the UC Guys

Snom + OCS (Part 1)

Yesterday a number of snom phones arrived: snom 820, snom 300 and snom 360.

We started by trying to connect 820 and get it to register with OCS.

I was working in my home office so phone was "remote" to network.

 

The snom 820 is the "pretty" white phone in front. Behind it is Microsoft "Tanjay" which is rather clunky and to the back right is "old" normal PSTN phone.

Connecting the snom phone is simple: plug it into the network, watch what IP address it gets assigned and then use browser to http: to it. In my case it was as simple as entering http://192.168.1.107/ into address bar on browser.

Each snom phone has an embedded web server that you use to configure it manually (you can also configure many phones using a shared config file).

When you point your browser to phone's IP address you get main web menu that looks like below:

You then use the menus to setup relevant settings. For OCS it means completing "OCS Account Data" screen.

And then if all is good you force the phone to reboot (on Advanced, Update menu) and you are connected to OCS Server.

If you need to tweak settings you can do so on Identity 1 à SIP screen which has lots more options!

 

You can also map "directory" button to display OCS Contacts list using the "Function keys" screen. OCS contacts look like this (granted not a great picture given I used a flash -- never said I was a professional photographer J):

 

So far I can make and receive calls between the snom phone and the desktop Office Communicator; however, unfortunately calls to or from the PSTN through our Audiocodes gateway don't fully work.

There are many configuration options for snom phone, so next we need to do some traces and see what isn't working and how to fix it.

More details in part 2 shortly.

Who out there sees the need for "hard phones" even in the brave new world of UC and Microsoft OCS?

 

UC Guys now registered snom VAR!

I am pleased to announce that the UC Guys are now a registered VAR for snom phones.

Snom phones can be equipped with a unique OCS version of firmware which allows them to register directly against Microsoft OCS R1 and R2.

When registered against OCS, snom phones allow you to:

• have incoming calls announced simultaneously on your desktop and your snom phone;
• search for names or phone numbers on the Microsoft® Office Communication Server via ActiveDirectory;
• see the current status of your contacts (free, not logged on, busy);
• place secure calls both from your computer via OCS or from your snom phone.

Snom phones are attractively designed, rugged and priced reasonably for those OCS situations where a hard phone is required.

Over the next couple of weeks the UC Guys will put a number of snom phones through their paces and provide more details right here.

Unified Communications e-Books available online – Limited Time!

Download Free UC e-books from Microsoft Press

Microsoft Press 25th Anniversary "Free E-Book of the Month" Offers
This will be our last month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Press with a free e-book offer. This monthly offer can be found in the top right corner of this monthly newsletter. It expires on June 24, 2009, so download the e-books today:

Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
By Rui Maximo, Kurt De Ding, Vishwa Ranjan, Chris Mayo, Oscar Newkerk, and the Microsoft Office Communications Server team

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit
By Rui Maximo, Rick Kingslan, Rajesh Ramanathan, and Nirav Kamdar with the Microsoft Office Communications Server Team
Note: You will need to temporarily allow pop-ups in order to download the free e-book offer.

Published Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:32 PM by markga

Filed under: OCS, R2, Office Communicatons Server, free e-books, Resource Kit

SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express on Windows Server 2008 Fails

I was building an OCS R2 Standard Edition Server on Windows Server 2008 x64 and wanted to install the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express Tools so that I could run some sql backup scripts when I encountered an installation error.  At first I thought it was an incompatibility issue but quickly dismissed that since OCS R2 still uses SQL Express 2005 as the database engine. 

The installation would go fine until the very end and then I’d the the following error:

“The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 29506”

 

 

After clicking OK, the installation roles back :-( 

So a few head scratches later I realize that when running the setup I wasn’t prompted for elevated credentials to be able to install as the Protected Administrator (PA) account since I was running User Account Control (UAC) on my server. 

After launching a DOS prompt using the “Run as Administrator” option and then subsequently running the  SQLServer2005_SSMSEE_x64.msi the install worked fine! 

Microsoft is taking big strides in forcing developers to write applications that will install as a standard user account, however since this is an older application it clearly thought it had enough administrative permissions to install correctly as I was logged on as a local admin. 

Great Site for UC Developers

GotUC.net, a new site that focuses on OCS development, recently opened an OCS R2 and Exchange 2010 developer sandbox.

Presence status = busy (and happy because my IDE is open! -- developers will know what I am talking about.)

This site allows developers to quickly try out new product features (they assign you an account that you can use to login to OCS R2 using CWA or the full OC R2 client and Exchange 2010). You can register and get a free developer account setup for you on the site.

