Dustin's Tech Notes

Registration Now Open for UCVUG Kickoff Meeting

Dustin Hannifin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:25:00 GMT

Just in case you haven’t heard, registration for the first ever Unified Communications Virtual User group meeting is now open. This user group is focused on Microsoft Unified Communications products. All meetings will be held online using Microsoft Live Meeting and similar UC products. The kickoff meeting will be held on May 21st at 7PM Eastern. Registration is open to anyone interested in Microsoft UC. Full details can be found on the UCVUG website at: http://www.ucvug.org The meeting registration site can be found at: http://ucvuglaunch.eventbrite.com

Blogging

Dustin Hannifin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:20:00 GMT

I’ve been very quiet on my blog recently and it’s time to get things cranked back up. Look for some new original posts coming soon….

Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 Now Available

Dustin Hannifin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:57:00 GMT

The OCS 2007 R2 Management Pack (MP) for Operations Manager 2007 is now available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. The OCS 2007 R2 MP provides in-depth monitoring and alerting of your OCS 2007 R2 infrastructure. The MP also performs QoE monitoring to alert you when your users are experiencing poor voice quality.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

New Unified Communications Virtual User Group Launching

Dustin Hannifin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:23:00 GMT

A new virtual user group is in the works. The Unified Communications Virtual User Group will soon be hosting it’s first meeting. This user group was formed to provide education and collaboration for Microsoft Unified Communications (UC) products. Join us for some great presentations from UC experts. Membership is free so sign up today!! Stay tuned to the website at http://www.ucvug.org for details on our first meeting.

Book Review: Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications

Dustin Hannifin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:34:00 GMT

I just finished reading Joe Schurman’s new book titled “Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications”. I have to say this book is one of the best intro’s to Voice and Unified Communications (UC) I’ve ever read. This book does a great job at driving home Microsoft’s vision and strategy for UC in both small businesses and the enterprise. Being an Office Communications Server MVP, this book got me excited about UC all over again!! Joe gives you a crash course on the history of UC at Microsoft and even provides some details on how Microsoft envisions the future of UC. The book also provides a good analysis of how Microsoft UC stacks up against the competition. Finally Joe even helps you understand how to go out and sell Microsoft’s UC platform. I give this book two thumbs up. Whether you’re new to unified communications or a veteran, this is a must read.

Book Available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Voice-Unified-Communications-Schurman/dp/032157995X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237264118&sr=8-1

Microsoft MVP “I’m A PC” Video from MVP Summit 2009

Dustin Hannifin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:07:00 GMT

Just in case you don’t follow my twitter feed, I thought I would post the “I’m A PC” video from the Microsoft MVP Summit. If you look closely you can see me at :31. Yes I made the “I’m a PC” video.

MVP "I'm a PC" Video

Could Group Chat Replace Email Distribution Lists?

Dustin Hannifin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:07:00 GMT

Back in October I blogged about some of the exciting new uses of Group Chat. So here is an interesting concept. What if you could use Group Chat (found in Office Communications Server 2007 R2) as a communications hub to replace those thousands of distribution lists in your organization? Most email distribution lists (DL)s are created based upon topics or groups of users. There is nothing stopping you from creating those same topics and groups as chat topics within Group Chat. Remember that group chat conversations are not only in real-time, but persistent. This means even if all users leave the chat room those conversations remain and can even be searched by the person who next enters the room. That person can even reply to comments or questions that took place during the chat at his leisure. Just think about the reduction of Inbox pollution you would see without DL email messages. There are a few barriers that exist from making this a reality. First, group chat currently doesn’t have an offline capability. This means I have to be connected to participate in a chat. Many people today read and respond to DL email messages while offline or disconnected from the corporate network. Second, group chat is a fairly new idea for the enterprise. Users would need to adopt a new form DL communication and habit change is something that usually takes time especially when adopting a new technology. Lastly, a lot of people still live within Outlook. The thought of having to open a different application to respond to distribution list messages may not be something end users accept very easily. So even though we’re not there yet, I could definitely foresee Group Chat replacing DLs in the future giving our inboxes the right to breath again. What do you think? Are you doing this today? I would love to hear your comments here, via email, or twitter.

More Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Downloadable Documentation Released – Including Resource Kit

Dustin Hannifin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:43:00 GMT

More downloadable documentation has been released for Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2. This includes the anticipated R2 Resource Kit. I have added the documentation to the “Big List Of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Downloadable Documentation” post.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

Big List of Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Downloadable Documentation Links

Dustin Hannifin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:26:00 GMT

Here is my big list of Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Documentation Download Links. The following are OCS documents available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. I will update the list as more documents become available for download. (Updated on 4/14/2009)

Integrating Telephone with Office Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2

Communications Server 2007 R2 Documentation

Communications Server 2007 R2 Quick Reference for Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant

Quick Reference Card for Communicator Mobile for Java

Office Communicator Mobile for Java Testing and Troubleshooting Guide

Office Communicator Mobile for Java Getting Started Guide

Office Communicator for Java Frequently Asked Questions

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Dial-in Conferencing E-mail Templates

Microsoft Office Live Meeting Quick Reference for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Getting Started with Office Communicator Web Access 2007 R2

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Phone Edition User’s Guide

Proof of Concept for Unified Communications - Datasheet

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant Deployment Guide

Planning Tool for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit Tools

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Client Group Policy Documentation

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Release Notes

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Phone Edition User’s Guide

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Phone Edition Deployment Guide

Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 Getting Started Guide

Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 FAQ

Office Communicator Mobile Quick Reference Card

Office Communicator Attendant Quick Reference Card

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Deployment Guide

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant Deployment Guide

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Quick Reference Card for Contact Management, Presence, and IM

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Getting Started Guide

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Quick Reference Card for Phone and Video

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Testing and Troubleshooting Guide

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Quick Reference Card for Conferencing

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Quick Reference Card for Keyboard Shortcuts

Office Communicator Web Access 2007 R2 Quick Reference Card

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Quick Reference for Dial-in Conferencing

Getting Started with Microsoft Office Live Meeting Client for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Meeting Client for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Testing and Troubleshooting Guide

Office Live Meeting Quick Reference for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Deploying the Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 Client with Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat What’s New Guide

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Quick Reference Card

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Getting Started Guide

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Planning and Deployment Guide

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Client Group Policy Settings

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Testing and Troubleshooting Guide

Source: Microsoft Download Center

My Notes from the Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Virtual Launch Keynote

Dustin Hannifin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:09:00 GMT

I decided to post a few of my notes from the OCS 2007 R2 Virtual Launch Event Keynote. If you missed the keynote, here is a quick overview of the 50 minute presentation. Be aware this is a pretty rough outline.

Prior to the start of the keynote several videos were played showing real-life uses of Unified Communications. One of my favorites demonstrated how Microsoft UC products can help you better manage your work life balance/integration.

The keynote was opened by an energetic Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division. You can tell by his presentation, he truly believes in the product he’s selling. His opening remarks included:

Over half of the Fortune 500 have purchased OCS licenses
Elop also quoted a prediction Bill Gates had made several years ago that “Hardware communications solutions would be replaced by software”.

Next Eric Swift performed an awesome demo of the new features in OCS 2007 R2 including:

Ability to escalate conferences from a simple voice call, to IM chat, to full video conferencing.
Logon to web client without Active Directory Account (Can be used by nonemployees of your organization)
Single Click Desktop Sharing (even using the web client)
OCS comes with 14 languages out of box.

Stephen Elop Continued the keynote with a discussion with representatives from a a few organizations who have deployed OCS.

Microsoft has cut $90 million in travel costs by deploying OCS
Intel currently has around 4,000 OCS Enterprise Voice users and plans on raising that number to 10,000 in 2009.
Sprint is currently trading up 5 – 8 PBXs per week and using OCS VOIP as the telephony product of choice.

Next Elop announced that 10 new devices would be available in a few months from partners like polycom – I can’t wait to see these.

Next up was an interview with Mark Slaga from Dimension Data. Dimension data is a global consulting firm that has worked on 80 OCS/UC deployments and rolled out OCS to over 500,000 users. Mark discussed how they had performed integration with Tamberg video conferencing units.

Finally the keynote ended with a surprise visit from Gurdeep Singh Pall, Microsoft Vice President of the Unified Communications Group. Gurdeep and Stephen held a brief Q&A session to wrap things up.

I give the keynote and virtual launch event two thumbs up. I was able to watch the presentations and learn more about OCS all from the comfort of my desktop.