Office Communications Server 2007 R2 provides common calling features such as click to call, forward, transfer, divert to voice mail, hold, and hang up and extends these features with enterprise class instant messaging, multi-party audio, video, and Web conferencing. Identity and rich presence allow users to connect with the right person, right now, via the best means of contact. Rich call forwarding settings allow users to specify additional numbers to ring on an incoming call, including home and mobile numbers, delegates, team member extensions, and voice mail. These features are available on Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office Communicator Phone Edition R2, and are easily accessible from within commonly used Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint sites.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 extends these and other calling features to any location with Internet connectivity, and allows users to collaborate in real-time in the office and away from the office. Call media and signaling are both encrypted using secure real-time transport protocol (SRTP) and transport layer security (TLS), providing secure communications without requiring a hardware or software virtual private network (VPN). The endpoints employ an adaptive media stack and variable bit rate coders (RTAudio and RTVideo) that intelligently use available bandwidth to provide superior quality on well-managed networks (such as LANs) and good quality on unmanaged networks (such as the Internet). The combination of built-in security and the adaptive media stack enables high quality communications for tele-workers and occasionally mobile employees wherever they go without additional complexity. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 also supports traditional codecs such as G.711 and G.723.1 for interoperability with existing VoIP solutions.
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Enterprise cellular telephony allows users of Office Communicator Mobile R2 for Windows Mobile and Office Communicator Mobile for Java to set up and control enterprise voice calls over the networks of their cell-phone providers. With enterprise cellular telephony, a mobile phone becomes just one more unified communications endpoint, providing nearly the same level of connectivity and control as Office Communicator itself. Features include one number calling, click to call, and least cost routing via the enterprise IP network. Unanswered calls are directed to the user’s enterprise voice mail repository.
Team calling makes it possible for a user to have his or her incoming calls simultaneously ring the phones of teammates. When the user receives an incoming call, each teammate’s phone rings, and all members see the dialed party name and the dialing party, if available. This feature can replace the call group pickup feature in traditional public branch exchange (PBX) systems, and is useful for groups of people that share responsibility for a particular area and are each capable of taking incoming calls. Team Calling can also be used in place of multi-line appearance in scenarios where that feature is used to enable colleagues to take each other’s calls. Unlike traditional approaches that require administrator intervention for setup and changes, Team Call is under user control.
The Call Delegation feature in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows managers to delegate phone call handling to one or more assistants or others. When a delegate answers a call, the manager is notified that the call has been answered, along with the name of the delegate who answered. The delegate can perform multiple tasks on behalf of the manager, including screening person-to-person or conference calls, placing person-to-person calls on behalf of the manager, initiating conference calls on behalf of the manager, and modifying the manager’s call forwarding settings. Note that these capabilities apply only to phone calls. The assistant cannot screen instant messaging (IM), IM conferences, or data-only calls.
The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant is optimized for delegates and other users who handle a high volume of calls, such as receptionists, and provides a full screen user interface for efficient call handling. Unlike traditional telephone consoles with limited phone line support, limited information on user availability, and limited or no access to corporate directory information, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant provides the ability to receive and transfer calls for and to anyone within the enterprise based on rich presence. The conversation area, with automatic queuing of incoming, active, and pending calls, allows attendants to manage multiple conversations, while the contact area can be customized by the attendant for maximum efficiency. Delegates are able to receive and place calls on behalf of their managers.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service allows administrators to create and configure one or more small response groups for the purpose of routing and queuing incoming phone calls to designated agents. Typical usage scenarios include an internal helpdesk, customer service desk, or general external call handler. The response group service includes call queuing, music on hold, interactive voice response with automatic speech recognition and text to speech, and routes calls to agents based on presence and standard call-routing algorithms, including serial, longest-idle, parallel, and round robin. Administrators may allow business owners to configure and manage their response groups, giving them control over defining business hours and specifying music on hold. The Response Group Service can improve call handling while reducing administrative overhead.
Enterprise voice in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 features centralized administration using familiar software tools for management, such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and Microsoft Management Console. Users are provisioned using Active Directory, which eliminates the need to build and maintain a separate directory for telephony users. In addition, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers out-of-the-box monitoring and reporting capabilities for voice and other communications, including Call Detail Records (CDR), and Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements for audio quality, PSTN connections, and network connectivity.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 uses standards and published interfaces to interoperate and integrate with your existing telephony infrastructure. Gateway and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) options for interconnection to PBX systems and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) allow companies to migrate users to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 enterprise voice over time while maximizing return on existing investments and minimizing disruption. The Microsoft Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program for gateways and Internet Protocol (IP) PBXs ensures that customers have seamless experiences with setup, support, and use of qualified telephony gateways and IPPBXs with Microsoft's unified communications software.
Learn More about Microsoft’s Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows an enterprise to connect its software-powered VoIP network directly to IP service providers that offer PSTN origination and termination. This capability allows VoIP calls to be transmitted to the PSTN in packet format without requiring conversion to a traditional circuit format using an IP PSTN gateway. The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 SIP trunking capability allows enterprise voice users to make local and long-distance calls to E.164 compliant numbers terminated on the PSTN as a service of the corresponding service provider, and to contact an enterprise user inside or outside the corporate firewall by dialing a Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number associated with that user.
