Sunday, January 31, 2010

Comparison List Communicator client vs Office *

We see lots of questions within the community about the Good Better Best document for Unified Communications (Communicator versions vs. Office versions). Via some insights I get an nice overview of this comparison list.

Communicator version requirements:

  • Full = All Office 2010 features (including improved Outlook Search and Quick Contacts)
  • Limited = Office Communicator 2007 functionality (IM, presence, call. No improved Outlook Search or Quick Contacts)
  • Basic = IM and presence (No call.)
  • None = No presence or integration at all

imageimage I absolutely like to see the nice integration between Office Communicator 3.5.6907.83 and Office 2010 Beta.

Especially the new contact card (see example above) in Outlook 2010 and other Office 2010 applications. And the organization tab on each invidual user is awesome. It also reflects the organization hierarchy in SP2010 (Silverlight Profile Display) You have to check that out. When its time to release Office Communicator 2010 (2010 Q4) then you see that the user experience is the same while using Office 2010. The world of integration!

image That’s why I like to product so much. Just within a few clicks you can contact someone or start a video chat within the context of subject. That’s what we call contextual collaboration. Within the context asking a direct question and get a very quick answer.

More information can also be found on UCVUG (Wave 14, UCMA 3.0 the look and feel of the new Communicator client.

Presentation overview:

Session 1. Speaker: Matthijs Hoekstra about Wave 14 and the new version of OCS (14). From a development perspective.                 Download the presentation on ucvug.nl (here)

The full presentation can be viewed here:

http://ucvug.nl/media/p/2450.aspx  Unified Communications Virtual User Group Q1 Meeting – **LIVE**

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

UCVUG Q1 Meeting Wrap-up (26/01/10)

Thank you for supporting us! Last night we had our fist UCVUG meeting for this year. Almost 60 users subscribed to this session. That is amazing! During the session there where almost 30 experts online to view the show. A nice mix-up of expertise e-office members, developer evangelists and much more. Thank you again. The session was assessed with an 8. That is a really nice complement to the organization behind the scenes. UCVUG is proud.

Stay tuned on:

Presentation overview:

  • Session 1. Speaker: Matthijs Hoekstra about Wave 14 and the new version of OCS (14). From a development perspective. Download the presentation on ucvug.nl (here)
  • Session 2. Speaker: John de Breij about the UC proposition in the Mitel platform. From a business perspective. Download the presentation on ucvug.nl (here)

The full presentation can be viewed here:

http://ucvug.nl/media/p/2450.aspx Unified Communications Virtual User Group Q1 Meeting – LIVE (not available at this moment but will be converted in the upcoming hours).

Price to win!

(199 dollar listprice) Plantronics Voyager PRO UC. More information see the Plantronics site. Gives me a great opportunity to thank Xander Kuper for sponsoring this event. You guys make some wonderful stuff in the Microsoft UC Marketplace.

More information about Plantronics services and products please contact Xander Kupers (B2B Sales Manager Netherlands) e-mail: xander.kupers@plantronics.com. If you like it, to do also some sponsoring please contact me directly.

Question: Who is the Corporate Vice President UC Group at Microsoft?

Answer: Gurdeep Singh Pall (Source)

Almost 25 emails where sent back from you guys to win this wonderful price. Thank you for your submissions!

And the winner is: Berry Schreuder, DM consultants. The price will be sent to you right away. Feel free to sent your feedback about this device. UCVUG is your site! This price is sponsored by Plantronics.

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New UC assistant:

For the upcoming months UCVUG will introduce a new service. Each month we select several UC experts (MVP’s etc) to have a consultation hour. Very low level and good feedback to support your Unified Communications Project (PABX, Software, Hardware anything!) The sessions will be available through Live Meeting. More information will be available soon.

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway Hotfix KB 979311

File Name:
Xmpptgw.msp

Version:
6907.89

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB979311

Date Published:
1/25/2010

Language:
English

Download Size:
492 KB

This hotfix download for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway is described in the Knowledge Base article 979311.

UCVUG Q1 Meeting (preparation steps)

Dear UCVUG-members,

Tomorrow is the first #ucvug_nl (Unified Communications Virtual User Group) meeting for this year. This event will be organized virtually via Live Meeting and will be presented only in Dutch. Please do not come to e-office HQ in Houten.

