listen to their e-mail, calendar information and contacts. What I found really interesting was the demo they conducted for this feature. The demonstrator called in to his office, was voice authenticated (no passwords necessary, biometrics are used instead) and was able to ask about his schedule for the following day, and have an appointment delayed by 35 minutes (all by voice – when the meeting was delayed, the automated voice assured him that all invitees had been notified of the change). He was also able to ask the “virtual assistant” to call connect him to a colleague, all without the need to press a single button.
Closing Thoughts
While it looks very promising and exciting, Microsoft’s Unified Communications platform isn’t without its drawbacks, and it’s definitely not for everyone. Firstly, in order to provide all of the fancy “presence” features it requires the use of Microsoft Exchange Server, which isn’t used in all enterprises. Secondly, the technology is still fairly new, and even though it has been implemented – and successfully at that, it is still in its infancy – and therefore vulnerabilities and threats are not fully known. Thirdly, rolling out a unified communications platform requires a lot of commitment, and more importantly a need for what it offers. Do all companies require presence, visual voice mail, click to call and all of those other features? They could probably use them – but they definitely don’t need them. These types of features would provide the most value to large, multinational corporations, where teams are virtual, and it’s hard to have that “connected” feeling. Another important point to note, is that there are competing platforms available, from the likes of IBM and Cisco.
While I myself saw this platform as being full of great features, that make sense and would be very useful, I think most companies will phase these in slowly. While we will eventually see all of these features in play in single systems, it’ll be a while before the majority of companies go with the full solution, especially if the company’s core competencies aren’t in IT.
I’d like to congratulate Microsoft and its partners, for launching a complete, full featured and valuable platform. Adoption rates will eventually skyrocket I have no doubt, but for large corporations, I see this taking a little longer. The platform will mainly cater towards niche markets (IT centric, global firms) and companies who are planning major upgrades in its initial phases. I will definitely be watching this solution closely, and look forward to having a “hands-on” experience with it.
