OCS Evaluation Guide Launch FINAL

Evaluation Guide

Summary: Designed especially for technology reviewers and new users, this guide provides evaluation materials for the release of Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007.

Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

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COPYRIGHT

This is a preliminary document and may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release of the software described herein. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows Server, Windows Server System, and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Welcome ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4 What’s New ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Key Benefits .................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Software-powered VoIP Foundation ............................................................................................................... 15 Streamlined Communications ......................................................................................................................... 17 Operational Control ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Features at a Glance ....................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Enterprise IM & Contact Management ........................................................................................................................... 22 Presence.......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Multi-Party on Premise Conferencing ............................................................................................................................. 24 Enhanced VoIP ................................................................................................................................................................ 27 Office Integration ............................................................................................................................................................ 29 Development, Management, and Administration .......................................................................................................... 30 Communicator Web Access Comparative Table ............................................................................................................. 32 Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 ................................................................................................................ 33 Extensibility and APIs ...................................................................................................................................................... 33 Reviewing Office Communication Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007............................................................................ 35 Enhanced Enterprise IM & Contact Management .......................................................................................................... 35 Presence.......................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Multi-Party on Premise Conferencing ............................................................................................................................. 47 Enhanced VoIP ................................................................................................................................................................ 54 Office Integration ............................................................................................................................................................ 60 Development, Management, and Administration .......................................................................................................... 64 Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 ................................................................................................................ 68 Communicator Web Access ............................................................................................................................................ 69 Communicator Extensibility ............................................................................................................................................ 69 Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 72 Index ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 85 3

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

INTRODUCTION WELCOME Welcome to the Evaluation Guide for Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007. This document is designed to help you understand the features and capabilities of this solution – an enterprise-grade server and client which provides the backbone for seamless, real-time communications and serves as a foundation for future communications needs within an organization. Over the last two decades, technology innovation has brought the world closer together and has given people more ways to communicate with each other. These changes have brought new heights in productivity and created a more mobile, global, and always-on world of work. With this rapid transformation in the business environment, people need to manage more communications in more, different places than ever before. Information workers (IW) and IT professionals are each struggling to manage multiple systems for communications — desktop and mobile phones, email and voice mail, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), instant messaging, and web- and videoconferencing. Today’s communications technologies work well independently, but we at Microsoft also feel that they should work together as a team so much more effectively. OCS 2007 is a unified communications server that delivers enterprise instant messaging; audio, video- and web-conferencing; and enhanced voice over IP. Office Communicator (OC) is a unified client that delivers a familiar, intuitive interface to users. Together these two products streamline communications by giving people the ability to click-to-communicate within Microsoft Office system applications, such as Outlook, SharePoint, and other applications, devices, and networks they know and use today. Using a highly available, scalable architecture and familiar administration tools, OCS 2007 makes deployment, administration, and monitoring of real-time communications more efficient. Moreover, OCS 2007 facilitates real-time communication across multiple geographies, time zones and organizational boundaries, so that people throughout the organization can work together more easily and make informed decisions more quickly. Through 2010, 80% of business who Through 2010, 80% of business who have deployed communications have deployed communications enabled business processes will have enabled business processes will have acquired significant competitive and acquired significant competitive and revenue differentiation because of revenue differentiation because of them. them. (Gartner, May 2006) (Gartner, May 2006)

OCS 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 allow people to quickly find and communicate with other individuals and groups using a variety of methods. Since a person’s availability and 4

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

communications experience are tightly integrated with the Microsoft Office desktop, users can communicate directly from within everyday desktop and business applications, workflows, and processes. Therefore, an individual can easily communicate from anywhere, using tools that share the same look and feel, user experience and work environment with the Microsoft Office desktop. To facilitate the use of this reference document, this guide is organized into the following different sections:

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

WHAT’S NEW Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is the first Microsoft product to combine Enhanced Voice over IP (VoIP), enterprise Instant Messaging (IM), presence, and Web conferencing capabilities within a single offering. Building on the success of Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005’s rich presence and instant messaging capabilities, the OCS 2007 offering delivers new functionalities in two major areas:

Office Communications Server 2007 also offers some additional improvements, such as enhanced presence capabilities, improved ability to interoperate with partner networks (federation), and improved deployment and administration. At a glance, Office Communication Server 2007 delivers:

KEY: = Feature Included = Improved = New

Live Communication Server 2005

Office Communications Server 2007

Enterprise-wide Presence Enterprise Instant Messaging with Enhanced Security Enhanced Voice Conferencing

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

ENHANCED VOIP Microsoft’s Enhanced VoIP is a software-based solution that provides streamlined communications to information workers, enabling them to initiate voice communications from the context of the application they are working in (such as Microsoft Outlook®), as well as make and receive calls when traveling or away from the office by connecting to any network without a VPN. For IT departments, this provides the future-ready foundation for evolving communications needs. Using Communicator 2007 as the preferred client application, the solution provides a rich, integrated Gartner Research expects that by 2010, communications experience for enterprise users. 80% of companies will have integrated communications such as voice and Enhanced VoIP supports voice mail and automessaging into some business attendant capabilities through integration with applications or processes. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging. OCS 2007 also works with existing enterprise telephony systems (PBX) either natively over SIP (session initiation protocol – the most popular VoIP standard that enables two or more users to communicate to each other using a network or the Internet), or via a media gateway and public switched telephone networks (PSTN). Unlike existing corporate phone systems, OCS 2007’s Enhanced VoIP functionality makes it possible for remote workers at home or on the road to make and answer voice calls using their office extension without the need to set up a virtual private network (VPN). Moreover, such voice sessions are protected by the same encryption and authentication technologies as OCS 2007 IM sessions.

The corporate IM market is in the early stages of deployment, but will reach 90 percent penetration (of those users with commercial email accounts) by 2010, with Microsoft having the largest proportion of active users. (Gartner, May 2006)

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Leveraging Office Communications Server 2007’s Enhanced VoIP capabilities enables users to: Place calls from PC to PC, PC to phone, or phone to PC, simplifying the communications experience. Participate in IP voice sessions that traverse NATs and firewalls. Place calls to other enterprise voice users, coworkers who are still hosted on a PBX, or PSTN numbers. Call the enterprise from anywhere an Internet connection is available, without incurring long-distance charges or resorting to a VPN (virtual private network). Keep their legacy telephone numbers. Enjoy the benefits of voice mail and call forwarding on your PC For the business customer, Enhanced VoIP provides benefits over and above user productivity enhancements: Businesses can leverage their existing server infrastructure reducing the requirements and costs of additional hardware. Least cost routing over PSTN gateways results in lower telephony costs. Familiar tools allow central administration of VoIP and data systems, reducing administrative overhead and complexity. Integration with existing PBX solutions, networks, existing numbering plans, and traditional desktop phones allows businesses to extend the life of the existing telephony systems while improving its functionality.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

MULTI-PARTY ON PREMISE WEB CONFERENCING Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 introduces a new capability for enterprise users both inside and outside the corporate firewall to create and join real-time conferences hosted on internal corporate servers. These “on-premise” conferences and meetings increase the flexibility of the organization to collaborate more spontaneously, and can be scheduled or initiated on an ad-hoc basis. This new functionality allows an organization to host Microsoft Office Live Meeting-style services as an “on-premise,” server-based solution, which enables the enterprise user to host meetings, presentations, training classes and similar gatherings using its own corporate network. These conferences can include IM, audio, video, slide By 2008, Web conferencing will be presentations, and other forms of data available to the majority of corporate collaboration. users as a standard facility, alongside email, presence, calendaring, instant messaging and other collaborative facilities. (Gartner, Web Conferencing Magic Quadrant, September 2006)

In addition, the in-house solution provides a flexible, more secure, and productive conferencing for Information Workers by offering:

Simplified scheduling tools. Tight integration via add-ins with Microsoft Office Outlook® gives users greater flexibility and more options when initiating, accepting and managing attendance for scheduled meetings. Ad-hoc meeting support. Users can initiate an impromptu web conference directly from Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office System applications such as PowerPoint®, Excel®, Word, Project, Visio® and Outlook. Siemens: “Companies may be able to Two-way VoIP audio support. Full-duplex save U.S. $100 or more in a four-person audio technology helps mediate the conference call through the elimination conversation when several people talk at the of audio conferencing fees, document same time during an audio conference, so that collaboration session fees, and the time saved in setting up.” no person’s voice is lost or overridden. Microsoft RoundTable support. When (Tim Miller, Director of Product combined with Microsoft Office Planning and OpenScape) Communications Server 2007, Microsoft RoundTable delivers an immersive 9

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

conferencing experience with a 360 degree panoramic video display that extends the meeting room across multiple locations with high quality video and audio. External access. On-premise Web conferencing also can support a combination of internal and external participants, with an edge server deployed for users outside the organization’s firewall. Consistent meeting environment. On-premise Web conferencing uses the same meeting console as the Microsoft Office Live Meeting service, providing a familiar experience for participants and enabling IT departments to deploy only one console. Multi-party audio conferencing and video conferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 allows more than two people to simultaneously interact through voice and video using the Office Communicator client. Server to Service Continuum. Users employ the Live Meeting client to meet online and By 2008, Web-conferencing products will the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook to be widely available and frequently used by more than 40 percent of the schedule meetings on either the Office worldwide business user community. Communications Server 2007 Web (Gartner, Predicts 2006: Collaboration Conferencing capability or the Office Live Comes of Age, November 2006) Meeting service without having to learn separate applications.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

INSTANT MESSAGING AND PRESENCE The new Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 builds on the solid instant messaging and presence solution of Live Communications Server 2005, incorporating enterprise-ready instant messaging and presence features including the following improved userfocused capabilities:

The corporate IM market is in the early stages of deployment, but will reach 90 percent penetration (of those users with commercial email accounts) by 2010, with Microsoft having the largest proportion of active users. (Gartner, May 2006)

Send group IMs to a Microsoft® Exchange Server distribution group Include Active Directory® Service distribution lists in IM contact list. Seamlessly transition from peer to peer 1:1 audio & video conversations to multiparty, serverbased conferences. Integrate presence into Client and custom line of business (LOB) applications User-level control of presence visibility by assigning contacts to one of several pre-defined “access levels,” allowing them to decide how much information is made available to the contacts. Administrator control of custom presence states for the organization. User-level sharing of rich presence information automatically based on the content of their Exchange calendar or whether they have an Our of Office (OOF) message set. Office Communications Server 2007 supports federation between organizations using OCS 2007, with partner presence systems, and with public IM systems (AOL, Yahoo and Windows Live). In addition, a specification has been published to allow any presence server to federate with Office Communications Server.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