Attention: please read the corresponding email I sent to you (UCVUG members) on Fri 1/22/2010 for preparation tasks before joining.

So far we did sell almost 60 tickets for this event. There are still 40 tickets available. Get your ticket on http://ucvugnlq1.eventbrite.com/.

image

Be there!

Kind regards,

Joachim Farla (founder ucvug)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Workload Architecture Poster

Quick Details

File Name:
OCS2007R2_poster.pdf

Version:
1.0

Date Published:
1/22/2010

Language:
English

Download Size:
785 KB

Overview

This poster of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 describes the traffic flow of protocols and ports used in each workload. Communications Server 2007 R2 supports the following workloads: IM and Presence, Conferencing, Application Sharing, and Enterprise Voice. These filtered views can assist you in architecting your deployment of Communications Server 2007 R2. The different server roles are described along with server certificate requirements. Firewall and DNS configuration requirements are also described.

Friday, January 22, 2010

OCS 2007 R2 PreCallDiagnostic Resource Kit Tool (32/64 bits available)

Office Communications Server 2007 R2, PreCallDiagnostic Resource Kit Tool (32 Bit)

The PreCallDiagTool is an application that reports expected audio quality as it relates to the network effect.

1/21/2010
4056

Office Communications Server 2007 R2, PreCallDiagnostic Resource Kit Tool (64 Bit)

The PreCallDiagTool is an application that reports expected audio quality as it relates to the network effect.

1/21/2010
43474

The PreCallDiagTool is an application that reports expected audio quality as it relates to the network effect. The tool should be installed on any desktop or laptop PC that suffers from inconsistent network connection quality. The PreCallDiagTool can provide a quick check of the current network conditions and also preserve a history of quality data to let users profile their network performance over time or other conditions. The tool is particularly useful for home/mobile users and users using WIFI access points.

UCVUG Q1 Meeting on 26/01/2010

** This is a Dutch event only ** for international presentations please join my MVP colleague Dustin Hannifin on http://ucvug.org  (dustin.hannifin@crowehorwath.com)

Beste UCVUG-member en UC-blog lezer,

Fijn dat je ook dit keer weer bij ons bent. Voor diegene die zich nog niet hebben ingeschreven doe dit dan alsnog op (http://ucvugnlq1.eventbrite.com/)

Met ruim 60 andere krijg jij exclusief toegang tot de laatste ontwikkelingen binnen Unified Communications. Wij zijn blij dat je hiervan deel wilt uitmaken.

UCVUG.nl (http://ucvug.nl ) is opgericht in 2009 en heeft als doel kenniswerkers binnen maar ook buiten de community virtueel kennis te laten delen over het onderwerp Unified Communications. Maximaal gebruik van diensten zoals Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 en online: Microsoft Live Meeting 2007. Een maximale mix tussen techniek en praktijk.

Het idee hierachter is dat je rustig in huiselijke kring kennis kunt opdoen over Unified Communications. Steeds meer UC specialisten (Regional Directors, MVP’s, evangelisten en UC experts) binnen de markt sluiten zich bij ons aan. Dat is super om te zien! Hierdoor wordt ook het netwerk waardevol en divers.

LET OP: Heel duidelijk is dus dat ook dit event virtueel gepresenteerd zal worden. “Gewoon rustig met PC op schoot via internet verbinden”. Je hoeft niet fysiek naar e-office te komen.

Wat heb je nodig om deel te nemen aan dit event (?):

  • een PC of laptop met daarop Windows XP, Vista of Windows 7 + laatste Service Packs en Windows Updates
  • een werkende internetverbinding
  • Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 (hier te downloaden)
  • optioneel: een webcam en headset (voor video en audio) – vraag is om audio en video uit te schakelen tijdens het gehele event (alleen tijdens het stellen van een vraag)
  • advies: gebruik alleen hardware zoals vermeld op deze site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/bb970310.aspx (voor optimale integratie met OCS en Live Meeting)
  • kennisnemen van attachment hoe de Live Meeting client ingesteld moet worden (zie attachment)
  • meeting informatie zoals hieronder staat weergegeven

Attendee

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/2sync/join?id=UCVUGQ1&role=attend&pw=3*Tn%7DbM%3D3

Announcing: New Qualified SIP Trunking Partners

SIP Trunking enables an enterprise to connect their on-premise voice network implemented by Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) directly over SIP. SIP Trunking services are offerings from IP Telephony Service Provider partners that offer PSTN origination and termination, using the SIP protocol.

