As it turns out, not every organization is running OCS 2007. I know, right? There are even a vast number of small and medium businesses with no enterprise instant messaging solution. Go figure. Many organizations rely on free IM options- AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, etc.

Microsoft had two announcements this week that change the landscape for instant messaging with OCS 2007. First, it released the XMPP gateway for OCS R2.  The new gateway expands the options for IM by enabling connectivity to systems such as Google Talk and Jabber. 

The second announcement was that connectivity with AOL is now included in the licensing price, along with Windows Live, which was announced a few months ago.  That means that OCS 2007 R2 can connect with AIM and Windows Live Messenger accounts without the need to purchase Public IM Connectivity (PIC) licenses.

Organizations that want/need to connect with Yahoo IM accounts will still have to purchase the necessary PIC licenses.

OCS for Blackboard automatically populates the Office Communicator client with information such as the course, users, teachers, and information about the school. Users can view the Presence details of the professor or fellow students and determine the best way to communicate. 

“The Higher Education Universities that we have contacted are very excited to trial the OCS for Blackboard application,” says Bill Vollerthum, President of Enabling Technologies.

A 45-day trial evaluation version can be downloaded from the Enabling Technologies web site.

SIP trunking offers savings by eliminating some hardware components and more importantly by cutting costs and increasing efficiency. Adam Boone, vice president of marketing at Sipera Systems said “The economic crisis has underscored for us that any technology that enables greater enterprise process efficiencies actually is relatively recession proof” in a recent interview.

The rest of the interview with Boone is interesting and worth a read. SIP trunking is a step in the evolution from traditional voice to a completely software-based, IP-voice implementation. Be sure to keep security on your to-do list though. Part of the reason that Sipera Systems is gung ho on SIP trunking is that they offer appliances and services that let customers deploy it securely and extend it to remote and branch workers. Take a look at what they have to offer and how it can enhance your SiP trunking VoIP infrastructure.

That is sort of how new technologies work. Instant messaging went from IRC (Internet Relay Chat) used primarily by uber-geeks, to services like AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) embraced by consumers, and eventually to platforms like Microsoft Office Communications Server providing instant messaging capabilities in the enterprise.

Perhaps you can relate to this. I know people who rejected my overtures to connect on LinkedIn. They didn’t want to join and fought the tide. Then eventually I get an email asking me to join their LinkedIn network. Ironically, many of those same friends told me they refused to join Facebook. They already had LinkedIn, so what was the point? Fast forward a few months and I am getting Facebook friend requests from these people. Then it was Twitter. Now all of those people who said that they wouldn’t join the silly networking service that only allows 140-characters per message are watching how it has transformed International politics and media in the recent post-election protest violence in Iran and thinking “maybe there is some value to that after all?”

In fairness, there have been a number of lesser services that have not reached the popular acceptance of Facebook or Twitter: Plaxo, Spock, Friendster, etc. so I can understand approaching new technologies with caution or a healthy dose of skepticism. But, those that achieve the critical mass necessary eventually go from fringe uber-geek technology, to popular consumer technology, and then to a business tool embraced by enterprises.

There is some overlap though between the features and functions of some of these services and the functionality delivered by unified communications. Can social networking be leveraged as a ‘poor man’s unified communications’? Do enterprises have to choose one or the other? Or, will there be some sort of convergence of services that enable the two worlds to peacefully co-exist in the enterprise?

Shockingly, not all mobile phones are built on the Windows Mobile platform though. Organizations that rely on Microsoft Unified Communications now have a way to extend the Communicator functionality a little further with Communicator Mobile for Java. Communicator Mobile for Java will work on the Nokia S60, Nokia S90, or Motorola RAZR v3xx and provides the following features and more:

• View contacts
• Click to call
• Presence
• Search enterprise directory
• Route calls from mobile phone through enterprise voice
• Route calls to mobile phone for singe number access
• Initiate or participate in instant messaging sessions and instant messaging conferences

Evangelyze Communications is coming to the rescue though with SmartSIP. SmartSIP enables organizations to connect OCS with….wait. I can’t possibly explain SmartSIP any better than this video overview. The clip is less than a minute long and well worth the time. Check it out for yourself.

BT’s Finder utility allows users of Microsoft Unified Communications to determine how and when communications get to them. Finder can be configured to filter communications based on specified criteria and reroute them to other users or groups while a user is away on business or out on vacation. Urgent or critical communications can be automatically converted from email text to speech and forwarded to voicemail or to a mobile phone in order to communicate with users without immediate access to email. 

Finder accelerates delivery of critical information to the right person at the right time. It allows users to focus on business issues while the system handles presence, preference and device attributes in the background. In addition, Finder is another illustration of the impact of software-powered voice and the potential that exists when communications can be managed in a way that improves efficiency and enhances productivity.

Microsoft Unified Communications, and using Microsoft Office Communicator to replace the desk phone, enables organizations to eliminate those costs. The computer is already there. It is already plugged in. It already has the necessary cables and connectivity installed. It can perform the same functions as the desk phone and then some, so it is a redundant waste of money to have a phone sitting there next to the computer.

Pall also described some success stories around Microsoft Office Communications Server including Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom. According to this Network World article, Swisscom’s head of collaboration services, Andreas Arrigoni said “The software helped shorten sales cycles by 20% and freed up 20 minutes per person per day with efficiencies that left time to do more work.” He then added “The system also supports federated presence so workers at Swisscom can see whether individuals at partner companies are available and by what means.”

RIP desk phone. It has been nice knowing you.

In my recent Reality Check podcast on the SearchUnifiedCommunications site, we talked about whether VoIP is a necessary piece of a unified communications deployment and one of the things that was discussed on the podcast was whether or not organizations still need to invest in a PBX with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2.

The answer right now is ‘it depends’. However, according to a quote pulled from Microsoft documentation and highlighted in a recent blog post, Microsoft is apparently moving from rumor and innuendo and on to talking openly about the strategy of Office Communications Server, the next version will apparently be dubbed ‘OCS 2010′, and the elimination of the PBX from the voice communications infrastructure.

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First, while not necessarily ‘unwelcome’, it should be noted that OCS 2007 R2 requires a 64-bit Windows Server operating system (preferably Windows Server 2008 64-bit). This is the direction Microsoft is headed with all server roles it seems, so if you don’t use 64-bit server operating systems today you should certainly plan to make that change in the near future.

Some of the unwelcome stuff though just seems silly. Its like one of the developers couldn’t come up with a worthwhile contribution and at the last minute they decided to move some existing functions around just for the sake of appearing productive. For example, OCS 2007 previously installed the Admin Tools necessary to work with the server on the various server roles. Those are gone now. Now you have to locate the directory and install them manually yourself.

It doesn’t end there though. The tools are usually available on the Computer Management console. So, just right-click on Computer and select Manage and…..hey? Where did the Computer Management console go? In Windows Server 2008 when you right-click on Computer and select Manage it takes you to the Server Manager console instead. The Computer Management console is still there, you just have to be more resourceful in figuring out how to get to it.