KEY BENEFITS The business world has changed substantially in only a few short years. The use of varied communication methods has led to communication chaos. Phone tag with landlines, cell phones, voice mail jail, and email overload have created a disconnected communications system, where the information worker is often frustrated and unable to keep track of all the The average Information information received and needed and the act of Worker gets 51 messages a day communicating with other people is too often an in up to 7 different places. interruption rather than a progression of the work Harris Interactive Online Survey process. – June 2006 The way in which business people communicate and collaborate has seen rapid changes recently, with new demands and capabilities today that a few short years ago were hardly a consideration. Communicating right from the context of the work the information worker is doing and contacting the right person using the right method streamlines communications, increases productivity, and reduces “time-to-decision.” Delivering these benefits today, rather than waiting for long, staged rollouts of communications technologies (such as forklift replacements of PBX systems) is required to gain business advantage while organizations can’t afford to invest in technologies that will become obsolete as communications moves towards a software-based infrastructure. As part of people-driven business success, Microsoft is looking to help people communicate and collaborate with their co-workers, partners and customers more effectively. This is especially true in a New World of Work. Microsoft software is built to help simplify collaboration in One World of Business, help ensure systems and people are Always On and Always Connected, and help streamline processes and create Transparent Organizations. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 solution enables an integrated user experience through communications convergence. Office Communication Server 2007 with its main client Office Communicator 2007 combines voice capabilities, multiparty video, audio and Web conferencing, presence status and control, enterprise instant messaging, and speech-enabled interactive voice response application development into one familiar experience within the applications, devices and networks already known and used.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Office Communication Server 2007 delivers the end-to-end software solution and tools to help the IT Administrator bring to life the work style for the New World of Work, providing employees with the necessary communications tools and access to the information and resources they need, while helping the organization build a strong foundation for the future .

Weyerhaeuser Company: “We can use instant messaging whether we’re buried in a pricing spreadsheet or working on a presentation. It’s a tremendous time saver to be able to keep our focus on a particular topic while sharing that information in real time.” BDM/IW - Tracey Reuck, Senior Infrastructure Consultant

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Office Communications Server 2007 Key Benefits:

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

SOFTWARE-POWERED VOIP FOUNDATION Organizations must adapt to the changing nature of business communications and technology to remain competitive. Unfortunately, managing new functionalities requires forklift upgrades, new tools, unfamiliar desktop software, and high resource costs. Office Communications Server 2007 delivers enhanced VoIP on a software-powered platform that works with the existing messaging and telephony infrastructure. Because of this, customers can realize both a faster deployment than other PBX implementations and the addition of new, innovative VoIP and Video/Web Conferencing Capabilities at a lower cost, while enjoying a fully integrated experience with other applications.

Build on Your Existing Telephony Infrastructure Office Communications Server 2007 uses standards and published interfaces to interoperate and integrate with the existing telephony infrastructure -

Published and supported interfaces enable software-powered VoIP to be implemented alongside the existing PBX infrastructure Enables software-powered VoIP capabilities to communicate with users on PBX, PSTN, and mobile endpoints Call Management capabilities (forwarding, simultaneous ring, etc.) can be used with PBX/PSTN/mobile endpoints Remote call control (RCC or 3rd Party Call Control) enables users to access telephony capabilities from their desktop

Deliver VoIP, Conferencing, and IM Infrastructure on The Active Directory service Office Communications Server 2007 is built on The Active Directory service, leveraging a single directory for communications management -

Minimizes deployment and management costs by consolidating directory management Built on a common Microsoft Windows infrastructure to leverage the organization’s existing investments and skills Familiar user interfaces and administration promote faster user adoption and IT rollout of new capabilities Provides a foundation for the organization’s communication strategy that integrates with collaboration and productivity tool investments

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Implement an Extensible Infrastructure Office Communications Server 2007 provides an extensible infrastructure for integrating with business process and user needs of today and tomorrow -

Published and supported developer interfaces for extensibility and interoperability enable integration into existing applications and business processes Broad device support enabled by published protocols enabling customer choice, value and optimal end user experience Software driven innovation enables high value capabilities today and ensures greater innovation and flexibility for future extensibility

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

STREAMLINED COMMUNICATIONS

Managers today want flexibility to be productive at work, home, and while traveling. However, in order to achieve increased productivity, the individual worker must be able to access all of his/her communications in a familiar environment across a range of devices and on the Web. Office Communications Server 2007 integrates with business applications like Microsoft Outlook to provide streamlined communications experience, bringing email, instant messaging, conferencing, and voice communications together. Moreover, with OCS 2007’s integrated presence technology, a user can easily find the right person he/she wants to contact and communicate according to the availability and communication media preferred by the participants.

Find the Right People, Right Now With Office Communications Server 2007, users can find the right person, right now -

Allows for immediate, visual representation of Presence Presence status can be controlled directly by the user or automatically based on Outlook calendar, login status, or other sources of information Users can individualize access levels for different contacts Saves time and improves productivity by ensuring you can reach the right person, right now using the optimal method of communication

Click to Communicate within Office Outlook and the Applications You Use Most Office Communications Server 2007 helps improve users’ productivity by enabling streamlined communications from within the applications they use most -

-

Whether making a phone call right from Outlook or identifying the availability of a business document’s author, users can find who they need and communicate using the best method Context and content can be shared right from within the communications experience LOB applications can also be extended to access the streamlined, rich communications capabilities for your users

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Work Together in Real-Time in the Office and on the Road Office Communications Server 2007 improves users’ ability to communicate from multiple devices when needed. -

Allows for security enhanced VoIP, IM, and Conferencing on any network without requiring a secure tunnel (VPN connection) into the corporate network Provides access to rich presence and communications capabilities from various devices, whether your PC, a Windows Mobile device, or via a Web browser.

Deliver VoIP Capabilities That Users Actually Use Office Communications Server 2007 can deliver software-powered VoIP to the users today. -

Provides high quality VoIP right from within Microsoft Office applications so users can communicate with a single click from their PC Enables rich communications with other Communicator 2007 users by enhancing a phone call with IM, video and a subject and other information Call management capabilities such as call forwarding, hold, dynamic routing, and simultaneous ringing on all commonly used phones are easily configured by users

Deliver Advanced Web/Audio/Video Conferencing Office Communications Server 2007, users get rich Web based conferencing with integrated audio and video -

Provides a rich experience for ad-hoc collaboration and meetings Enables the real-time sharing of documents, applications, and media with integrated voice and audio Meetings easily scheduled from within Outlook and Communicator — right from an active conversation or a meeting request Enables external participant access Uses the same client as the Office Live Meeting Service for a consistent experience

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

OPERATIONAL CONTROL

IT pros face a proportionate increase in security and compliance requirements with the addition of new vehicles for communication. Both the implementation and ongoing management of these systems and policies add complexity and support costs. Office Communications Server 2007 allows for the implementation, management, and integration of enhanced VoIP, Web conferencing, and IM within a single solution, to provide IT professionals with the operational control they need to contain costs while delivering valuable communications services to the business. Enterprise Class Compliance and Security Office Communications Server 2007 helps simplify compliance with internal and regulatory controls by allowing you archive and manage all forms of communications -

Provides a platform for supporting retention policies and to adapt to rapidly changing communications policies and regulations AD-based user authentication HTTPS external access with complete media encryption for a more secure communications from all endpoints across managed and unmanaged networks Built in archiving for IM text Meeting content archival for Web conferences Call detail records stored for VoIP communications Ability to restrict user functions, link and document exchange, and external access according to corporate policy Built-in filtering and SPIM control

Professional Grade Reliability and Scale Office Communications Server 2007 allows the implementation of Enhanced VoIP, presence, IM, and Web/audio/video conferencing on a platform built for professional use -

Built on a platform with proven scale for enterprise communications on the PC Provides IT control over failover, redundancy, and scalability across your organization Adaptive audio and video codecs (RTAudio, RTVideo) enable quality of experience on LANs, WANs, and the Internet without requiring complete network overhauls

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Centralize Provisioning and Simplify Management Office Communications Server 2007 enables more efficient deployment of innovative communications technologies -

Built on the Active Directory service for a single user directory for all communications

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Enables provisioning of Presence, software-powered VoIP, Web conferencing, and IM from a single infrastructure

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Managed and monitored with familiar IT tools like MMC and MOM

-

Features can be added together or individual based on the needs and preferences of your users and organization

-

Communications can be federated with other organizations using Office Communications Server 2007 and public services

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

PARTNER ECOSYSTEM Creating a partner ecosystem for voice endpoints and network infrastructure is a key component of Microsoft’s goal to bring software economics to business communications. Microsoft has created a partner ecosystem that leverages SIP standards and published interfaces, which provides an open architecture that the world’s leading communications companies, including Nortel, LG-Nortel, Polycom, Alcatel, Mitel, NEC Philips, and Siemens can integrate and interoperate with. The strong ecosystem for IP phones, headsets, USB handsets, voice gateways and other PC peripherals creates the opportunity for thousands of companies worldwide to integrate VoIP into their existing infrastructure, and provides the flexibility to work with preferred products and vendors.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

FEATURES AT A GLANCE ENTERPRISE IM & CONTACT MANAGEMENT Feature Contact Card

Contact Grouping

Contact Search

Corporate Distribution List Integration Customized Contact Groups Drag and Drop

New / Improved New

Improved

-

New

Improved

Emoticons

-

File Transfer

-

Group IM

Ink IMs Integration with Web Conferencing

Improved

Improved

Description Users can easily view detailed information about their contacts, including a link to their SharePoint My Site, and immediately start conversations with them through any of the available communication options (e.g. IM, call, email). Users can group their contacts based on the contacts’ availability, the contacts’ presence level, whether the contact is “tagged,” or by group. Users can search for anyone in the global address list of an organization or their Outlook contacts, view the results, and continue typing to narrow the results while viewing the contacts’ presence. Users can search corporate distribution lists alongside individual contacts and can add them to contact lists, view and converse with list members. Users can create personal groups to better organize their contacts. Users can easily modify their contact lists, initiate conversations and add additional contacts to conversations, all using a comprehensive and intuitive drag-and-drop capability. Users can convey emotions in IM conversations using special, expressive characters. Users can send and receive files from within IM conversations. Users can initiate and hold IM conversations with up to 100 other people, including individuals, user-defined groups, and corporate distribution groups. Users can use a Tablet PC to send handwritten “ink” IMs. Users can escalate from an IM conversation to a web conference.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Missed IM Indicator Most Recently Used (MRU) Contacts Rich Content in Instant Messages

New New

New

Roaming Contact List

-

Typing Notification

-

Users are notified via an icon when they have missed IM conversations. Users can quickly view the 10 most recent contacts with which the user has held IM conversations in a separate, dynamic list. Users can choose the font, style, and color of their IMs and can paste formatted text and pictures from other applications into their IM conversations without losing the formatting (e.g. paste an Excel spreadsheet, bullets from a PowerPoint slide). As contact lists are stored on the server, a user can log onto different PCs and avoid the effort of recreating contact lists. Users can see when a contact in an IM conversation is currently typing a response.

