Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 provides an effective way for an IT Pro to gain control of their organization's communications while delivering streamlined capabilities with a professional-grade server infrastructure. Taking advantage of the extensibility features of Office Communications Server 2007 allows organizations the flexibility needed to deliver compelling solutions to their users. IT pros also benefit by building their communications platform on a familiar infrastructure, common management tools, and a server architecture that provides the security and compliance control they need.
Administration
Increasing security and compliance requirements across all communications methods can lead to disjointed solutions, and multiple directories and management tools can create extra administrative overhead. In an environment where information workers need the ability to communicate using a broad spectrum of communication types, such as e-mail, instant messaging, and voice, companies delay the decision to upgrade because the integration of multiple communications technologies is costly and difficult to maintain.
Office Communications Server 2007 provides the tools your organization needs to help manage secure, compliant communications by simplifying compliance with internal and regulatory controls that allow administrators to easily manage all forms of communication. The administrative features included in Office Communications Server 2007 help centralize provisioning, simplify management, and provide professional-grade reliability and scale.
Centralize Provisioning and Simplify Management
Office Communications Server uses protocols within the ICE framework and an architecture that includes "edge" server roles and media relay functionality to allow users to truly experience "anywhere access" to all of the communications types offered by the solution without requiring a VPN connection back to the corporate network
Allows for central configuration for a number of user options. These are then sent to the client "in-band" at sign-in and cannot be overridden by the user, allowing for granular control of what a user can do.
If customers have multiple VoIP gateways deployed in their organization, Least-Cost Routing can help ensure that calls are terminated to the PSTN in the location that will allow for the cheapest termination cost.
All administration of Office Communications Server 2007 is carried out through an MMC snap-in, in common with other Microsoft products.
Office Communications Server 2007 has a specific MOM pack to make operational monitoring of the server as easy as possible.
Help Enable Enterprise-Class Compliance and Security for All Your Communications
Controls to restrict access to certain numbers, such as only local calls.
Office Communications Server has archiving functionality so that IM conversations can be saved in a SQL database to help in meeting with compliance regulations, legal discovery rules, and internal record-keeping requirements.
Office Communications Server can produce Call Detail Records (CDRs), which provide administrators with a way to collect data on IM, conferencing (Web and audio/video), and voice calling.
Specific content can be filtered from IM messages, such as blocking file transfers of certain extensions, including meeting handouts for conferencing.
As well as allowing users to communicate with other users inside one organization, Office Communications Server provides the ability to more securely share presence information and communicate with users in other organizations, and those connected to public IM networks.
Provide Professional-Grade Reliability and Scale
Office Communications Server can be deployed with many components installed on the same physical server in smaller environments where few servers are required, or it can be scaled out.
In addition to the high availability that the architecture of Office Communications Server can provide, administrators are also provided with the flexibility to dedicate certain servers to perform discrete functions, such as audio/video conferencing or Web conferencing.
Adaptive audio and video codecs (RTAudio, RTVideo) enable quality of experience on LANs, WANs, and the Internet without requiring complete network overhauls.
Interoperability
It's not necessary to scrap your existing phone system in favor of new voice over IP (VoIP) hardware, because Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 can work with your existing telephony infrastructure. With Office Communications Server 2007, users can not only send and receive calls with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), but also provide tight integration with a company's Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system.
Office Communications Server 2007 also combines software-powered VoIP with open standards to make the telephone an intuitive, menu-based part of the computing experience. This unified communications philosophy extends from the organization of the underlying call routing, which includes features like Least-Cost Routing and extension-based digit dialing, as well as integration features that bridge the VoIP standards supported by Office Communications Server 2007 with implementations that use older standards.
At the center of this integration is the Mediation Server role of Office Communications Server 2007. It provides a single interface and uses open-standard SIP for signaling interoperability. Mediation Server takes calls from third-party IP-PBX systems or SIP/PSTN gateways and moves them onto the network using the adaptive codec, remote user, and security models that are the basis for call setup and media with Office Communications Server 2007.
Third-party products connect to Mediation Server using the SIP protocol. To provide you with the best possible deployment experience, Microsoft created the Open Interoperability Program, which enables PBX and Gateway vendors to qualify their solutions to operate with Office Communications Server 2007. Qualified infrastructure integrates smoothly with Office Communications Server 2007, includes detailed integration documentation, and supports the wide variety of possible calling scenarios.