Sprint now joins the other four partners whose SIP Trunking Services have been independently qualified to meet UC Open Interoperability Program (UC OIP) requirements. Cool!

Source: Voice Specialized Partner Sales and Technical Resources: January 2010

BETA Exam 71-404 OCS 2007 R2 – UC Voice Specialization, Will Be Available January 25, 2010

Beginning January 25th partners will be able take the Beta version of the new OCS 2007 Release 2 UC Voice Specialization exam for FREE at Prometric sites around the world. By participating in this BETA exam, you have the opportunity to provide feedback to the Microsoft Certification program about the exam content which is integral to development of its Released 74-404 version.

Exam 74-404 (Beta Exam 71-404) is designed to validate the skills and experience of technical professional to design, deploy, and administer Microsoft Voice solutions in production based on Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2  (OCS 2007 R2) and including interoperability with OCS 2007, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, Microsoft® Windows Server Active Directory, gateways and Private Branch Exchanges (PBX’s).

Registration for BETA Exam 71-404 will begin this Friday, January 22, 2010 at Prometric sites. The code to register for the Beta exam for FREE is: OCR2J. Candidates should plan for up to four hours to take the Beta exam and provide feedback on every question (versus the typical two hours to take Released version exams.)  The exam will be available in English only.

Source: Voice Specialized Partner Sales and Technical Resources: January 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Join us: TechNet Webcast: Unified Communications Development for Non-Professional Developers (Level 300)

LINK

Language(s):
English.

Product(s):
Microsoft Office Communications Server.

Audience(s):
IT Decision Maker,IT Generalist.

Duration:
90 Minutes

Start Date:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Event Overview

Microsoft Unified Communications is unleashing the power of software to communications. But what communications solutions can a company deploy without having a full-time developer on staff? In this webcast, we walk you through a set of easy-to-use applications that anyone with basic programming skills can use to build on the developer platform of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server. Join us to learn how to use the new Windows PowerShell capabilities to manage your Exchange users; how to use Exchange for managing a customer database; how to build a conference room scheduling application in the Exchange Web Services Managed API; and how build a basic help desk portal application using speech recognition. All code will be made available after the webcast on http://gotuc.net.

Presenters: Joachim Farla, Technical Infrastructure Specialist, eOffice and Michiel van Oudheusden, Software Architect, eOffice
Joachim Farla works as a technical infrastructure specialist at e-office, a Microsoft Gold Partner, where he focuses on information worker products, including Microsoft Unified Communications, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. He is the founder and owner of the Unified Communications Virtual User Group in the Netherlands (ucvug.nl), and he owns the central Unified Communications weblog in the Netherlands (unified-communications.blogspot.com).

Joachim has provided consulting and research within the information technology industry and with Microsoft for the past 11 years, and he is a two-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) on Communications Server 2007. Joachim has been quoted, interviewed, and published in national press, including Kennisportal and TechNet. Joachim began his career at Arenda, a Dutch financial company. He later became a junior system engineer at ING Bank Netherlands, and then he worked for Ordina Network Management Services and Ordina Finance.

Michiel van Oudheusden is one of the software architects and developers employed at e-office. While primarily focused on front-end web development, he also worked on Windows and service applications.  Unified Communications is one of the technologies where Michiel is interested in. For e-office he also developed the OCS web chat application, an  anonymous chat application connected with the Office Communications Server. 

Working for 6 years at his own company during his Computer Science study, he started at e-office three years ago doing what he likes most: designing and developing software for various customers with different and new technologies.

View other sessions from Unified Communications: Control Your Infrastructure
If you have questions or feedback, contact us.

Registration Options

Event ID:
1032440410

Proactive Notification: Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Address

SUMMARY:

In an effort to provide enhanced capacity and service reliance, Windows Live Messenger will soon be adding an additional IP address used for PIC/Federation traffic.  Some organizations have chosen to restrict this type of traffic to specific IP addresses, as referenced in Microsoft KB 897567 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897567).  With this in mind we want to give you advanced notice of our intended change if you have configured your enterprise network in this manner.