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PRESENCE Feature

New / Improved

Automatic Presence States

Improved

Contact Tagging

Improved

Customized Presence States

New

Do Not Disturb

Improved

Description A user’s presence state is automatically updated to “In a Meeting” based on his personal calendar stored in Exchange. Users can also choose to expose additional details about each meeting to their contacts. A user’s OOF message is automatically updated based on his personal calendar stored in Exchange to contacts that view the user’s status additional details about each meeting to their contacts. Users can “tag” contacts to receive a notification whenever the tagged contact’s presence changes. Tagged contacts have a special “indicator” and when the resultant notification appears, the tag can be removed. Users can publish presence states that are custom defined, usually by administrators in an organization. Users can set a “Do Not Disturb” state that stops all notifications and incoming communications, except for those from designated users.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Federated Presence Indicator Rich Presence States

-

Improved

Location Display

New

Presence Levels

New

Presence Note

New

Users can easily see which of their contacts are from a “federated” relationship with another organization, or with a Public IM network. Users can publish states beyond the usual Online, Busy, Away, or Offline. They can select Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, and customize their notes to provide additional information. Users can publish details of their current physical location. Users can control what information about themselves is exposed to their contacts by setting “presence levels” (logical groupings of the user’s information) for each contact which range from sharing a lot of information about the user and their state to blocking contacts. Users can create a custom text note in addition to their presence to provide contacts with more details about their current activity and view the presence notes of other contacts.

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MULTI-PARTY ON PREMISE CONFERENCING Feature

New / Improved

Description

Page

Web Conferencing 1:1 Chat

New

Active Speaker Detection

New

Alternate Participation Location Annotation

New

Anonymous Participants

New

Application Sharing

New

Users can send and receive text messages to each other. Users can see the active speaker through an indicator; if a video stream is also present in the conference, they can see the active speaker. Users can choose an alternate location from which to join a call, e.g. home phone, mobile phone, SIP phone, or another number. Users can annotate slides and share the multimedia changes automatically. Conferences can be conducted with users who are inside or outside the firewall, across federated links or are anonymous. Users can share the display and control of an application with other users.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Audience Polling Audio Conferencing Provider Integration Client Side Recording

New New

New

Dynamic Content Sharing

New

Handouts

New

Invite Additional Participants Presenter Conference Controls Meeting Security

Multi-Party Audio/Video Conferencing in a Web Conference Questioning

Rich Conference Roster Microsoft RoundTable Integration

New New

New

New

New

New

New

Shared Notes

New

Snapshot

New

Presenters can poll the audience for responses to specific questions, and instantly share the results. The audio portion of a web conference can be conducted using the conferencing services of an audio conferencing provider and the bridge can be controlled from the meeting console. Using the Live Meeting client, users can create recordings of meetings as they take place, including audio and video that may have been part of the meeting. Users can share dynamic content such as a Windows Media file or a Flash resource with other attendees. Participants can share files in their native formats among meeting participants. Conference participants can easily invite additional users to an existing conference. Conference leaders can lock the conference, selectively mute or eject participants, or end the conference. Meeting organizers can restrict the attendance of web conferences based on Active Directory authentication. Users can hold 1:1 or multi-party IP audio and video conversations whilst in a web conference.

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Audience members can add questions to a queue, and the presenter can respond to them in an orderly manner. Users can see details about participants, such as active modes, leader status, and the active speaker. Users can create an immersive meeting experience with panoramic video and “active speaker detection” for meetings with remote participants by using the Microsoft RoundTable device in conjunction with the Live Meeting client. Attendees can share notes with other meeting participants. Users can share static images of their Desktops.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Static Content Sharing

Users can share such static content such as a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation during a web conference. Web Slide URLs can be shared with participants in the New meeting and viewed via a browser embedded in the console. Whiteboard Users can start a whiteboard session during a web New conference to share ideas or diagrams. Multiparty Audio/Video Conferencing (using Communicator client)

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Dial-Out

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Escalation to Web Conference Leader Conference Controls Rich Conference Roster Transition from 1:1 to MultiParty Conversation Single-Click Conferencing

New

New New New New

New

New

Users can be “dialed out” at any PSTN phone number to join a conference. Users can easily escalate from an IM/audio/video conversation or conference to a web conference. Conference leaders can selectively mute or eject participants, and lock or end the conference. Users can see details about participants including active modes, leader status, and who is the active speaker. Users can add participants to a 1:1 conversation (IM, Voice, Video), automatically transitioning from a peer-to-peer session to a server based conference without further configuration. Users can select a range or group of contacts and easily initiate an IM, audio, or video conference.

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

ENHANCED VOIP Feature

New / Improved

Call Authorization

New

Call Context

New

Call Deflect

Call Encryptions Call Forwarding

Call Hold Call Logs Call Sensitivity Control Call Transfer Call Waiting Click to Call

Conference Call

DTMF Digit Generation

Description

Page

Only allow authorized users to initiate certain calls (e.g. international calls).

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Voice calls can be given an importance or a subject that would be displayed to another Office Communicator user. Users can “deflect” (dynamically forward) incoming voice calls to another device such as a cellular phone or voicemail. Calls can be encrypted to help ensure privacy (SRTP).

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Users can forward calls using rules (e.g. all calls, if there’s no answer, based on presence, based on Outlook working hours). Users can put calls on hold and then retrieve them from hold.

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New

Maintain call logs for incoming, outgoing or recent calls.

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New

Users can control the sensitivity of calls, preventing others from being added to the call.

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New

Users can transfer calls either using single-step or consultative transfer.

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New

When on a call, users are notified of any waiting calls.

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Users can initiate calls directly from existing address lists or other applications where presence information is shown. Users can initiate multi-party calls or dial out from an existing call to include other contacts. These calls can be initiated on ad-hoc basis or can be scheduled using an Outlook add-in. Users can use a dial pad to generate DTMF digits whilst on a call (for example, to navigate touch tone interfaces).

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New

New

New

New

New

New

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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Inbound and Outbound Calling Multiple Call

New

New

Reverse Number Lookup

New

Simultaneous Ring (aka Call Forking)

New

Unified Messaging Integration

New

USB Device Integration for Voice Calls

New

Users can make and receive voice calls from their PC to another PC or to and from a regular PSTN telephone number. Whilst on one call, a user can initiate a second call and the first is automatically put on hold.

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When an incoming call is received from the PSTN, the number is compared with those in the corporate address list and the user’s Outlook contacts. If a match is found, the contact’s name is displayed. A call can simultaneously ring all registered endpoints plus an internal, external, or mobile phone number. Unified messaging capability from Exchange Server 2007 can be integrated.

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Communicator is designed to integrate with USB devices to provide a rich calling experience. This includes interacting with the state of hook-switches, advanced audio configuration options and displaying call information on devices with a display.

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OFFICE INTEGRATION Feature Conference Scheduling via Outlook Contextual Integrated Presence

Conversation History Stored in Outlook

Missed Conversations Search Folder in Exchange/Outlook OneNote Integration

Reply to Email with Real Time Communication

Reply to Email with Voice Call

New / Description Page Improved Users can create a meeting request in Outlook, 60 New and choose to make it an audio, video, web, or PSTN conference 61 Improved Throughout the 2007 Office System, information about users’ presence is displayed using icons consistent with those found in the Communicator client. Whenever these icons are displayed a drop down menu can be accessed which provide a variety of communications options including the ability to initiate an Instant Message or a Voice call. Users can save and view a history of all their 61 New conversations, through any communication method, in Outlook. If a user made notes in OneNote related to a particular conversation, a link to those notes is also stored in the conversation history. Users can see all their missed conversations from 61 New any communication method in Outlook New

New

New

Users can initiate OneNote during a phone call to make notes, and automatically populate the page with the names of the contacts in the call. Conversation histories stored in Outlook can link to OneNote pages. Users can easily initiate conversations with contacts from the Outlook 2007 ribbon and from within emails. If a conversation is initiated from an email, the subject of the email is automatically applied as the subject of the conversation Users can easily reply to email messages with a voice call (to a PC or to a phone) directly from Outlook.

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DEVELOPMENT, MANAGEMENT, AND ADMINISTRATION Feature Anywhere Access

Archiving

Automatic Server Location

New / Description Improved Protocols under the ICE framework and “edge” New server roles allow the deployment of Office Communications Server to enable users to access all forms of rich media no matter where they are (e.g. hotel, office) without having to establish a VPN connection. Archive IM conversations for regulatory compliance, legal discovery rules, and internal records -

Call Authorization

New

CDR

New

Client GPO Support

Improved

Client Version Check

New

Communicator Web Access

Improved

Customize Action Menu Customize Help Menu Administrative Delegation In-Band Provisioning

New

New

Improved

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Users’ home server can be automatically located with the sign-in name.

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Controls to restrict access to certain numbers, e.g. international calls.

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Call Detail Records (CDRs) provide a way to collect both IM and meeting data, and generate reports on usage characteristics.

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Configure OCS client using Group Policy Objects (GPO). Control and restrict which OCS client versions can connect to the server.

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Access the features of OCS remotely via an AJAX client on a web browser.

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Administrators can extend Action Menu to include custom actions such as launching a user-specific application.

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Administrators can define custom help links for users. Administrators can set permissions at various hierarchical levels inside the OCS administrative interface to allow for delegation of control.

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Distribute settings to OC clients centrally and synchronously.

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Intelligent IM Filtering

Specific content can be filtered from IM messages, such as blocking file transfers of certain extensions.

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Automatically route calls to the optimal gateway to avoid call tolls.

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Calls will take local dial plans into account, and integrate with PBX dial plans for calls routed through the PBX.

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Improved

Manage users, servers, and global settings easily using MMC.

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Improved

OCS-specific MOM pack for robust and central performance monitoring.

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Users can be logged into multiple devices simultaneously.

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The different roles of OCS can be deployed on multiple servers at the same time: if one server fails, another one can take over. This helps to eliminate single points of failure. When used with SQL Server to provide the back-end database, clustering can be used to ensure that in the event of a hardware or software failure, service to users is not interrupted. User settings are automatically migrated from the desktop to other endpoints.

