Thursday, August 20, 2009

Microsoft Office Communications on BlackBerry

Mobile business just the way you want it...

Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful. The handsets you can buy these days are loaded with more features than you will possibly find on a computer or laptop. Processing power, high speed connections, camera’s, large (touch) screens, GPS navigation; it’s all there and at a relatively low price. Just the way we like it.

Since a couple of weeks we get inspired of the new Outside Voice Control functionality in Office Communications Server 2007 R2. As e-office we have deployed a full blown OCS R2 environment including Mediation Server, SIP trunking, CWA, Group Chat etc. We also deployed a OCS R2 Edge server.

Inside story: Some departments at e-office uses BlackBerry as there primary IM/Mail/Apps device. On the other side we have lots of Windows Mobile 6.* endpoints. Uniquely we crossed our strategies to have best of both worlds. So today I would like to announce a new BlackBerry Mobile App: Integrating your Microsoft Unified Communications investment with BlackBerry technology.

If you are interested to get more information feel free to contact me or contact my colleague Thierry Lammers – Director e-office Mobile on mobile@e-office.com.

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Call setup flow:

1. the BlackBerry end user initiates a ‘call via office’ OCS call from the BlackBerry smartphone. This feature is available from the BlackBerry via an icon on the BlackBerry desktop and menu integration in the native BlackBerry Address Book application. The e-office OCS client uses a data signaling channel to inform the e-office OCS service layer of the outbound call >

2. the e-office OCS service layer receives call details and user credentials

3. the e-office OCS service layer instructs OCS to set the correct presence status and initiate the cellular call to the BlackBerry end user. This is called the first call leg.

4. the BlackBerry end user answers the phone call

5. OCS initiates the second call leg with recipients phone number

6. the second call leg is established as soon as the endpoint answers the call

7. OCS bridges the two call legs between the BlackBerry end user and the recipient.

System requirements:
image Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
image BES 4.1.x or newer with Mobile Data Services (MDS) activated
image e-office OCS client runs on BlackBerry SP with OS 4.2 or newer
image e-office OCS service layer runs as a web service on a Windows 2003 SP1 or newer machine with, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), .Net Framework 3.0 and OCS components installed.
image for enterprise CRM integration e-office Content Mobilizer middleware is required

Map picture

1 comment:

Joachim Farla said...

Comments on FAQ:

1) Are you utilizing CWA for this application? If you are, does it continue to rely on the R1 CWA?
2) Does the e-office app allow for IM and buddy list presence, or only “call from work” functionality?

1. Now we are directly communicating to the Outside Voice Control MCU within Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This can be directly to the corresponding MCU internally or through the OCS R2 Edge Server. CWA is not the component anymore and is basically removed in OCS R2Outside Voice Control is not support on legacy versions of OCS. So R1 is not supported.

2. No only Call via Work functionality.