Microsoft have just released the feature list of the latest instalment of Office Communications Server 14 or the new 2010 OCS.

Microsoft Communications “14” now delivers complete presence, instant messaging, conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities through a single, easy-to-use interface that is consistent across PC, browser, and mobile device. Administrators benefit from a single, consistent management infrastructure, new capabilities to increase availability, and interoperability with existing systems.

Unified Experience

Get easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, and audio, video, and Web conferencing—all from the new Microsoft Communicator “14” client. Use one set of contacts across Microsoft Communicator “14” and Office applications. Communicate with context from within the applications you use most, including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint. Deliver access to presence, instant messaging, and other capabilities for workers on the go via PCs, browsers, and mobile phones.

Connect and Collaborate

Find the right people, make connections, and communicate more effectively with new rich presence features including pictures and location. Leverage internal expertise more effectively with Microsoft SharePoint-based Skill Search.

Simple, Essential, Reliable Conferencing

Collaborate more effectively with built-in desktop and application sharing, PowerPoint upload, and rich white boarding, including the ability to copy and paste images and other content. Schedule and join meetings with a single click in Microsoft Outlook or the meeting reminder. Place attendees in a virtual lobby for greater security and control over who can attend.

Complete Enterprise Voice Features

A wide range of IP and USB devices, and the ability to work in the office, at home, or on the road. Architect your deployment for high availability using data center resiliency and survivable branch appliances. Manage bandwidth utilization and increase Quality of Experience with Call Admission Control, QoS markings, and an adaptive media stack that works well even on unmanaged networks like the Internet. Meet North American regulatory requirements with flexible Enhanced 9-1-1 capability.

Powerful Deployment and Management Tools

Work with a PowerShell-based foundation for administration consistent with Exchange Server, Active Directory, and other Microsoft server products. Get consolidated management tasks in one location with dramatically improved navigation through the new Silverlight-based, scenario -driven unified graphical management tool. Improve security and administrative productivity with Role-based Access Control (RBAC) with built-in and customer-defined roles. Get support for server virtualization across all roles.

Extensibility

Easily embed Communicator UI elements in your applications, build your own client experience in .NET with open and documented APIs, and enhance contextual collaboration by launching applications right from Communicator. Get platform support for sophisticated contact center and help desk scenarios, enable access to all UC-enabled services from any phone, and deliver state-of-the-art speech technology in 26 languages. Significantly simplify deployment, operations, and interoperability with added features that improve provisioning, load-balancing, fail-over, and draining.

We have put together the frequently asked questions we are asked when talking about Unified Communications.

This month sees the launch of our campaign, “Technology for Good”.

Our Technology for Good program was set up to focus on the Charity and Not for Profit Sector, with the aim of donations in kind by way of the services that we offer as a business. 

The aim of the project is to offer a level of free services (including telecom’s calls, lines, and equipment) to a particular selection of Charities, thus allowing the money saved from these services to be used in other areas for which the Charity is focused; the most common method in which the project is used is by an initial review of the telecoms and IT services currently used with the Charity. This information is then used to ascertain which services, equipment or facilities we can supply for free for a period of time to the selected Charity.

To make this work we look to review all current contracts and services you have in place across all of you sites/centers in terms of telecoms and IT expenditure, and look to put forward a solution which eliminates the cost of the services associated with those areas, but equally as importantly improves the technology and support you have within the Charity.
The aim of the campaign is to provide charities access to the latest communications technologies – making their operations more effective and potentially saving them thousands of pounds.

Many charities are wary of new technology, preferring instead to “make do” and keep tight hold of their purse strings and existing supplier relationships, but we think there’s absolutely nothing wrong in that.  After all, they are dealing with our money and have to be seen to be spending it as effectively and cautiously as possible, ensuring that most of it goes to the causes which are important to all of us. Which is why we feel it’s our duty to explain precisely how they can SAVE money and raise their service levels, by looking at how they can make the most of their existing infrastructure and potential networking capabilities using unified communications technology.

And putting aside the sole issue of cost, this technology could revolutionize charity work, coming into its own in warzones or areas of natural disaster, where doctors can liaise with medical specialists immediately and easily, across the globe.

We are already working side by side with several charities, helping to reduce its telecommunications charges and replacing its current telephony hardware.

Look out for forthcoming press items covering our campaign, over the next few weeks. If you feel your charity could benefit from this, please get in touch and speak to the Technology for Good team on: +44 (0) 203 463 1700 or email: emea@ca-plc.com

With launch of the iPad in the US and last week’s launch in the UK , not forgetting OS4 for the iPhone, you do not need to be an expert in communications to realise that the game is changing and the advent of a fully unified communications world is closer than ever.

This recent flurry of gizmos is a purposeful move by Apple. From a UC standpoint, the iPhone OS 4.0 is the lesser in importance, but by no means meaningless. The new features, which are described by the company and at many other places on the Internet, clearly will improve the iPhone’s UC functionality. Features such as third-party multitasking and improved e-mail contribute to an improved UC environment.

The iPad, however, is much the bigger news for UC advocates. Essentially, Apple could have named the iPad the iUC. The device, especially with VoIP functionality, is a powerful mobile unified communications platform.
Apple has also announced major strategic partnerships with Unified Communications (UC) vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, Siemens, and others, to offer a unified platform for UC products and SIP interoperability. Soon not only will a user read books and play games on iPad, but also operate it as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, Public Branch Exchange (PBX), Session Border Controller (SBC), and more. More importantly, the are saying that the iPad will become the UC industry standard platform, eliminating the fragmentation and lack of interoperability among these vendors’ products.

What these vendors have agreed on is to develop their products — PBXs, IVRs, UC servers, SIP phones, SBCs, etc. — to run on the iPad exclusively. I has been mentioned that Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft engineers, with the help of Apple, have already developed a few proof-of-concepts in Apple’s labs.

Think about it, the iPad multi-touch interface should prove to be a hit… Imagine performing MAC (that’s “moves/adds/changes”) on the PBX by tapping and dragging extensions. Or enabling presence using the built-in geolocation service (either Wi-Fi or 3G). Or dialing using the on-screen soft buttons on an iPad SIP phone. Or configuring the SBC with gestures to establish trunks. And of course, all of these tasks could be performed in either portrait or landscape mode! The possibilities are endless — only limited by the developer’s creativity

Initially there were concerns about the iPad’s ability and drive — can it really handle SIP and VoIP without sacrificing usability and stability? Apple assured the vendors that there won’t be a problem, It has also been rumoured that they can be run in a cluster architecture commonly seen in database design.

Will you have to wait long? No, Apple expects most of these UC and SIP iPad applications to be ready by third quarter of 2010.

Carter Allen have been working very closely with SIPCOM to look into the SIPpad and SIPphone products and will be running demos late on this year. What’s certain is that these devices are here to stay and their ability to improve the way you work will be limitless.