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Via a range of different configuration options, Communications Server allows for more servers to be added to a deployment to meet the needs customers have for scale. Communicate more securely and share presence with users in other organizations and on public IM networks.

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Improved

Least Cost Routing

New

Local Dial Plans

New

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) MOM-Based Management (MOM Pack) Multiple Points of Presence

-

Redundancy and Failover

Improved

Roaming Configuration Options

Improved

Scalable Deployment Options

Improved

Secure Federated Communication

Improved

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COMMUNICATOR WEB ACCESS COMPARATIVE TABLE Feature

Communicator 2007

Communicator Web Access

Zero-Download

√

Browser based Ajax application Non-Windows Compatible Web AJAX API

√ √ √

Rich presence

√

√

IM

√

√

IM Conferencing

√

√

Federation

√

√

PIC

√

√

Call Forwarding Rules

√

√

Notification Alerts

√

√

√

√

Web UI Controls

√

√

Audio/Video Conferencing VoIP Soft-Phone

√

Windows-Based API

√

Toast Call Deflection

√

For more information on the web access interface of Office Communicator, please see page 69.

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MICROSOFT OFFICE COMMUNICATOR MOBILE 2007

Core capabilities of Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 Rich Presence Instant Messaging, multi-party IM Enterprise address book search Similar call handling control functionality to Office Communicator Optimized on-the-wire traffic for mobile environments Works with OCS 2007 with no infrastructure changes

EXTENSIBILITY AND APIS OFFICE COMMUNICATION SERVER

Feature Unified Communications Managed API

New / Description Improved Managed API for creating and deploying highly New scalable real time communications applications.

Page -

COMMUNICATOR WEB ACCESS

Feature Communicator Web Access AJAX Service CWA JavaScript Libraries

New / Improved Improved

Improved

Description An AJAX service on the Web Server that can be used to build cross platform Web clients or Communicator functionality into web based applications. Libraries that allow developers to integrate Communicator Web Access functionality into their Web apps

Page -

-

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OFFICE COMMUNICATOR

Feature ActiveX Controls in Tabs Tabs for Call Data

Customize Help Content Customize Presence Tabs in Conversation Windows Extensible Actions Menu Automation API

New / Description Improved Tabs can be extended with ActiveX controls New New

Improved New New

New

New

Tabs can be extended to include data and information related to the current call (e.g. for billing applications). Surfacing custom help menu on OC UI (restricted to intranet of secure zone URLs) APIs to define, set and access granular presence states with admin level control Extensible conversation window, which can host applications as well as controls whereby the URL to host is sent in a SIP INFO message Allows to plugging in LOB applications menu items that can be invoked depending on the context of the task on which the employee is collaborating. Allows other Windows applications access to all capabilities of Communicator from within those other applications. An employee does not need to leave the application to invoke Communicator functionality.

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REVIEWING OFFICE COMMUNICATION SERVER 2007 AND OFFICE COMMUNICATOR 2007 ENHANCED ENTERPRISE IM & CONTACT MANAGEMENT CONTACT CARD In Office Communicator 2007, the contact card replaces the Communicator 2005 details pane. The contact card provides important information about a contact and acts as a launch point for key tasks, such as sending an email message to the contact or viewing the person’s SharePoint mysite. A person’s contact card provides details about the contact’s availability and activity. Depending on the access level that a contact has granted a particular user, he/she can see details of the contact’s schedule as well as any personal note the contact has written. The contact card also provides a launch point for connecting with another contact, including the ability to start an instant messaging session, call the contact, schedule a meeting, email the contact, or share a SharePoint link. CONTACT GROUPING Users can choose to group their contacts in a variety of ways. This includes having them organized into groups (user-defined or from the corporate directory) or by the contacts’ availability, presence level or whether or not they are “tagged.” CONTACT SEARCH Communicator provides a search text box that you can use to locate contacts or distribution lists searching a variety of fields in the directory. Communicator searches Active Directory and Outlook contacts if Outlook is configured as the personal information manager for Communicator. It searches the Windows Address Book if the Address Book is configured as the personal information manager. While searching, the user can view the effects and continue typing to narrow the results, speeding up the process. Once a contact or group is found in the search, the user can view the presence and choose to add the contact or group to their own contact list, or start a conversation with the group or individual contact. 35

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CORPORATE DISTRIBUTION LIST INTEGRATION The feature allows the users to search for corporate distribution lists along with individual contacts and then add them to their contact lists, view their members, and start conversations with one or more of their members. Corporate Distribution integration provides: Integration with company distribution lists (Exchange DG in the corporate directory) Elimination of the need to create groups manually to mirror DGs The ability to either add the group to the contact list or use it in real-time to start communications.

CUSTOMIZED CONTACT GROUPS As well as being able to use corporate distribution lists inside Office Communicator, users can continue to create their own personal groupings of contacts. This might be for ad-hoc groups of people across an organization, or perhaps for federated contacts from other organizations or public IM providers.

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DRAG AND DROP Drag and Drop capabilities are provided through a number of different Office Communicator scenarios. Drag and Drop can be used to manage contact lists, initiate conversations and add people to conferences, for instance, when users want to go from a 1:1 IM, Voice or Video conversation to a multiparty conference. The user only has to drag the additional participants into the conversation window, and a multi-party session is automatically initiated.

EMOTICONS In Office Communicator 2007 users can use smiley, frowning faces and other expressive images to represent an emotion. These symbols are called “emoticons,” and can be inserted to add a more personal touch to the instant message and convey more emotion than text alone

FILE TRANSFER Within an IM conversation, users can transfer documents by simply right-clicking on the contact’s username and selecting “Send a File.” The recipient can accept the transfer to save the file locally, and either user can cancel the file transfer at any time.

GROUP IM In the latest version of Office Communications Server 2007, the users can initiate and hold IM conversations with up to 100 other people, including individuals, user-defined groups, and corporate distribution groups.

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This allows users to easily start a conversation with multiple people or to add people to an existing conversation. With the new Distribution List integration feature, users can add Microsoft Exchange Server distribution lists as contacts. Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 client allows expansion of distribution lists through a Web service exposed on the server. This expansion allows users to invite one or more individual members of the group to an IM session. Although groups of up to 1000 members can be expanded, IM sessions can include no more than 100 members.

INK IMS Tablet PC users can use “ink” for Instant Messages, without having to change to a different input method for this type of communication.

INTEGRATION WITH WEB CONFERENCING When in a conversation, users can “escalate” to a web conference (hosted either by the web conferencing capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 or by the Office Live Meeting service) at the click of a button. All participants in the conversation can then be automatically added to the web conference, where they can take advantage of web conferencing capabilities to continue their communication.

MISSED IM INDICATOR If users receive an IM when they are not at their PC, they are notified of this by an icon in Office Communicator, and if configured, by a copy of the missed IM in their Outlook mailbox.

MOST RECENTLY USED (MRU) CONTACTS The Office Communicator contact list has a special group called “recent contacts,” which is dynamically constructed out of the last ten users with whom the user has had a conversation.

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RICH CONTENT IN INSTANT MESSAGES Users can choose the font, style, and color of their IMs and paste formatted text and pictures from other applications into their IM conversations without losing the formatting (e.g. paste an Excel spreadsheet, bullets from a PowerPoint slide). In addition, users can specify font type and font characteristics, such as bold, underline, italics, and color. Users can also insert emoticons, or information copied from other Microsoft Office applications. Material copied from applications such as Word and Excel retains formatting, making it easier to share information.

ROAMING CONTACT LIST When a user connects using Office Communicator, using any PC, their contact list will automatically “roam” around with them, avoiding the user needing to recreate the contact list.

TYPING NOTIFICATION Users can see when a contact in an IM conversation is currently typing an IM, lending a more natural flow to the interaction.

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PRESENCE AUTOMATIC PRESENCE STATES Office Communicator 2007 automatically updates the presence state of a user to accurately reflect what that user is doing. This is done by aggregating information from various sources which include the user’s calendar, their Out of Office “OOF” message, and status of their PBX phone (if integrated) or whether or not they are involved in a voice or video conversation. These states are fairly granular, making distinctions between, for instance, whether a user has just blocked off time in their calendar to work on something (shown as “Busy”), or whether the calendar entry is a meeting with invited attendees (shown as “In a Meeting”). This approach is also applied to voice conversations, differentiating between a 1:1 conversation (“In a Call”) and a conversation with more than two people (“In a Conference”). Additional information about the details of a meeting can be revealed to contacts assigned to the appropriate “presence level” (specifically “Team” for this case). The detail and amount of presence information displayed are dependent on the access level setting of each contact. When a user adds a new contact to the contact list, an alert appears on the new contact’s desktop. The person being added can then set the level of presence information he/she would like to make available to other users, and can also add the person to their own contact list.

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CONTACT TAGGING “Tagging” allows the users to “tag” contacts so they will receive a notification whenever the tagged contact becomes available or signs out. Contacts that a user has tagged have an icon displayed next to them in the contact list. When the resultant alert appears, this shows details about the contact including the contact’s name and title and presence status. By clicking on the alert, the user can start communicating with the person and edit the tag. This feature provides easy communications management, enabling the user to receive instant notifications on status changes instead of requiring the user to repeatedly monitor the status his/herself. It is also possible to tag inside other Office applications wherever the user’s presence is shown, without having to go into Communicator 2007.

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CUSTOMIZED PRESENCE STATES Administrators can now define customized presence states in Communicator 2007which are specific to their organization, such as “In a Client Consultation” or “In Court.” This allows users to provide more relevant information about their state to others.

DO NOT DISTURB Users can set a “Do Not Disturb” state that stops all notifications and incoming communications except for those from users assigned to the “Team” presence level. This presence state allows the user to communicate that they are in their least interruptible state and will actually block messages from being received from all contacts except those assigned to the “team” presence state.

FEDERATED PRESENCE INDICATOR Office Communications Server 2007 provides support for working with contacts that are located outside your enterprise. This connection between organizations is called “federation.” Federated contacts can be any of the following: Individuals within one organization that has a federated relationship with another enterprise. Individuals connected to a public instant messaging service (e.g. AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo). In all these cases, an indicator shows that the contact is form a “federated” relationship with another organization, or with a Public IM network.

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RICH PRESENCE STATES With Flexible Presence States the enterprise users can publish states beyond the usual “Online,” “Busy,” “Away,” or “Offline.” They can select “Do Not Disturb,” “Be Right Back,” and customize their notes to provide additional information. Presence status is indicated graphically by an indicator to the left and a text string to the right of the contact’s name. Some presence states can be set either by the user or by Office Communicator; other presence states can only be set by Office Communicator (such as indicating that a user is in a voice conversation). This release of Office Communicator also introduces the concept of releasing information about a contact’s ability to communicate; thus if a contact is in a meeting but not interacting with their PC, that will be indicated via the presence indicator. Further details on these states are displayed below. Table 1 describes each presence indicator and the accompanying status text.

