Office Communications Server 2007 R2: A Deeper look at what’s new – Part 1

I had the opportunity to see some of the new features in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 which is the latest release Microsoft is presently working on to be released shortly. The R2 release is currently in Beta and should be available in early 2009.

So what is all the hype about in OCS R2 – I for one am excited about the new features. Microsoft seems to have done a good job at listening to what customers had to say about adding new features and functionalities and rolled them into R2. Here is a deeper look at some of the new features. I will continue to blog about more about other R2 features so stay tuned!

Attendant Console

One of the features lacking in OCS 2007 was the ability to allow for a receptionist to control inbound calls for multiple people or groups of people. Enter the Attendant Console. This is a new application that can be run by an admin assistant or receptionist that deals with answering calls for one or more people. Rather than using Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) the new Attendant Console can be used to efficiently deal with answering and routing calls to the appropriate person. The Attendant console features three main panes. The left pane shows active conversations and where inbound calls would be received. From here you can place calls on hold and view all your on-hold calls. The middle pane shows all the contacts you want to route calls for and allows you to organize their "contact cards" physically for efficient transferring of calls. Essentially you click on the call on the left pane and double click on the contact card in the middle pane and the call is transferred. The right pane displays all your group contacts or teams that you need to handle calls for.

The new Attendant Console allows you to track the number of times a person has called for example so you can better understand the urgency of the caller (or just how persistent a pesky sales person might be) It handles Instant Messages as well as phone calls. You can also add information to callers so that when they call back you see that information about the caller to assist you in recalling what project they may be working on for example. There is a timer for calls on hold so you know exactly how long callers have been waiting.

Delegation

A new delegation feature has been added to the Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) experience. Much like you can add delegates in Outlook and Exchange Server you can now delegate contacts to answer phone calls on your behalf. You may specify that both you and the delegate receive the call meaning that both your MOC client and the delegates will ring offering you the opportunity to answer the call or you can delegate all calls. If call is answered by your delegate you get a missed call notification however, the notice specifies that the call was answered by your delegate so that you can follow up at a later time about the call if you choose to.

Microsoft did a good job at Caller experience to this feature as well. For example on MOC to MOC calls the caller's call window would show that the call is being answered by the delegate for example, so they are not surprised by hearing a different voice on the other end. A clever addition.

What's New in Microsoft Endpoint Devices?

One of the biggest complaints I had about the MOC and Microsoft Phone Edition experience was the lack of integration between the endpoints. Well Microsoft has done a good job and making strides to correct this situation. MOC and Communicator Phone Edition (CPE) now play nicer together! On a 'Tanjay' device which is either the Polycom CX700 or LGNortel 8540, the device is automatically unlocked when you unlock your PC. This makes sense! One of the coolest things is that Call Control is now 'synchronized' between CPE and the desktop. So if I make a call from the MOC client I can pick up the call on the Tanjay if desired and vice versa when making calls on the Tanjay, a call window appears on the desktop allowing me to control the call as I normally would when making calls from the MOC client. This is a great addition!

New in Microsoft Office Communicator

R2 builds on the multi-modality model that Microsoft introduced in OCS 2007. Desktop sharing is now available from the MOC Client as another modality of communication. This is a very nice edition as it incorporates the usage of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) rather than the Netopia technology that Live Meeting uses. It's much faster and performs better. Like Live Meeting you can give control to participants and collaborate more efficiently.

Communicator Web Access (CWA)

You can access the desktop sharing functionality from this client as well. A great new feature is the ability to access the conference calling capabilities new in R2 which I talk about shortly. If you're signed onto CWA and need to make a call you can initiate conferences and have your preferred devices called like your mobile phone.

Voice Conferencing

I've saved what I think is one of the most anticipated and best features for last! New in R2 are two new Conferencing Server Component that runs on the Front-End Server role called the Conferencing Attendant (CA) and the Conferencing Announcement Server (CAS). These new components allow for dial in conferencing into OCS, something that was previously not possible. This is a great new feature as it now allows either anonymous or authenticated contacts to dial into an OCS conference from any device and not just MOC or Live Meeting as in OCS 2007. You can also begin the call on your mobile device and then once you reach the office and are signed on, you can seamlessly transfer the call to MOC for a better experience. This is very cool feature that also saves $$$$ since the call moves off the PSTN to a VOIP call now. You can also join Conference calls right from CWA and have OCS 2007 R2 call you at a number you specify when you are on the road and are not in front of your PC or want to take a call at a client site for example on a desk phone, without having the customer incur any long distance call expenses.

Video Conferencing

You can now choose from CIFS video (352x288 pixels) to VGA quality video (640x480) to High Definition Video (720P at 24fps or 1280x720 pixels) The quality is quite good! Of course this will depend on the type of webcam you have and the network conditions and location you are in but is still a welcome feature.

So that's it for today but I promise that I will be back and fill you in on some more new features in OCS 2007 R2 so please stay tuned!

Comments

[Craig McQueen]

I understand historically IM and OCS was rather weak on logging data and reporting on it (perhaps it was just reporting that was weak). How is OCS 2007 R2 for usage reporting?

[Dino Caputo]

Good Question!

My understanding is that not much has changed around the area of archiving in OCS 2007R2. Microsoft has provided 'free' archiving in terms of IM and CDR (Call Detail Records) which works very well if you can write your own front-end sql queries to obtain the data you need. This solution isn't for everyone however, especially those organizations requiring more rigidity around compliance and security.

Once the full RTM version releases I will have a closer look at any new capabilities and report back.

[padmanabha]

Is High definition video 720P at 30fps or 1280x720 pixels) possible on OCS 2007 R2?

[Dino Caputo]

Yes 720P at 30fps (1280x720) is possible in R2