But even better, the site allows you to fire up Visual Studio 2008 and use the Workflow designer to setup some powerful UC workflows.

I have just only begun to play with this capability but will share additional details and examples as I build out some workflows.

I believe the real power of UC is in using communication as a "platform". The UC platform is what allows CEBP (communication-enabled business processes) and CEBA (communication-enabled business applications) to truly come to life. I am hoping that some real examples will help move CEBP and CEBA discussions from the acronym-soup world into the world of possibilities in the eyes of my customers.

Already, federating between our existing OCS implementation and the GotUC.net OCS implementation has allowed me to test out some great new OCS R2 capabilities and a number of interoperability scenarios. More details surely to follow here.

Is anyone else out there developing UC Workflows in Visual Studio 2008? I would be interested in hearing the type of workflows you are building.

Presence status = available (to code)

Products Aren’t Real Until They Are!

You can tell a real product because it has a price, it can be installed, tested and used in the real world.

Presence status = busy (searching for unicorns, a leprechaun and CUCiMoc)

Hey, like most of you, I love the next new thing. I saw the latest Start Trek movie (very good! Especially on Imax screen!) and can't wait to order my personal transporter to shorten my commute.

The thing is, I know a personal transporter is not real. I am also not willing to sign up to be a beta tester and have my atoms scattered throughout my backyard or co-mingled with my cat a la Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.

The trouble in the UC space is that the line between real and "real" (aka not real) is often blurred.

Take CUCiMOC (feel free to randomly capitalize any combination of letters) which is Cisco's latest marketing ploy to integrate Cisco infrastructure with Microsoft Office Communicator in a way that relegates OCS to mainly instant messaging.

Right now CuciMoc is not a real product.

CuciMoc? CookieMoc?

CucIMoC, which stands Cisco UC Integration for Microsoft Office Communicator, is an idea; it is a concept. It might even be a good concept (?).

There is even a CuCIMoc Flash demo (note the small text at 0:30 that says the visual interface depiction is prototype and may vary from actual user experience); but a Flash demo does make this a product.

The good thing about a concept is that no one can find any flaws or point out performance issues or even open bug reports. Concepts are pure, they are unblemished by the details that make up the real world of integrated communications.

Of course, the bad thing with a concept, is that no one has ever placed a call or collaborated with colleagues using a concept. Try as I might, the CuciMoc Flash demo did not let me contact my wife to say I was going to be home late because I needed to finish this blog entry.

UC solutions can be complicated. Multi-vendor UC solutions ARE complicated.

The devil is in the details, the proof is in the pudding, where the rubber meets the road is where real UC solutions begin.

Unless you can touch it, feel it, beat on it, it is not a product.

Ideas and concepts are fine but make sure you plan your organizations near-term UC strategy based on products. And make sure those evaluating different potential UC solutions in your organization understand what is real. (Pilots are always a good idea!)

Presence status = available (willing and able to test the latest real product)

Useful Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Links

Here are some useful links on OCS 2007 R2

Product Links

•	Office Communications Server Home Page
•	System Requirements - Office Communications Server R2 2007
•	System Requirements - Office Communicator 2007 R2
•	What's New - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
•	New Server Features for OCS 2007 R2
•	Top 10 Reasons to Try OCS 2007 R2
•	Reviewers Guide for OCS 2007 R2
•	Fact Sheet - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
•	Get Started - Office Communication Server 2007 R2 TechNet

Community

•	Office Communications Server Team Blog
•	Office Communicator Team Blog
•	Office Communications Server IT Pro Forums
•	Meet the Office Communications Server 2007 MVPs

Webcasts and Videos

•	Microsoft Unified Communications Webcasts, Virtual Labs and Podcasts

OCS R2 Downloadable Documentation!

Microsoft has posted the downloadable Office Communications Server (OCS) R2 documentation here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E9F86F96-AA09-4DCA-9088-F64B4F01C703&displaylang=en  This includes the Compiled Help Manual as well.

 

Will keep my eye out for the rollup which *hopefully* comes out that allows all the docs to be downloaded in one executable.

The R2 online version is still on technet here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd250572(office.13).aspx

 

Lets not forget about the R1 docs:

OCS 2007 R1 documentation is here on technet:

Communications Server

 

The OCS 2007 documentation rollup is here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=760A3FF9-7F82-4A5F-841D-5E528B1DA334&displaylang=en

Even Harry Potter Believes in “Presence”

In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowlings, the Weasley family has a very special clock that shows the presence of each of the family members. The clock has nine hands, one for each member of the family, and each hand points to a location or status of the family: Home, School, Work, Travelling, Lost, Hospital, Prison, and Mortal Peril.