Please ensure your enterprise firewall configuration is updated with the full list of Windows Live Messenger addresses below on or before Friday, February 2, 2010.  Windows Live Messenger will NOT enable the additional IP address until on or after February 2, 2010 (Pacific Time) to ensure your services will not be disrupted by this change.

IP address for Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation:

64.4.9.181

64.4.9.245

64.4.50.110 (Additional new IP address)

65.54.52.53

65.54.52.245

65.54.227.249

For more information please reference Microsoft KB 897567, or for further assistance, please engage Microsoft Customer Support Services via http://support.microsoft.com.

USER ACTION:

Potential action for Office Communications Server and/or firewall administrator(s) if restrictions are in place allowing specific IPs to connect per KB 897567.  Additionally, there will not be any further notification regarding this maintenance activity unless there is a broad disruption of service.  In such cases, we will relay outage communication accordingly.

REFERENCES:

Monday, January 18, 2010

SharePoint Connections - Day 1

Hijaaa!What an amazing day @ the SharePoint Connections Conference in Amsterdam Rai. Today was a full day of kinds of mixed SharePoint 2010 (#sp2010) sessions. From BI, to Managed Metadata, Enterprise Service Applications, how to upgrade a database to #sp2010. While sitting here on the dining table together with a nice cup of coffee: Did they reach me? Answer: Yes, they have reached me. From a community standpoint this was the day for IT Pro’s and SharePoint Experts. The place to be! Even for our customers.

And we are proud the event kicked off by Matthijs Hoekstra (Developer Evangelist – Microsoft Netherlands).

image

Today, I started with sessions about what’s NEW in SharePoint 2010. The keynote was a important introduction and a clear point of view from Nintex. We also get a nice overview about the evolution of SharePoint. SharePoint 2010 is now in the universe. It’s more then even a platform. A platform which is capable to extend. Funny is to see how strong the relationship is between Microsoft (as “God”) and Microsoft Partners. Microsoft needs his almost +4000 partners to extend this wonderful product.

image

The ultimate match between practical stuff and vision. For each professionalism there was a “Yellow” and “Blue” component. Yellow in a way that people with vision and a passion of creation can create everything they want in #sp2010. Think about the ultimate integration between #sp2010 and SharePoint Designer. The ultimate tool for SharePoint Developers and functional SharePoint consultants. On the other side a nice and streamlines interface with good monitoring and alerting for system administrators. “Sandbox Solutions” for a stable development platform. Clear way in upgrading your existing environment while leaving the old up and running (read-only).

We ending up by 17:30AM – time for the SharePint! Sorry, guys I missed that opportunity.

image

Impressive organization, service and good speakers! Many thanks to the SharePoint PG and all its premium sponsors. Hopefully tomorrow even better than today! Community rocks.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

SharePoint Connection 2010 Amsterdam RAI

image Tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow is the day of a 2-day kickoff in SharePoint Connections. This year three people of e-office are attending the SharePoint Connections conference. We are excited and glad that we can be there. During the day we would like to spread our knowledge to you and of course the online community. Do not hesitate if you have any feedback or questions. To stay up to date feel free to follow us on this wonderful event:

Lets meet the pro’:

image

IT PRO: Joachim Farla             [Infrastructure Specialist and Office Communications Server 2007 – MVP. Owner of http://ucvug.nl (Unified Communications Virtual User Group) and http://unified.communications.blogspot.com mainly focused on the IT Pro sessions tomorrow] – Follow his twitter tomorrow twitter.com/joafar

 

image DEVELOPER: Marc Wetters             [Office Specialist and Senior SharePoint Developer focused on the developer sessions tomorrow]. Owner of unified.communications-development.blogspot.com. Marc Wetters has provided consulting and research within the Information Technology industry and with Microsoft for the past 14 years.

 

FUNCTIONAL: Sjoert Ebben           [Office Specialist and Functional SharePoint Consultant mainly focused on functional and developer sessions tomorrow] Follow his twitter tomorrow twitter.com/sjoere / weblog: http://sjoere.blogspot.com/

 

Beneath my personal IT Pro selection of sessions. If you like it to catch up tomorrow you can meet me there!

