Microsoft, Nokia Launch Mobile Communications App

Microsoft and Nokia are launching Microsoft Communicator Mobile for Nokia devices, a unified communications client that allows Nokia phone users to manage status updates, instant-messaging sessions, and calls directly through their devices’ “Contacts” application.

Read all about here.

Communications Server ’14′ Update Session

Hello UC User Group Member,

It was great to meet those of you that attended the UC User Group on 21^st, hopefully the information we presented at the user group was useful to you and educated you on some of the roadmap around CS ‘14’.

In the session we indicated that we would share some links that were highlighted in the session, below are the links to voice features disclosure at VoiceCon in Orlando earlier this year:

• VoiceCon annual session includes a full written response to mock IP Telephony RFP, this includes list and budgetary pricing. Microsoft participated in 2010 session with traditional PBX and IP PBX vendors. Microsoft’s full written response is published at – http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/whats-new.aspx
• Here is a link to a blog from BJ Haberkorn (Senior Product Manager – Communications Server) that provides an update on VoiceCon and compares the cost of the different vendors that responded to the Voice RFP – http://blogs.technet.com/uc/archive/2010/03/29/update-from-voicecon-orlando-2010.aspx. Note: The Microsoft solution is a VoIP solution but is also a Unified Communications solution.
• Communications Server ’14’ – Next Generation Telephony Whitepaper – http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/4/0/F409709D-D73E-4804-9B4E-DD4C62B8A0E9/Next%20Generation%20Telephony%20paper%20v%201%2002.pdf.

If you need any further information please comment on this post or email me mariods@microsoft.com.

Regards,

Mario D’Silva

Wave 14 Deep Dive

Hi all, 

The next meeting  of the Melbourne UC user group is April the 21st 5:30PM

TOPIC:   Wave 14 Deep Dive

At VoiceCon in Orlando Microsoft announced that the next version of its unified communications software, code-named Communications Server “14,” will be available in the second half of 2010. In his keynote address, Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office Communications Group, demonstrated the new software for the first time publicly and said Communications Server “14” will help make communications simpler, more open and more cost-efficient.

In this user group session we will take a first look at the Communicator 14 end user experience/capabilities, voice capabilities and interoperability and developer platform enhancements.

If you are interested in attending this event please register at http://melbucapril.eventbrite.com/

Regards,

Mario

March 17th Session

A quick note to user group members.

Tonight’s session will be postponed untill next month when we will be able to give the group an update on Wave 14. We are hoping to have some more information available soon.

Regards,
Daniel Pearson

OCS ROI Session Wrap Up

We had a great session last week. Even though there was only a small turn-out it was great to be able to discuss the different areas of ROI and business value OCS is able to acchieve. We covered a wide range of areas and I have written up most of the major ones on my blog. http://dcpearso.com

I will also put up a link to the OCS ROI tool. I am just trying to find it myself 

The next session will be done on Usage and Adoption. This session will take a dive into some of the features within OCS and how best to use these. Most of the session will be focused on training users and how best to increase the OCS adoption rate and the featurset being used.

09 / 10 Calendar of Events

Q1			Q2			Q3			Q4
July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
21	18	16	21	18	16	20	17	17	21	19	16
No Event	Info	Polycom	Info	Info	No Event	No Event	NET	Info	No Event	Info	Vendor
	Topic		Topic	Topic				Topic		Topic
Topics
18th August		OCS ROI / Cost Justification
20th October		Usage and Adoption
17th November		Exchange 2010 Deep analysis
17th March		Best Practices
19th May		OCS Wave 14
Vendors
15th September		Polycom Integration with OCS
17th February		NET
16th June		Aspect

For catering purposes, please confirm your attendance by email melbuc@live.com.au

OCS User Group Meeting for May – Exchange 2010

It’s been a while since our last meeting and the Easter holidays was a disruption to our normal routine.  We have scheduled our next meeting for the 27^th of May from 5:30 PM.