Presence status = Busy composing a blog entry

Perhaps the Weasley's clock displays different than the presence statuses from those available in Microsoft Office Communicator and other unified communications software, but it displays presence nonetheless.

And in Harry Potter, by the sixth book, all nine hands point to mortal peril at all times, except when someone is travelling. I am pretty sure that mortal peril cannot be seen as a good sign in any definition of presence.

Seeing the Weasley clock reminded me of how my "Tanjay" phone (really a LG Nortel 8540 or Polycom CX700) sitting in my home office similarly displays my status to my family members while my Tanjay phone in my downtown office displays my status to my colleagues.

This inspired me to create my own "Mortal peril" custom presence status so just in case I was captured by evil minions of Voldemort (the dark lord from the Harry Potter series) or was facing any other unsavory creature I could accurately reflect my current status to my family.

At first I debated as whether this custom status should show as "available" or "busy". While in mortal peril I would certain be available for assistance, in the end, I figured my own status while in the state of mortal peril would likely be "busy" – likely busy trying to save my own bacon!

Here is how my own Weasley-like presence clock would appear if I found myself in mortal peril. Thankfully I have yet to come across a situation which required me to use this custom presence status during a real event.

 

Creating Custom Presence States

There is an easy way and a less easy way to create customer presence statuses.

If you happen to use Office Communicator Mobile on your BlackBerry then it is easy. In the BlackBerry OC client, you press the menu key, pick "My Status" from the popup menu, then choose "Custom Statuses…" to create a custom status. For each custom status you can specify a title (such as "Mortal Peril") and then whether you want to show the status as Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back or Away. Custom statuses created on the BlackBerry are available for selection only on the BlackBerry but display on any endpoint (including desktop Office Communicator or Tanjay phones).

Several references suggest you cannot create an "Away" custom status. However, using the BlackBerry client I have certainly verified that I can do exactly this. For example I created a custom Away presence state entitled "In a galaxy far, far away" (as a tribute to the opening text from Star Wars) and this displayed with no issue in both the desktop OC client and on my Tanjay phone.

To create custom presence options with the desktop Office Communicator client, you need to modify registry settings to point to a customized .xml file that describes the custom presence statuses you wish to use.

Specifically, you need to modify the key "CustomStateURL " under the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator" so that the key "CustomStateURL" points to the created XML file (Do a Google search for "CustomStateURL" and you will find plenty of examples.

The customized .xml file needs to look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<customStates xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates"

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates

http://livecommteam/sites/main/ice/Wave%2012%20Docs/CustomActivities.xsd">

<customState ID="1" availability="online">

<activity LCID="1033">Working from Home</activity>

<activity LCID="1044">activity 2 for 1044</activity>

<activity LCID="1055">activity 3 for 1055</activity>

</customState>

<customState ID="2" availability="busy">

<activity LCID="1033">In a Live Meeting</activity>

<activity LCID="1036">Equivalent French String for - In a Live Meeting </activity>

</customState>

<customState ID="3" availability="busy">

<activity LCID="1033">Meeting with Customer</activity>

<activity LCID="1055">meeting with client</activity>

<activity LCID="1036">Equivalent French String for - Meeting with Customer</activity>

</customState>

<customState ID="4" availability="do-not-disturb">

<activity LCID="1033">Interviewing</activity>

</customState></customStates>

The multiple LCID values are only required to support multiple languages in the OC interface – so likely not required in most cases.

Custom presence statuses display in OC underneath the standard presence states.

The BlackBerry client method is easy, the OC client registry "hack" method is less than easy. One could hope that a future OC client would enable the simple approach adopted by the OC BlackBerry client!

With either method, OCS currently limits you to four custom statuses. As far as I know this restriction has not been changed with OCS R2. However with R2, the location of the custom presence XML file can no longer be pointed to using a file:// URL; it must use an HTTPS:// URL. Which makes it slightly more painful.

Note: I have not tested whether a custom "Away" status is supported via the registry key / XML file approach. If anyone has tried this please let me know if this works.

Actual Uses for Custom Presence States

So I've thankfully ruled out "mortal peril" as a useful custom presence state for my own day to day existence.

However, I have found uses for a state entitled "On mobile" as an available state. This lets colleagues know that while I am available, I am not going to be able to do a video conference (this is not a function supported on my current BlackBerry) and perhaps may not be able to IM since I may be driving, although admittedly I have been known to drive and text which is not a recommended activity and is soon to carry stiff fines where I live – and rightfully so as every time I find myself driving and typing I inevitably end up shaking my head wondering what am I doing!