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clip_image004

Additional interests:

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Event information:

The conference in Amsterdam contains all highlights presented at the international SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas. The SharePoint Connections conference also offers networking opportunities to engage with SharePoint partners, experts, speakers and partners who are exhibiting.

The SharePoint event of the year highlights over 40 sessions for IT-Pro, Developers and end-users. Sessions will be delivered by SharePoint Experts from Europe and the USA:

Main topics:

  • What's new for end users
  • Using the Business Connectivity Services
  • ECM for the Masses
  • SharePoint Designer
  • Rich media in SharePoint 2010
  • creating Workflow
  • Social computing
  • Advanced Web part development
  • Sandboxed Solutions
  • BCS solutions
  • Client side object model
  • Enterprise Search & FAST search
  • SharePoint UI customization
  • Silverlight
  • Architecting a fault tolerant, high performance SP 2010 farm
  • Backup and restore in SP 2010
  • Claim based Identity
  • Large scale repositories
  • Implementing multi lingual solutions
  • Protecting content with SQL server 2008
  • Upgrade scenario's
  • Source: SPC Site

    Location:

    Amsterdam RAI

    Wednesday, January 13, 2010

    HP and Microsoft Simplify Technology Environments with Solutions Built on New Infrastructure-to-Application Model

    HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced a three-year agreement to invest $250 million to significantly simplify technology environments for businesses of all sizes.   The companies plan to deliver new solutions that will

    • Be built on a next-generation infrastructure-to-application model,
    • Advance cloud computing by speeding application implementation,
    • Eliminate complexities of IT management and automate existing manual processes to lower overall costs

    This agreement represents the industry’s most comprehensive technology stack integration to date -- from infrastructure to application -- and is intended to substantially improve the customer experience for developing, deploying and managing IT environments.

    With this strategic partnership, HP and Microsoft will collaborate on an engineering roadmap for data management machines; converged, prepackaged application solutions; comprehensive virtualization offerings and integrated management tools. Delivered through the industry’s most extensive sales and partner network, these dynamic IT solutions will be designed to provide:

    Increased business efficiency through solutions that respond to changing business requirements by seamlessly converging server, storage, network and application resources in a highly automated, self-managed environment.

    Improved application performance, reliability and availability for some of the industry’s top business applications, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server, by creating a deeply optimized “machine” environment. This is achieved through turnkey, pre-integrated server, storage, networking and application packages. These data management and email machines provide “push-button” simplicity in deployment and management.

    Enhanced operations through integrated, interoperable virtualization and management tools that allow technology environments to be automatically provisioned, managed and continuously self-tuned.  Through the integration of HP Insight Software, HP Business Technology Optimization software and Microsoft System Center with Microsoft Hyper-V Server, enterprise customers use a unified management solution to automate application deployment along with infrastructure-to-application monitoring. This integration also delivers power and performance optimization, while ensuring interoperability in a heterogeneous datacenter environment.

    — Investment protection and low total cost of ownership, enabling customers to deploy systems with confidence. The joint solutions are built on industry standards and designed to utilize existing data center investments, all managed through a common framework. This approach is designed to enable customers to integrate private or public cloud computing models as their business requires. HP and Microsoft will collaborate on the Windows Azure platform, with HP offering services, and Microsoft continuing to invest in HP hardware for Windows Azure infrastructure.

    The new infrastructure-to-application model from HP and Microsoft will be delivered as integrated offerings for large, heterogeneous datacenter environments as well as through solutions designed for small and midsized businesses. Solutions are available immediately, with new offerings being introduced throughout the next three years.

    Source: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/jan10/01-13InfToAppPR.mspx

    RT Bas Brikke ontbijtessies (feedback en ervaringen)

    Zie zijn blog hier 

    Vanochtend de eerste ontbijtsessie gehad over het verbinden van Mensen en Kennis met SharePoint 2010.
    Een korte introductie van de essentie van SharePoint is altijd op z'n plaats. Veel klanten vinden SharePoint moeilijk te doorgronden vanwege het grote volume aan templates (voorgedefinieerde sites) en de breedte van de inzetbaarheid.


    Hierna een link gelegd met documenten als expliciet maken van Kennis en het verbinden van mensen aan deze documenten. Uit de praktijk komen zeer veel voorbeelden naar boven.