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Table 1 Presence states set by the user or by Communicator Icon

Status Text Available

Busy In a Call In a Conference In a Meeting

Description The contact is online and can participate in conversations. Can be set manually by the user. The contact is available but engaged in another activity. Activities include: In a Call The contact is in a phone, voice, or video conversation. In a Conference The contact is in a multiparty conversation using phone, voice, video, or application sharing. In a Meeting The Office Outlook calendar shows that the contact has a scheduled meeting. This presence level can also be set manually by the user.

Do Not Disturb

The contact is available but does not want to be interrupted. This status is displayed for the following reasons: The contact has manually set his or her presence status to Do Not Disturb. The contact is displaying a Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentation or is running another program in full-screen mode.

Away

The contact is probably not available. This status is displayed for the following reasons: The contact’s computer has been idle for more than the idle time period setting— 15 minutes by default. The contact’s Office Outlook calendar or Out of Office Assistant indicates that he or she is out of the office. The contact is temporarily unavailable. As soon as activity is detected on the contact’s computer, Communicator 2007 automatically resets the presence status to the appropriate state. The contact has manually set his or her presence status to Away.

Inactive

This contact may be available, but their computer has been idle for more than the idle time period setting — five minutes by default. Status set by Communicator.

Inactive

This contact is engaged in another activity, but their computer has been inactive for the idle time period setting — 15 minutes by default. Status set by Communicator.

Offline

The contact is not available. This status is displayed for the following reasons: The contact has manually set his or her presence status to Appear Offline. Communicator 2007 is not running on the contact’s computer, or the contact has not signed in. The contact has blocked you from seeing his or her presence status.

Presence unknown

Communicator 2007 cannot determine the status of the contact. This status is usually displayed because the contact’s presence status is stored in another computer system, such as that of an organization that is not a federated partner.

Offline

This indicator is displayed in your contact list next to the name you have blocked. To the person you have blocked, you appear to be offline.

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LOCATION DISPLAY Users can now set a location (such as “Office,” “Home” or a custom defined location) to inform other contacts of their location. This information is only shared with contacts with the appropriate “presence level.”

PRESENCE LEVELS Office Communicator exposes the concept of “presence levels” to users. This allows a user to control how much information about their current state another user can see, whether by blocking contacts or exposing detailed information. The screenshot shown here describes these different levels. Each presence level is by design associated with a particular amount of informatio n about a user. Contacts assigned to one level might see only the user’s name, job title, company, and email address, while contacts assigned to another might see the user’s home and mobile phone numbers. Users control this by assigning people on their contact list to one of the different levels. The assigned level can be changed at any time. When a user adds a contact to their contact list, this contact receives a prompt (shown in the screenshot) allowing them to choose that presence level at that time. 45

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

PRESENCE NOTE A user can create a custom text note to provide contacts with more details about their current activity and view the presence notes of other contacts. The user simply has to click under his/her name and type a note that other users can see by hovering over the user’s name in their contact list. The user can remove the note by simply deleting the message.

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MULTI-PARTY ON PREMISE CONFERENCING WEB CONFERENCING 1:1 CHAT When participating in a Web Conference, users have the ability to have a 1:1 chat with any other individual who is in the meeting — allowing them to clarify information or ask a relevant question without disturbing the flow of the meeting.

ACTIVE SPEAKER DETECTION When video is integrated into a web conferencing session, users will see an image of the person who is actively speaking displayed in the video window. The A/V “MCU” detects who is speaking and then sends the appropriate video stream to all participants with video enabled.

ALTERNATE PARTICIPATION LOCATION When participating in the audio portion of a web conference, users can choose an alternate location from which to join a call, i.e. home phone, mobile phone, or another phone number.

AUDIO CONFERENCING PROVIDER INTEGRATION The audio portion of a web conference can be conducted using the conferencing services of an audio conferencing provider. This audio bridge can then be controlled from the meeting console allowing the leader to mute or eject people.

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ANONYMOUS PARTICIPANTS Web conferences can include authenticated participants from inside an organization as well as with anonymous participants joining the conference from outside. Those users will still require authentication.

ANNOTATION The Annotation tools provide an effective way for web conferencing participants to communicate with each other about the meeting content in real-time. Multiple presenters are assigned different annotation colors in order to differentiate each other. Authorized meeting participants can use annotation tools on shared documents or draw on a shared whiteboard with sophisticated drawing tools such as laser pointer, highlighter, lines and shapes. Additional new tools include flowchart shapes, cutting and pasting of annotations, tracking history of edits, new fonts and colors.

APPLICATION SHARING This feature allows the presenter to broadcast any visuals, applications, web pages, documents, software, or part of their desktop to remote participants in real-time. Application sharing allows audience members to follow along with mouse movements and keyboard inputs. In addition, this feature lets users show anything on their computer instantly to remote audiences. Presenters can choose to share their whole screen or only a portion to keep the audience focused on key information. By sharing their desktop, presenters are able to engage with their audience in interactive product or software demos from any location. The Application sharing and the Sidebar allow a presenter to share control of software on their desktop without losing sight of participant feedback or text questions. Meeting participants can request control, and presenters can quickly grant control to any participant. Presenters can customize the color depth and screen resolution to better engage with participants with varying degrees of desktop capabilities.

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AUDIENCE POLLING Presenters can display a poll to the attendees in a web conference, see the results of that poll in real-time and share those results with the attendees. Polls allow presenters to receive instant feedback from their audience in real-time. Polls can be created in advance using Microsoft PowerPoint or during the meeting by clicking the poll button. The poll will be instantly displayed or hidden (based on the presenters’ preference) and audience votes are tallied dynamically. At the end of the session a polling report can show how specific individuals voted as well as aggregate totals.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULING VIA OUTLOOK As well as being able to initiate a web conference on an ad-hoc basis, users can also schedule a conference directly from Outlook using an add-in. When other users can join the conference by clicking the link inside the emailed conference invitation.

CLIENT SIDE RECORDING Using the Live Meeting client, users can create recordings of meetings as they take place. These recordings include all content shared inside the meeting, including audio and video streams.

DYNAMIC CONTENT SHARING Attendees of a web meeting can also share dynamic content, such as a Windows Media files or a Flash resources, with a very simple upload and play process.

HANDOUTS A meeting presenter can upload and share files between meeting participants. These files can then be easily viewed in their native format.

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INVITE ADDITIONAL PARTICIPANTS When a web conference is in progress, more attendees can easily be invited to join unless the leader has locked the conference.

PRESENTER CONFERENCE CONTROLS Conference leaders have a set of additional controls for the conference in progress. They can lock the conference, selectively mute or eject participants, or end the conference, thus removing all participants from the meeting.

MEETING SECURITY Meeting organizers can restrict the attendance of web conferences based on Active Directory authentication. All messaging and media are encrypted.

MULTI-PARTY AUDIO/VIDEO CONFERENCING IN A WEB CONFERENCE During a web conference, multi-party audio and video can be provided, using the Audio/Video MCU supplied with Office Communications Server or potentially an MCU from an independent software vendor (ISV). When using the Communications Server MCU, “Active Speaker Detection” ensures that all participants can hear each other speak: the MCU detects which participant is speaking and then sends an image of this participant to all others in the conference. Alternative layouts may be available if an alternate MCU is used.

QUESTIONING Audience members can add questions to a queue, and a presenter can respond to them in an orderly manner using the Question Manager. Presenter can answer the questions in private (just to the person who asks the question) or publicly (to everyone).

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RICH CONFERENCE ROSTER The conference roster provides information about who is participating in the conference, how each user is participating (connection method, audio/video capabilities), and identifies the leader and active speaker.

MICROSOFT ROUNDTABLE INTEGRATION Users can create an immersive meeting experience with 360° panoramic video for meetings with remote participants by using the Microsoft RoundTable device in conjunction with the Live Meeting client. When this device is used, remote participants see a rectangular panoramic video display showing all of the participants in the room where the Microsoft RoundTable device is located, and an enlarged view of the individual currently speaking. The participants in the room with the Microsoft RoundTable will see the image of the remote participant if they are the active speaker and have a webcam. If another Microsoft RoundTable device is part of the meeting, then the panoramic video from that room will also be displayed. These panoramic video displays will also be included in any recordings.

SHARED NOTES During a meeting, attendees have the ability to share notes with other participants, notes which can be used to make meeting notes or to record action items.

SNAPSHOT If a presenter wanted to share a particular part of an application on their PC, they can take a snapshot of the area and display this to all other meeting participants.

STATIC CONTENT SHARING When in a meeting, users can share static content such as a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation. If a PowerPoint presentation is being shared, full support is provided for any animations included in the presentation. 51

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WHITEBOARDING Users can start a whiteboard session during a web conference to share ideas or diagrams. Changes to the whiteboard are automatically displayed and the contributor identified. A whiteboard is a blank page that allows presenters to draw, add text, and highlight information by using the annotation tools. For example, organizers can quickly create a flow chart to illustrate a point, insert a whiteboard and then use the annotation tools to draw squares, lines, and a host of other figures. The slide can be saved for future reference. In addition, new enhancements will add the ability to cut and paste, modify line or object attributes, employ right-click menus, customize with advanced text tools, use smarter selection model and grouping, and will allow the use of flow chart tools.

WEB SLIDES The URL for a website can be shared with participants in the meeting which they can view via a browser embedded in the console. Web slides lets presenters take their audience to any live Web site on the Internet to give tours, point attendees toward surveys or online information. Each attendee can independently click on links, fill out forms, or use interactive media. Organizers can preview and add web slides to presentations quickly and easily, just by entering the address of the Web site (URL).

MULTI-PARTY AUDIO/VIDEO CONFERENCING This section refers to features available when conducting an audio or video conference from the Office Communicator client.

DIAL OUT If a user wants to join an audio conference using a telephone rather than their PC, they can choose to be reached at a convenient number using the “dial out” capability.

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SINGLE-CLICK CONFERENCING Users can select a range of contacts, or a group from their contact list or another Office application. audio conference with those users which could easily have video included too. TRANSITION FORM 1:1 TO MULTI-PARTY CONVERSATION Users enjoy seamless transition from 1:1 conversation to multi-party conversation. When users are in a 1:1 conversation (IM, voice, video) and add one or more additional participants, the conversation is automatically transitioned from a peer-to-peer session to a server-based conference. This is done seamlessly from the perspective of the user, leaving them with a consistent experience.