Perhaps a "Mobile and driving" state would be more explicit.

I have also found an available status "On GO Train" which indicates I am currently on the transit system that runs between where I live and downtown Toronto as useful. While on the Go Train, IM is good but given the number of people that are packed into each train car during rush hour, a voice call would likely not be very private.

I would be interested to hear from you regarding custom statuses you have found of use.

Presence status = Available (thankfully not in mortal peril!)

Some useful related links:

Configuring Custom Presence States (MS Technet)

Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

The Electric Wand Blog

LCSKid Blog

Office Communicator Deployment Guide (see page 21)

A UC Demo is Worth a Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a unified communication demo is worth at least as much.

Last week I had the opportunity to present at four unified communication seminars in four separate cities.

The presentations included analyst information outlining the value of unified communications, a number of case studies outlining the specific benefits actual customers received from UC and a live UC demo.

At the end of each seminar we asked participants to complete a detailed feedback form.

For over 80% of the attendees, the highlight of the two and a half hour seminar was the live unified communications demo.

In fact one participant who I spoke with afterwards said he had been to seminars presented by Cisco, Nortel and Microsoft and this was the first time he had seen a live UC demo.

The live demo involved plugging in my laptop to an internet connection at each of the four hotels and then beginning with a demonstration of the concept of presence using our day-to-day production UC environment.

Using presence I found a colleague who was available, sent them a quick IM to see if they had a few moments for a UC demo, escalated to a voice call, dragged and dropped another available participant into the conversation creating a multi-party call and then escalated to a video conference.

At the first session, given a three hour time difference between the seminar venue and most of my colleagues, it turned out to be lunch time back in my home time zone which meant finding an available demo participant took a few tries. The first available person was on a mobile device using Office Communicator mobile so could not help with the video conference.

In the end, while there were a few tense moments for me up on stage, it turns out that this trouble finding a demo participant really drove home the concept and power of presence to the audience. Afterwards, several commented that they knew this wasn't a "canned" rehearsed demo exactly because I did have a few unscripted moments.

I continued the live demo by showing how call control settings such as "simul ring" can be controlled using the OC desktop client. Emphasizing that a UC solution involving a desktop GUI client often can "unlock" existing features standard PBXs have had for years, simply by making these features easily available to the typical end user.

I then, because I like a challenge, gave a live demo of Outlook Voice Access (OVA) and its speech recognition using a speaker phone – actually a Polycom CX100 USB speaker phone plugged into my laptop. I had the speaker jack from the CX100 connected into the room's audio system so everyone could clearly hear the "Welcome. You are connected to Microsoft Exchange" and all the subsequent voice responses as I accessed my voice mail, email, calendar and contacts.

Presenting a live demo using speech recognition, especially with a speaker phone, sometimes requires nerves of steel, and a super-strength anti-perspirant! However, I found that the CX100 performed admirably. By the fourth presentation in four days, I found myself wandering far from the microphone, talking at normal volume and casually chatting with my OVA automated assistant. (Previously I had used a "Catalina" style USB device and found even though I held the handset closer to my mouth the results were far less favorable.)

I concluded the demo showing how "unified messaging" provides a single inbox for email, voice mail and faxes – even having someone leave me a voice mail message as I presented. I spent a moment showing how presence information and "click to communicate" is available directly within Outlook and spoke, briefly, about the future of communication enabled business processes. (I think CEBP is more than most people understand at this point, but this is a topic for another blog entry).

As the demo ended, I hoped the audience had an improved understanding of how UC operates and improves the business productivity in the real world and in my day-to-day world. The results from the session evaluations seem to indicate the demo was effective.

With regard to UC, I am a real pragmatist. I believe things work only when I can touch and feel them. I am dubious when only presented with spec sheets and glossy marketing brochures – especially when it comes to solutions that integrate offerings from different vendors! As such, I try to include a UC demo in every one of the seminars I participate in.

Have live UC demos been a part of the seminars you attended? Was this an important part for you?

And if you present UC seminars, do you include live UC demos? Why or why not?

As an aside, in 1927 the saying from this entries title made its introduction as "One picture is worth ten thousand words" in an advertisement of the time (erroneously attributed as a Chinese proverb to give it cachet). Notice that in our over visualized society a picture is now only worth a thousand words. Seeing all the images my children are bombarded with each day, I expect a picture will soon only be worth 500 words – and of course 500 words may be the total number of words the new "texting" generation is able to spell accuratelyJ. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_words.