    Mijn collega Renee Hulsman verzorgde een tweetal demonstraties van 2010, mooi opgebouwd vanuit een overzicht van de pagina's via documenten naar de dynamische profielen van mensen.
    De deelnemers waren zeer interactief, daar was ook alle gelegenheid voor. Mijn voorkeur gaat uit naar kleine groepjes, zodat het stellen van vragen eerder beloond dan bestraft wordt ;-)

    Een van de meest visuele uitbreidingen in 2010 is de Organization Browser. Hierover laten meer.

    Org browser
    Iedereen heeft het goed naar zijn zin gehad, de evaluaties gaven ons een 8,8! Een zeer goede score waar ik dan ook zeer trots op ben.

    Ik wil dan ook iedereen bedanken die bijgedragen heeft aan het realiseren van deze demo omgeving en gevraagd en ongevraagd zijn/haar hulp heeft aangeboden. Dat alles is meer dan welkom.
    Op naar de volgende 2 sessie!

    Ontwaken met e-office en SharePoint 2010 Zie zijn presa.

    Friday, January 8, 2010

    SharePoint 2010 live @ e-office for breakfast sessions (show21)

    We had a hard time this week to setup our new SharePoint 2010 Beta 2 environment. Beta 2 especially had some issues with the User Profile Service. Take takes lot’s of time for us but we fixed it!

    Next week we will presenting the first breakfast session about scenarios and Social Networking/Media in SharePoint 2010. Not only a basic feature show! More in-depth, how you can use SharePoint 2010 in your organization. What kind of area’s are the killer area’s for your team or organization. Improvement comparing with previous versions of SharePoint.

    My partner in crime will steel the show next week. Check out his weblog on http://baskrikke.blogspot.com/ or follow him on twitter.com/baskrikke. Also our SharePoint 2010 specialist Renee Hulsman (twitter.com/rhulsman) will be available for more technical questions. Still seats available. Check out the subscription site for free: link

    Below: Organization chart build on Silverlight displayed in your own MySite!

    image

    So do not wait and take a sneak peak at e-office!

    Map picture

    Microsoft UC Community Day on 2 February 2010

    Yes! Together with my colleague Bas Krikke we will presenting on the next UC Community Day about Social Media and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. And maybe some Wave 14 stuff!

    The application platform of our presentation is Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and it’s Social Networking capabilities.

    We have a limited timeslot (30 minutes) to get people inspired.

    The event is invitation only and will be organized by Microsoft Netherlands.

    More information please contact Microsoft Event Services on eventsnl@microsoft.com

    4 new downloads for OCS R2, MOC and Group Chat

    Today some new stuff was published on Microsoft Downloads. Today patch day ;-) I did not test all these updated by myself but I really recommend to upgrade your installations asap.

    The Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 will be upgraded to version 6907.83.

    Main fixes (Communicator 2007 R2):
    • 978161 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978161/ ) Office Communicator 2007 R2 crashes when you receive an incoming instant message notification
    • 978162 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978162/ ) A hyperlink is converted to plain text format when you input the hyperlink into an Office Communicator 2007 R2 conversation window
    • 978163 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978163/ ) You cannot call a user by using the Actions button in Office Outlook 2007, but you can call the user through Office Communicator 2007 R2
    Main fixes (Office Communications Server 2007 R2):
    • 978363 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978363/ ) You experience performance issues in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 during NTLM authentication
    • 978364 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978364/ ) You experience performance issues in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 when you move many users between pools at the same time
    • 978366 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978366/ ) Instant messages are blocked in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 if a third-party application uses the "otherIpPhone" attributes
    • 978367 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978367/ ) You cannot start the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Front-End service if the connection to the root domain controller is lost
    • 978369 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978369/ ) Instant messaging fails when the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 front-end server that you connect to changes

    Source: Microsoft Downloads

    Tuesday, January 5, 2010

    Unified Communications Development for Non-Professional Developers

    Yes, Michiel van Oudheusden and myself are presenting a webcast on the topic: Unified Communications Development for Non-Professional Developers! Cool! Join is then if you like. More information on the webcast available very soon. 

    Microsoft Unified Communications is unleashing the power of software to communications. But what are the use cases that any company can deploy to its benefits without being a full-time developer?

    This webcast walks through a set of easy-to-use applications anyone can build on the developer platform of Microsoft Exchange and Office Communications Server with basic programming skills.