RICH CONFERENCE ROSTER Users can see details about participants in a conference, including which communications methods they are using, who the leader is and an indication of who is the active speaker.

LEADER CONFERENCE CONTROLS Conference leaders can lock the conference, selectively mute or eject participants.

ESCALATION TO WEB CONFERENCE Users can easily escalate from an IM/audio/video conversation or conference to a web conference. This will initiate a web conference in the Live Meeting client and add all participants to the meeting.

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ENHANCED VOIP CALL AUTHORIZATION Administrators have flexible control over who is authorized to make telephone calls so they can allow certain users to initiate certain calls (e.g. international calls).

CALL CONTEXT As with other conversations conducted with Office Communicator, voice calls can be marked as high priority or marked with a subject that would be displayed to another Office Communicator user when receiving the call.

CALL DEFLECT Users can “deflect” (dynamically forward) incoming voice calls to another device such as a cellular phone, their home phone or their Exchange Unified Messaging inbox.

CALL ENCRYPTIONS By default, voice calls are encrypted to help ensure privacy (using the SRTP protocol).

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CALL FORWARDING Users are provided with a rich set of call handling options to determine how incoming calls are routed. Users can choose to forward all calls or to forward calls if there is no answer. If a user’s state is set to “Do Not Disturb,” then all calls are forwarded to the user’s Exchange Unified Messaging inbox. Users can also configure simultaneous ringing, so an incoming call will “ring” at all Communicator endpoints as well as calling a PSTN phone (i.e. mobile phone, home telephone). These rich rules for inbound routing can also be configured to integrate with the user’s working hours as configured in Exchange Server.

CALL HOLD Calls can be put on hold and then retrieved from the holding state.

CALL LOGS If enabled, a log is kept in the “conversation history” folder in Outlook of all the incoming and outgoing calls that users have made. If OneNote was used to make notes during the call, the user can switch to the OneNote notes with the click of a button.

CALL SENSITIVITY CONTROL A call can be marked as “private,” meaning that no one else can be added to the call and the call will can not be forwarded on.

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CALL TRANSFER Calls can be transferred from one user to another in two ways: Single-step, when a user chooses who to transfer the call to and then the call is transferred to that user without further dialog; or Consultative, where a user first speaks to the person they wish to make the transfer to and then clicks a button to complete the transfer. Users also have the ability to transfer the call to such devices as a mobile or home phone.

CALL WAITING When on a call, users are notified of another call that may be waiting. If the user answers the waiting call, the current call is put on hold and the user can then switch between them or decide to end one connection.

CLICK TO CALL Calls can be initiated directly from the contact list in Communicator, or in other applications where presence information is shown. The Ribbon in Outlook 2007 has a “Call” option within it so an email can be replied to with a telephone call. If any web pages or other documents have a “tel:” notation within them, users can click on these links and automatically initiate a call.

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CONFERENCE CALL Multi-party calls can be conducted using Office Communicator. These can have a combination of users who are using their PCs or traditional calls too. Users who are not using PCs or wish to join the conference from a regular phone can easily be dialed out by Office Communicator and Office Communications Server. Conference calls can be conducted on an ad-hoc basis or they can be scheduled from Outlook via an add-in. If starting a conference from Communicator, a user can click on the group they want to start the conference with and then start the conference with a single click.

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DTMF DIGIT GENERATION Users can use a dial pad to generate DTMF digits whilst on a call (e.g. to navigate touch tone driven interfaces).

INBOUND AND OUTBOUND CALLING As well as the other features described in this section, Office Communicator can be used to make and receive phone calls to and from any phone connected to the PSTN network (assuming appropriate infrastructure is in place inside the organization to connect Office Communications Server to the PSTN network) as well as conducting voice conversations with other PCs.

MULTIPLE CALL Whilst on one call, a user can initiate a second call and the first is automatically put on hold. This would be useful if a user needed to consult with someone and maintain confidentiality.

REVERSE NUMBER LOOKUP When an incoming call is received from the PSTN, the number is compared with those in the corporate address list and the user’s Outlook contacts. If a match is found, the contact’s name is displayed so a user can see whom they might be talking to. If the contact is connected to Communications Server (either inside the organization or as a federated contact) then the user can decide to accept or decline the call and reply with an Instant Message or to divert the call to another number or their Exchange Unified Messaging mailbox.

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SIMULTANEOUS RING (AKA CALL FORKING) When a call comes in to a user who is enabled for Enhanced VoIP with Office Communicator, all of their Communicator endpoints will “ring.” In addition to this, the user can also have one additional PSTN device configured to ring at the same time. This means that if the user had walked away from their desk, they could take their mobile phone and still be able to take the call.

UNIFIED MESSAGING Office Communicator and Office Communications Server integrate with Exchange Server 2007’s unified messaging capability. This provides a number of benefits to the user, including the ability to see if they have new voicemails, either from the main Office Communicator window or by looking at the icon in the “notification area” at the bottom of the screen. Communicator also has the ability to divert calls to Exchange Unified Messaging, either dynamically or on a static basis, as well as allowing users to connect to the Unified Messaging service to change their greeting or access other voice functionality.

USB DEVICE INTEGRATION FOR VOICE CALLS Communicator is designed to integrate with a variety of USB devices to provide a rich calling experience. This includes interacting with the state of hook-switches, advanced audio configuration options ensuring that when multiple audio devices are connected, a user still gets a great experience and audio is outputted from the expected device. For devices with displays, Communicator will also display call information.

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OFFICE INTEGRATION CONFERENCE SCHEDULING VIA OUTLOOK Via a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, users can schedule a conference call or web conference straight from a toolbar. A meeting request is then created and at the time of the meeting, all users need to do is to click the link inside the meeting request.

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CONVERSATION HISTORY STORED IN OUTLOOK Office Communicator 2007 can be configured to store conversation history in an Outlook folder. This folder contains a record of instant messaging sessions, phone calls, and forwarded calls. If OneNote was used to take notes during the phone call then users can easily access those notes straight from the log entry. Each item in the Conversation History folder contains the following information: Time and date of message Conversation subject Conversation body Participant names

CONTEXTUAL INTEGRATED PRESENCE Throughout the 2007 Office System, information about users’ presence is displayed, using icons consistent with those found in the Communicator client. Whenever these icons are displayed, a drop-down menu can be accessed which provides a variety of communications options, including the ability to initiate an Instant Message or a Voice call.

MISSED CONVERSATIONS SEARCH FOLDER IN EXCHANGE/ OUTLOOK If a user is not at their PC when someone initiates a conversation with them, a “missed conversation” notification will be generated. This will appear in their Exchange Inbox and will also be highlighted via an icon in the Office Communicator interface.

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ONENOTE INTEGRATION During a voice call (or other form of conversation), users can initiate OneNote to make notes and automatically track conversation participants. A user can also store the conversation in Outlook and refer to the OneNote page. The OneNote pages themselves will be stored in the user’s OneNote notebook that will roam according to their OneNote configuration.

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REPLY TO EMAIL WITH REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION Users can easily initiate conversations with contacts from within a variety of Office applications. In an Outlook 2007 email message, there are options to reply (or reply all) to the mail with a voice call or IM. In other Office applications, anywhere there is a presence icon users can initiate an IM or voice conversation from the presence icon’s drop-down menu.

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DEVELOPMENT, MANAGEMENT, AND ADMINISTRATION ANYWHERE ACCESS Office Communications Server, Office Communication and the Live Meeting client all leverage protocols within the ICE framework and an architecture that includes “edge” server roles and media relay functionality. This allows users to truly experience “Anywhere Access” to all of the communications types offered by the solution, whether they are at work on a corporate network, at home, in a coffee shop or somewhere else connected to the Internet — all without requiring a VPN connection back to the corporate network.

ADMINISTRATIVE DELEGATION Administrators can set permissions at various hierarchical levels inside the OCS administrative interface to allow for delegation of control.

ARCHIVING For organizations that wish to save a permanent record of IM conversations, Office Communications Server has archiving functionality so that IM conversations can be saved in a SQL database to help meeting with compliance regulations, legal discovery rules, and internal record keeping requirements.

AUTOMATIC SERVER LOCATION Administrators can publish records in their DNS servers so that when users enter their sign-in name (i.e. [email protected]) the Office Communicator client can make DNS queries to automatically find the server it needs to connect to and sign the user in.

CALL AUTHORIZATION Controls to restrict access to certain numbers, such as only local calls.

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CDR 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. From this data they can then generate reports on usage characteristics to help them understand more about the usage of their systems and potentially help with certain compliance scenarios.

CLIENT GPO SUPPORT The Office Communicator client is supplied with an “.ADM” file so that the client can be configured by administrators using their existing Active Directory infrastructure in conjunction with Group Policy. This allows for many different configuration options, including controlling which communications methods are allowed and not allowed.

CLIENT VERSION CHECK Office Communications Server allows administrators to control which clients can sign in to the server. This would be useful during migrations to ensure all clients are upgraded, or if administrators wish to stop potential rogue clients from connecting to the server.

CUSTOMIZE ACTION MENU The Office Communication Action Menu can be extended to include actions such as launching an organizational-specific application. This could be leveraged so that users could “escalate” from a conversation in Communicator to a communications session in an LOB or organization specific application.

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CUSTOMIZE HELP MENU The help menu in Office Communicator can be customized so that end users are directed to help resources specific to their organization.

IN-BAND PROVISIONING Office Communications Server 2007 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.

INTELLIGENT IM FILTERING Specific content can be filtered from IM messages, such as blocking file transfers of certain extensions including meeting handouts for conferencing.

LEAST COST ROUTING If customers have multiple VoIP gateways deployed in their organization, Least Cost Routing can ensure that calls are terminated to the PSTN in the location that will allow for the cheapest termination cost. This could mean that the customer’s WAN network is used to transport the call across a large geographical area (perhaps internationally) and then the call is terminated in a location where an international PSTN call is not required.

LOCAL DIAL PLANS Office Communications Server has flexibility in the configuration of dial plans to ensure that when connected to the PSTN via a PBX, the right translation for telephone numbers will occur so that the PBX can route the call appropriately.

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MICROSOFT MANAGEMENT CONSOLE (MMC) All administration of Office Communications Server 2007 is carried out though an MMC snap-in, in common with other Microsoft products.

MOM-BASED MANAGEMENT (MOM PACK) Office Communications Server 2007 has a specific MOM pack to make operational monitoring of the server as easy as possible.