 

 

Date:                     27th May 2009 from 5:30 to 7:30pm

 

Where:                 Microsoft, Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place Southbank Food and drinks are provided so please RSVP melbuc@live.com.au

                               

Agenda:               Microsoft recently announced the beta availability of Exchange 2010 which is the next version of its messaging platform. In this User Group session we will discuss and showcase the new capabilities/enhancements that will be grouped into 3 key areas:

 

• Protection and Compliance
  • E-mail archiving
  • Protect Communications
  • Advanced Security
• Anywhere Access
  • Manage Inbox Overload
  • Voice Mail
  • Collaborate Effectively
• Flexible and Reliable
  • Continuous Availability
  • Simplified Administration
  • Deployment Flexibility  

 

 

Presenter:         Mario D’Silva

 

Door Prizes:        We will have a mystery door prize once again !

 

Catering Sponsorship:    As I mentioned at our last meeting we will be asking the group if anyone is able to sponsor the catering on a month by month basis, if your organisation is interested please contact me.

Announcing the release of Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Microsoft has released a tool to help you verify your Internet facing services are setup and configured properly. This tool will help you test things like Exchange ActiveSync, AutoDiscover, Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTP), and inbound email. Sure there are cmdlets included in Exchange 2007 like test-ActivesyncConnectivity and test-OWAConnectivity, but these tests can only be run inside your network and effectively only test your internal network connectivity.

What if you get a call or an escalation regarding one of these services not working? How do you verify if just this user or everyone has a problem? And if there is a problem, where do you start troubleshooting? Is it a DNS problem? Is it a certificate problem? Is a port not open on the firewall?

Believe it or not, these client connectivity and inbound email scenarios make up a significant portion of the support calls we see at Microsoft. So Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes developed a tool to help you with these problems.

The Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (ExRCA) tool can be accessed at https://www.TestExchangeConnectivity.com.

For more information about this tool go to the Exchange Product team Blog site at – http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/03/25/450908.aspx

Regards,

Mario

 

 

First Meeting for 2009

Hi Everyone,

Our first meeting is scheduled for February 10th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Microsoft offices in Southbank.

As we agreed at our last meeting we have arranged for TANDBERG to present their interoperability solutions for OCS.

We also agreed to set up a central repository for all group wide questions, answers, posts and documents.   We now have this available to the group at http://www.discussUC.com.  All you will need to do is register and start posting your questions, problems and or suggestions.

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Links:

discussUC Forum: http://www.discussuc.com/

Register: http://www.discussuc.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=registers

OCS Forum: http://www.discussuc.com/index.php?f=59&jfile=viewforum.php&Itemid=87&option=com_jfusion

By using discussUC, the group will be able to:

• track issues
• subscribe to a particular thread
• upload documents
• create polls
• search the forum for specific answers

Also, this forum is accessible to the broader discussUC members which is now at 1000+ members, so our reach when looking for specific answers is to a broader audience.

Microsoft have posted some entertaining videos regarding the R2 release at Youtube.

http://au.youtube.com/profile?user=OCSR2Launch&view=videos

We look forward to seeing you alll on the 10th.

Cheers

Dean Howarth

 

December Notes

Hi Everyone,

December’s meeting was extremely informative a big thank you to Justin and Jon for pulling this together.  The Architectural session was the most popular of the three options with 73% of the vote !.

We agreed on a number of items moving forward as follows:

Next Meeting 10th February 2009 at 5:50pm to 7:30 pm

Agenda In February, Tandberg will present the group systems interoperability solution along with their new HD camera for OCS

Q and A We ageed that this site was not suitable for the location of our questions/answers and files etc.  We have created a section for OCS at discussUC.com under the section UC Solutions / UC Vendor Solutions.  The eight most topical new features of OCS R2 are posted there for discussion by the group and anyone for that matter.  Through this forum we will be able to attached files, posts etc.

In order to use discussUC.com you will need to register.
We have also placed last months presentation there for download

Until the next meeting have agreat break and we will see you in the new year.