    How to use the new PowerShell capabilities to manage your Exchange users; how to use Exchange for managing a customer database; how to build a conference room scheduling application in the Exchange Web Services Managed API; how to write a smart notifications application in the Windows Workflow that works with SharePoint and uses the right communications mode of email, IM, or the telephone depending on the presence of the user that needs to be alerted; and how build a basic help desk portal application using speech recognition.

    Unified Communications Development for Non-Professional Developers planned on: Tuesday,  Feb 23th from 11am-12:30pm (PST). More information soon!

    Monday, January 4, 2010

    Plantronics Named Preferred Headset Provider for Avaya Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions

    Companies Expand 40-Year Relationship to Help Customers Realize

    Unified Communications Business Collaboration and Cost Savings Benefits

    Santa Cruz, Calif. – January 4, 2010Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) today announced an expansion of its 40-year business and technology relationship with Avaya to deliver Unified Communications (UC) and Contact Center (CC) solutions that help companies improve business collaboration and reduce operating costs. Plantronics has been named the Avaya preferred headset provider to bring unparalleled audio quality, reliability and ease-of-use to enterprise business users.

    “Together, Avaya and Plantronics offer customers end-to-end Unified Communications solutions that are seamless, minimize risk and spur adoption for IT decision makers, and deliver great audio and simplicity for end users,” said Linda Dotts, vice president of Product Marketing, Unified Communications, Avaya. “Expanding our relationship will help customers realize the collaboration and cost savings associated with Unified Communications.”

    Plantronics’ broad portfolio of headsets are Avaya-certified and provide  immediate connectivity and advanced call control functionality with Avaya’s solutions. Additionally, Plantronics and Avaya will jointly introduce future voice solutions that take advantage of Avaya’s suite of collaboration applications and tools to provide a new level of communication intelligence to customers.

    The relationship will focus on the following areas:

    · Technology – Tight integration of Avaya product APIs into Plantronics audio solutions. Several new products from Plantronics for Avaya Unified Communications and Avaya Contact Centers will be announced in 2010.

    · Marketing – Avaya and Plantronics will collaborate on integrated UC and CC marketing campaigns in 2010 to channel partners and end users.

    Avaya will transition from delivering Avaya-branded headsets manufactured by Plantronics in February 2010. Customers will then purchase Plantronics-branded headsets designed for Avaya telephony solutions directly from Plantronics’ extensive channel of distributors and business partners. This is a global action; however, Avaya Germany will continue to purchase headsets directly from Plantronics. The transition will simplify purchase processes for customers while maintaining world-class service and support.

    “Above all else, Plantronics seeks to deliver exceptional audio experiences that enable end users and their organizations to realize the true, real-time collaboration benefits of Unified Communications,” said Michael Gjerstad, vice president of Strategic Partnerships at Plantronics. “This relationship delivers on that promise in ways that are consistent with the foundation of our four-decade relationship with Avaya: technology innovation, cost-efficient solutions for business, and intuitive experiences for end users.”

    Only Headset Manufacturer to Attain Platinum DevConnect Membership

    Plantronics is now a Platinum member of the Avaya DevConnect program, an initiative to develop, market and sell third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology. Plantronics is the only Platinum-level headset manufacturer in the Avaya DevConnect program. 

    The Avaya DevConnect program promotes the development, compliance-testing and co-marketing of innovative third-party products that are compatible with standards-based Avaya solutions. Member organizations have expertise in a broad range of technologies – including IP telephony, contact centers and mobility applications – helping companies extend the value of multivendor networks and transform voice into an intelligent business application that delivers true value to the bottom line.

    About Avaya

    Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

    About Plantronics

    Plantronics is a world leader in personal audio communications for professionals and consumers. From unified communication solutions to Bluetooth(R) headsets, Plantronics delivers unparalleled audio experiences and quality that reflect our nearly 50 years of innovation and customer commitment. Plantronics is used by every company in the Fortune 100 and is the headset of choice for air traffic control, 911 dispatch and the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.plantronics.com or call (800) 544-4660.

    Plantronics is a registered trademarks of Plantronics, Inc. The Bluetooth trademark is owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of the mark by Plantronics, Inc. is under license. All other trademarks are the property of the respective owners.