MULTIPLE POINTS OF PRESENCE If enabled by an administrator, users can be signed in to Office Communicator in more than one place at the same time. For a user, this could mean they are signed in to Office Communicator on their desktop, Office Communicator Mobile on their Windows Mobile device and the Office Communicator Phone experience in another location at the same time, meaning they can easily receive communications on the most appropriate device for them.

REDUNDANCY AND FAILOVER 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. Through a combination of network load balancing hardware and clustered SQL server databases Office Communications Server can be deployed in a way that provides high availability of the service to users.

ROAMING CONFIGURATION OPTIONS When users sign in to Office Communicator on a different physical machine, their personal settings roam with them, avoiding the need to customize configuration options.

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SCALABLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS 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.

SECURE FEDERATED COMMUNICATION 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. Communications between federated organizations are encrypted and identity verified using certificates. When communications are occurring between two organizations deploying Office Communications Server, these communications are encrypted end-to-end. When communications involve a public IM provider, the conversations are encrypted until they terminate at the public cloud and then potentially end-to-end if supported by the Public IM provider. MICROSOFT OFFICE COMMUNICATOR MOBILE 2007 Microsoft® Office Communicator Mobile 2007 extends the reach of Office Communications Server 2007 to information workers who use Windows Mobile based devices. Communicator Mobile is an enterprise messaging client for mobile devices that integrates IM (instant messaging), presence, and call handling control. A user can access Communicator Mobile anywhere a user can connect his/her mobile device to a wireless or network service provider. Communicator Mobile offers a similar look and feel to the desktop version of Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, and it ensures that access to capabilities that are provided by Office Communications Server 2007 continues when users are away from their desks. Communicator Mobile is available in four editions for Windows Mobile based devices, depending on which operating system the device is running: Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, Smartphone and PocketPC editions.

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COMMUNICATOR WEB ACCESS Communicator Web Access (CWA) is a web-based, zero-download, IM and Presence client for Microsoft’s Office Communications Server. This AJAX web-based client provides consistent behavior across different non-Microsoft browsers and matches the look and feel of the desktop version of Office Communicator. Communicator Web Access does not have 1:1 feature parity with the desktop version of Office Communicator, but is focused on ease of deployment and delivering a core feature set for users unable to use the desktop version of the software. Communicator Web Access key features: Zero-download required Access from any computer with internet connection, such as Internet cafes or airport kiosks Platform-independent Allows connectivity on locked-down workstations Centrally-managed IT organizations

COMMUNICATOR EXTENSIBILITY CONTEXTUAL TABS Tabs can be extended to show contextual information and data based on the identity of the current user, like in this sample, where the address information of the selected content is matched up against a local.live.com search.

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TABS IN CONVERSATION WINDOWS Conversation windows can be extended to include data and information that contain actionable items during a call, like here, where a call with a help desk shows the options relevant to support the Communicator user.

EXTENDING THE ACTIONS MENU The action menu can be extended to include other applications that are provisioned by the IT Administrator, in order to create easy access from within Communicator. In this sample the LiveMeeting menu has been added to the Communicator Actions Menu.

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INTEGRATING COMMUNICATOR IN THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS Through the Communicator Automation API, it is possible to make the Communicator functionality accessible from within a third party application. For instance, in this sample, rightclicking on a name in a bug management program exposes Communicator functionality. Note that all people are displayed with their current presence state.

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APPENDIX DEVICES / ECOSYSTEM The devices ecosystem provides a portfolio of devices that are optimized to work with the Office Communications Server solution and will ensure future developments of new, cuttingedge devices driven by market innovation, while maintaining the familiar interface and a plugand-play installation. The OCS 2007 devices portfolio already includes some people-centric devices that help increase the Information Worker productivity through Communications convergence. Such devices include: IP Phone: Tanjay Conferencing: Microsoft RoundTable Accessories for Communicator 2007 IP PHONES (TANJAY)

The IP Phone for Office Communications Server 2007 (Tanjay), is a device born out of the collaboration with LG-Nortel, and Polycom. Tanjay extends the Office Communicator 2007 people-centric interface across on to the IP Phone – providing single sign-on and the same contact list and familiar user interface. In addition Tanjay offers Intuitive operation o Name-based dialing (of contact lists and corporate directory) o Easily see and set presence/UX familiar to OC users o Large touch screen to easily enable UC scenarios o Context-based soft keys

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Easy set-up o User based setup (not MAC based) o Automatic network discovery and provisioning (NAT traversals) o Easy IT admin provision/move/updates /maintenance A great phone device o High-quality wideband audio and full duplex speakerphone o Provides added value to IW (access to calendar, rich vmail functionality) Consistent ID among UC devices

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MICROSOFT ROUNDTABLE Microsoft RoundTable is an audio-video conferencing device with a unique 360-degree camera. When combined with Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft RoundTable delivers an immersive conferencing experience that extends the meeting environment across multiple locations. Meeting participants on site and in remote locations gain a panoramic view of all people in the conference room as well as up-close views of individual participants as they take turns speaking. Microsoft RoundTable is all about transforming virtual meetings into richer, more immersive work sessions. Microsoft RoundTable has the ability to seamlessly follow the active speaker and provide a view of the speaker that is synchronized with the documents involved in the meeting. In addition, Microsoft RoundTable also has also a panoramic view to include all participants physically present. By enabling this view the remote user can see the whole meeting room, and get better insight into the dynamics of the meeting. Thus, Microsoft RoundTable revolutionizes the virtual meeting experience.

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Microsoft RoundTable allows users to: Fully Engage All Participants o 360-degree, panoramic video of everyone at the table o Video automatically tracks active speaker o Addition to video conferencing to Live Meeting and Office Communication Sever 2007 web conferencing o PSTN interface for basic speaker phone o USB interface for VoIP and Video (requires LM Console on PC) Make Collaboration Easy and Affordable o Deploy and use Microsoft RoundTable with little or no training o No additional video equipment required Transform Meetings into Corporate Assets o Adds video to Live Meeting and OCS web conference recordings o Recording video, audio and web content all synced o Recordings are VCR control enabled

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Fully Engage All Participants Microsoft RoundTable delivers a unique, immersive meeting experience, where co-workers, customers or partners in different locations can easily converse and share information as if they were in the same room. Meetings can become more spontaneous, collaborative and engaging, as Microsoft RoundTable provides: •

A 360-degree, panoramic video of everyone at the table, plus video that automatically tracks the flow of conversation

•

Smart audio technology that removes background noise and captures the emotional tenor of conversations

•

The ability to integrate with the data sharing functionality of Communications Server 2007 and the Live Meeting service

Make Collaboration Easy and Affordable An intuitive design and plug-and-play functionality make it easy to deploy and use Microsoft RoundTable with little or no training. To host a meeting using Microsoft RoundTable, users simply connect the device to a power source and a computer enabled with Communications Server 2007 or Live Meeting. Remote participants do not need any additional video equipment — just their computers and a network connection. For audio conferencing, Microsoft RoundTable works over a telephone line or through either Communications Server 2007 or the Live Meeting service, both of which support VoIP. Transform Meetings into Corporate Assets The recording capabilities of the Live Meeting client, together with Microsoft RoundTable, transform work sessions into reusable corporate assets. Microsoft RoundTable enhances recordings by providing the full context of the meeting during playback. For example, users not only see the content of the meeting, but also see and hear any corresponding discussion. They can fast forward or reverse the recording to quickly and easily review the most relevant meeting content. Take Advantage of an End-to-End Solution Microsoft RoundTable, Communications Server 2007, Live Meeting, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 are components of Microsoft’s unified communications solution, enabling collaboration across email, instant messaging, voice, data, video and conferencing — with enterprise-grade security and reliability.

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ACCESSORIES FOR COMMUNICATOR 2007

Microsoft Office Communicator peripheral devices take advantage of the intuitive interface, rich presence and voice calling features of Communicator 2007. •

Easy-to-Use Call Control: Users of the USB Handset and USB Earbud enjoy all of the voice and phone features that are available to them through Communicator 2007. When enabled using Communicator 2007, users can set call forwarding, initiate, transfer or deflect calls, put calls on hold, and set up multi-party conference calls with ease, right from the client on their desktop.

•

Dial by Name: Instead of searching for a phone number from a separate application or address book, with Communicator 2007 and Windows Active Directory, users can view their colleagues’ availability and quickly dial their phone number by simply clicking on their name.

•

Presence Enabled: When the USB devices are in use, your presence automatically changes to let other users know that you are on the phone.

•

Easy Set Up: With Communicator 2007 already installed, users only need to plug in the handset or the dongle supplied with the earbud to the USB port on their PC.

USB Handset The USB Handset plugs in directly to your PC and when used together with Communicator 2007, allows you to use your PC just like a presence-enabled IP phone. •

PC-Based Communication with Familiar Device: Users can get all the benefits of using their PC and Communicator 2007 for their voice communications through a familiar desktop phone. The USB Handset can also be used as a speakerphone for hands-free communication.

•

High Quality Audio: The USB Handset takes advantage of the wideband audio capabilities of Communicator 2007. Users experience high quality audio through the handset, built in speakerphone or optional headset. 77

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Bluetooth Earbud The Bluetooth Earbud and the USB adapter eliminate the need for a handset or speakers to make or receive calls on a PC. •

Great for Mobile Information Workers: The Earbud is ideal for use with users’ mobile devices. Being able to quickly switch between the PC to a mobile device with the same earbud provides mobile workers with a single audio device that can move when they do.

•

Easy Pairing with Bluetooth Devices: The Earbud can be paired with your PC or with your existing Bluetooth devices and it will remember its pairings. Rather than having to pair the Earbud with each device every time you need to switch, the Earbud pairing can be changed on the fly with a few presses of the multifunction button on the Earbud.

•

High Quality Audio: The Earbud takes advantage of the wideband audio capabilities of Communicator 2007.