Deployment
There are several ways, or scenarios, in which you can integrate Office Communications Server 2007 with your existing PBX environment. Two primary scenarios are "co-existence" and "standalone." Each is based on the use of the Office Communicator 2007 client with a user's PBX phone and the corporate telephony infrastructure.
Co-Existence Scenario
Co-existence is when an incoming call is forked between the PBX phone and the user's logged-in Office Communicator 2007 endpoints. Both the PBX phone and Office Communicator 2007 "co-exist" on the user's desktop.
To keep the features of PBX and enjoy the great streamlined communication capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007, add Office Communications Server 2007 software-powered VoIP to some or all users. Then configure call routing on the qualified IP-PBX between the user's legacy phone and Office Communicator 2007.
Standalone Scenario
In the standalone scenario, various users within an organization replace their legacy phones with Office Communicator 2007 or an Office Communications Server 2007 IP phone. This way, users who are configured to use Office Communications Server 2007 will make and receive calls with Office Communicator 2007, and users configured to use the PBX will make and receive calls using the PBX. Each group continues to have a smooth calling experience, including extension-based dialing capability. This scenario works especially well for mobile employees.
Implementation
Either scenario is implemented using products qualified under the Open Interoperability Program.
The standalone scenario can be implemented using either a SIP/PSTN gateway or a direct SIP connection to the PBX. The co-existence scenario is implemented using a specification called Dual Forking, and can be deployed with or without Remote Call Control (RCC).
Remote Call Control, first made available as a part of Office Live Communications Server 2005, continues to be supported with Office Communications Server 2007. RCC allows Office Communicator 2007 to control a user's PBX phone line and indicate their presence based on the status of their phone. Users can answer their PBX phone with Office Communicator 2007 and update their presence to "In a Call." Although you can deploy RCC outside of the co-existence scenario, end-users lose many capabilities of Office Communicator 2007, including robust media support and many remote-worker features.
Vendors
As of January 2008, enterprise telephony vendors committed to supporting integration with Office Communications Server 2007 include:
For the current list of qualified PBXs and SIP/PSTN gateways, or to qualify telephony infrastructure with Office Communications Server 2007, please refer to the Open Interoperability Program on TechNet.
Developer Platform
Software-powered VoIP is the foundation of the Microsoft unified communications platform. This software-based approach offers every customer and developer an extensible platform with rich APIs to build communications-enabled business processes.
Communications-enabled business processes based on the Microsoft unified communications platform offer businesses three ways to increase productivity:
Contextual collaboration allows people to communicate more efficiently. Microsoft's APIs allow you to build click-to-communicate capabilities into any software that customers use on a day-to-day basis. With a single click, the user can e-mail, instant message (IM), call, or share applications. The Microsoft enhanced presence shows the user, at a glance, not only whether their contact is available, but also which communication mode is most appropriate. And when users start a conversation, they can use the software to share whatever content they would like to talk about via data or application sharing.
Business Process Communications cut down human latency in business processes because the Microsoft unified communications platform enables computers to contact people who are needed for a decision at the right moment. Notifications can alert such decision makers that a business process needs their intervention. The notifications are distributed via the highly scalable communications platform using any channel the Microsoft unified communications platform offers, depending on the enhanced presence status of the person to be contacted. So, the notification can use a broadcast IM, or an outbound phone call, where Microsoft speech technology automatically tells what decision is pending and enables any naturally spoken input.
Anywhere access capabilities in the Microsoft unified communications platform allow people to interact with computers via natural speech using the telephone or IM in a fully automated way. Such automated self-service applications, like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems or automated agents (a.k.a. response bots), can save businesses lots of money by using sophisticated speech technology to eliminate the need for expensive staff to answer routine questions.
The Microsoft unified communications platform not only sets itself apart because it is purely software-based and uses standard computers and networking, but also because it is an enterprise-grade platform that offers built-in security features, like encrypted communications, great scalability and robustness, and familiar tools for IT professionals to deploy.
Given that the Microsoft unified communications products are built on the same platform that Microsoft offers to developers, it is easier to add new features compared to hardware-based communications systems.
For developers, it is easier to build software on the Microsoft unified communications platform because Microsoft offers familiar application programming interfaces (like .NET or Web Services), and powerful Visual Studio–based tools (like Windows Workflow Activities), combined with a vibrant developer community greatly aided by the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ocdev. MSDN offers many code samples, as well as such community activities as forums, CodePlex, and MSDN Code Gallery. Developers will be able to ramp up quicker and will be inspired by the cool new scenarios that are possible now that communications solutions are created solely in software.