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SPEECH SERVER (2007) New in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is the Speech Server role. Speech Server enables powerful automated self-service applications for enterprises, accessible from any telephone. Speech Server covers both inbound applications (where the customer asks for information, or does transactions via the telephone) and outbound applications (which provide notifications or do customer surveys). Speech Server is useful for contact center automated self-service telephony applications such as portal applications with call routing, and information and transactional services such as customer account and personal information access. Speech-enabled applications have been widely deployed across industries and include travel reservations, financial and stock applications, and speech-enabled access to CRM functionality via the telephone. Within the enterprise, customers can use speech-enabled Line-of-Business applications like sales and field-service automation, e-commerce, auto-attendants, help desk password reset applications, and speech-enabled network management, or myriad others. Telephone self-service applications provide enormous cost savings over staffing the same service with human beings, and Speech Server can deliver this. Speech Server combines Web technologies, speech-processing services, and VoIP based telephony capabilities into a single, integrated system, enabling companies to unify their Web and .NET applications with their telephony infrastructure. Companies can use Speech Server for DTMF (touchtone)-only applications, as well as for speech-enabled telephony applications, all while leveraging their existing IT and contact center technology infrastructure and assets. Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server comes with the state-of-the-art speech technology built-in, without any premium cost. Speech Server is complemented with a complete set of tools that is fully integrated into Visual Studio 2005 and dramatically reduces the complexity and cost of developing and deploying speech applications. Developers have the choice to develop applications in standards based Web languages like VoiceXML 2.x and SALT (Speech Application Language Tags), as well as in .NET, either in managed code or using the Windows Workflow Foundation. Speech Server is VoiceXML 2.0 certified and runs any Speech Server 2004R2 SALT application. When leveraging the Windows Workflow Foundation, developers are greatly aided by the Dialog Workflow Designer, which offers Visio-style graphical designer type of experience. The Workflow Designer can use any serial Workflow Activities included in the libraries Microsoft provides, or 79

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that are developed by third party developers or ISVs. In case the existing Workflow Activities do not meet the requirements, developers can switch to the code view in the Workflow Designer and enhance the Workflow with managed code in the .NET language of their choice. The code created can be wrapped into a new Custom Activity that can be reused from the toolbox by other developers. Given the Windows Workflow Foundation is widely used by products like Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Windows Vista etc., there is a strong and growing community of developers and ISVs developing Activities. See http://wf.netfx3.com/ for more information.

Integration of Speech Server with Office Communications Server 2007:

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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS OFFICE COMMUNICATOR 2007 REQUIREMENTS System Component

Minimum Requirements

Display Resolution

Required: Super VGA 800x600 Recommended: Super VGA 1024x768 or higher Note: Microsoft Windows Tablet PC portrait mode is supported.

Operating System

Windows Vista™ operating system Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4 (requires Windows Media® technologies player, version 9, and Microsoft Windows® Installer, version 3.0 or later) Data and Voice: 500-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor, Intel Pentium-compatible For video: 1 GHz or higher For Microsoft® Microsoft RoundTable™ communications and archival system: 1.8 GHz or higher 512 MB RAM 1.5 MB Video card with 64 MB RAM (video RAM or VRAM) and Microsoft DirectX® application programming interface

Computer/Processor

Memory Install Space Video Memory Telephony Video Bandwidth Requirements

Security Other Requirements

Microphone and speakers, headset with microphone, or equivalent device Video camera or Microsoft RoundTable device Required Recomme nded Data 56 kbps 56 kbps Voice 50 kbps 80 kbps Video 50 kbps 350 kbps Microsoft RoundTable 50 kbps 350 kbps Administrator privileges, or in Vista Standard User Mode, administrator credentials. Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 are required for Outlook integration options.

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STANDARD OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS SERVER 2007 REQUIREMENTS SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS Before you deploy Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition, you need to have the following:       

Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or R2 SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed automatically on the Standard Edition server if you do not already have it installed MSXML 6.0 Parser installed automatically on the Standard Edition Server if you do not already have it installed. Active Directory Domain Services in Microsoft Windows 2003 Native Mode in all domains where you plan to deploy Office Communications Server or host Office Communications Server users. Domain Name Service (DNS) Certificate Authority (CA) - Enterprise (recommended), stand-alone, or public CA. Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, including Active Server Pages (ASP) components, installed on any computer where you will install Standard Edition Server. If you plan to archive, install the Archiving service.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS To deploy Standard Edition Server, you will need to meet the following minimum hardware requirements:     

PC with dual processor 3.2 GHz or faster with Hyper Threading 2 x 36 GB available hard disk space 1 MB cache 2 GB RAM 1 GB network adapter

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ENTERPRISE OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS SERVER 2007 REQUIREMENTS SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS Before you deploy Office Communications Server Enterprise Edition, you need to have the following:   

  

  

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or R2 Microsoft Active Directory service in Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system Native Mode in all domains where you plan to deploy Office Communications Server or host Office Communications Server users Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 or SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 installed on the computer where you plan to deploy the Back-End Database Server for your pool and client tools for SQL Server on the front-end server computers; during installation, you can specify the instance name that your Office Communications Server deployment will use Domain Name Service (DNS) Certificate Authority (CA) - Enterprise (recommended), Standalone, or public CA. Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 installed on any computer(s) where you will install your Enterprise Edition front-end server and Web Components. Active Server Pages (ASP) components of IIS must also be installed on any computer(s) where you will install Web Components. IIS is not required on Web Conferencing Servers or A/V Conferencing Servers. If you plan to archive, install the Office Communications Server Archiving service. If you are deploying more than one Enterprise Edition Server, you will also need a load balancer. If you plan to use a hardware load balancer in DNAT (destination network address translation) mode, you will need a different IP subnet for each pool of Enterprise Edition servers

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HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS To deploy Enterprise Edition in a consolidated configuration, you will need to meet the following minimum hardware requirements for each server:     

Personal computer with a 3.2 GHz DP Xeon processor with Hyper Threading 2 x 18 GB hard disk (RAID 1) space with 15000 rpm SCSI 1 MB cache 4 GB of RAM Gb network card

To deploy Enterprise Edition in an expanded configuration, you will need to meet the following minimum hardware requirements for each front-end server, Back-End Database Server, Web Conferencing Server, and A/V Conferencing Server:     

Personal computer with a 3.2 GHz DP Xeon processor with Hyper Threading 2 x 18 GB hard disk space with 15000 rpm SCSI 1 MB cache 2 GB of RAM Gb network card

STANDARD VS ENTERPRISE EDITION Like Live Communications Server 2005, Office Communications Server 2007 is available in two editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. Standard Edition. Hosts all server components, as well as the database for storing user and conference information, on a single computer. Standard Edition provides full functionality for small businesses. Enterprise Edition. Separates server functionality from data storage to achieve higher capacity and availability. An Enterprise Edition Pool consists typically of two or more Front End Servers, which are fronted by a hardware load balancer and connected to a Back-End Database. (It is also possible to deploy a single Front End Server without a load balancer.) Optionally, certain conferencing components can be deployed on separate computers for higher capacity and availability. Enterprise Edition is appropriate for medium, large, and very large organizations.

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INDEX Active Speaker Detection, 25, 49, 52 Client Version Check, 31, 67 Administrative Delegation, 31, 66 Communicator Extensibility, 72 Alternate Participation Location, 25, 49 Communicator Web Access, 31, 33, 71 Annotation, 25, 50 Conference Call, 29, 59 Anonymous Participants, 25, 49 Conference Scheduling via Outlook, 30, 51, 62 Anywhere Access, 31, 66 Contact Card, 23, 36 Application Sharing, 25, 50 Contact Grouping, 23, 36 Archiving, 31, 66, 84, 85 Contact Search, 23 Audience Polling, 26, 50 Audio conferencing, 11, 26, 49, 78 Audio conferencing provider integration, 26, 49 Automatic Presence States, 24, 42 Automatic Server Location, 31, 66 Bluetooth Earbud, 80 Call Authorization, 28, 31, 56, 66 Call Context, 28, 56 Call Deflect, 28, 56 Call Encryptions, 28, 56 Call Forwarding, 28, 57 Call Hold, 28, 57

Contact Tagging, 24, 43 Contextual integrated presence, 30 Contextual Tabs, 72 Conversation History Stored in Outlook, 30, 63 Corporate Distribution List Integration, 23 Customize Action Menu, 31, 67 Customize Help Menu, 31, 68 Customized Presence States, 24, 44 Devices, 74 Dial-out, 27 Do Not Disturb, 24, 25, 44, 45, 46 Drag and Drop, 23

Call Logs, 28, 57 DTMF digit generation, 29, 60 Call Sensitivity Control, 28, 57 Dynamic Content Sharing, 26, 51 Call Transfer, 28, 58 Ecosystem, 74 Call Waiting, 28, 58 Emoticons, 23 CDR, 31, 67 Enterprise VoIP, 8, 9 Click to Call, 28, 58 Client GPO Support, 31, 67

Escalation to Web Conference, 27, 55 Extending the actions menu, 73

Client Side Recording, 26, 51 85

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Evaluation Guide

Extensibility, 34, 72

Multiple Points of Presence, 32, 69

Federated Presence Indicator, 25, 44

Office Integration, 30

File Transfer, 23

OneNote integration, 30, 64

Group IM, 23

Operational Control, 20

Handouts, 26, 51

Partner Ecosystem, 22

hardware requirements, 84, 86

Peripheral Devices, 79

In-Band Provisioning, 31, 68

Presence Levels, 25, 47

Inbound and outbound calling, 29, 60

Presence Note, 25, 48

Ink IMs, 23

Questioning, 26, 52

INSTANT MESSAGING, 12

Redundancy and Failover, 32, 69

Integrating Communicator in third party applications, 73

Reply to email with Real Time Communication, 30 Reply to Email with Real-time communication, 65

Integration with Web Conferencing, 23 Intelligent IM Filtering, 32, 68 Invite Additional Participants, 26, 51

Reply to email with Voice Call, 30 Reverse Number Lookup, 29, 60 Rich Conference Roster, 26, 27, 52, 55

Leader Conference Controls, 26, 27, 52, 55 Rich content in Instant Messages, 24, 41 Least Cost Routing, 32, 68 Rich Presence, 25, 44 Local Dial Plans, 32, 68 RingCam, 76 Location Display, 25, 47 Roaming Configuration Options, 32, 69 Meeting Security, 26, 52 Roaming Contact List, 24, 41 Microsoft Management Console (MMC), 32, 69 Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007, 34, 71

RoundTable, 53, 74, 78, 83 RoundTable Integration, 26, 53 Missed Conversations Search Folder in Exchange/ Outlook, 30, 63

Scalable deployment options, 32, 70

Missed IM Indicator, 24

Secure Federated Communication, 32, 70

MOM-based management (MOM Pack), 32, 69

Service Continuum, 11

Most Recently Used (MRU) Contacts, 24

Shared Notes, 26, 53

Multi-party Audio/Video conferencing in a web conference, 26, 52

Sidebar, 50

Multiple Call, 29, 60

Simultaneous Ring (aka Call Forking), 29, 61 Single-click Conferencing, 27, 55 86

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Snapshot, 27, 53

USB Device Integration for Voice Calls, 29, 61

Static Content sharing, 27, 53

USB Earbud, 79, 80

Streamlined Communications, 18

USB Handset, 79

Tabs in conversation windows, 72

videoconferencing, 4, 11

Tanjay, 74

Web Slide, 27

Typing Notification, 24, 41

White-Boarding, 27, 54

Unified Messaging integration, 29

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