As UC itself has matured, and the market place united in defining its core functionality, more and more businesses are looking to Microsoft Lync in order to deliver their UC strategy.

But why?

Well to some it might not seem like the logical route to take given that voice still plays a key role within most UC environments, and voice is not something you historically associate with Microsoft.

In fact, Microsoft’s competitors in this technology sector often used this to their advantage when delivering their sales pitch. ‘You’re not trusting Microsoft with your voice’ was clearly a tactic used to detract from the lack of functionality and integration within their own portfolios.

Furthermore, a number of systems integrators not recognising the speed by which Microsoft would head the UC marketplace (see Gartner UC Magic Quadrant 2008, 2009, 2010, & 2011), aligned themselves with other vendors product’s, and found they did not then have the internal skillset to embrace Office Communication Server 2007 R2 or Lync. With this in mind, it doesn’t take a genius to deduct which vendor products they would recommend to potential customers. One in which they had the skills to deliver, or one in which they did not?

So what changed?

Well, Microsoft proved the stability of its voice platform, firstly with OCS 2007 R2, and then with the remodelled architecture, and improved feature set of Lync Server 2010. Miercom’s independent lab test helped with this, as did the sheer number of organisations embracing Lync without any of the issues that Microsoft’s competitors had focused on, and with the added benefit of true voice resiliency and E911 compliance.

In addition Microsoft allowed both OCS R2 and Lync to be integrated with competitor IP-PBX’s, ensuring those not quite ready to move to a full Microsoft Enterprise Voice Solution, are still able to embrace other key elements of OCS R2 & Lync including IM, Presence, conferencing (audio/video and web), collaboration, agile working, and peer-to-peer voice. This was actually quite a shrewd move on Microsoft’s part, as it introduced the benefits of their platform to the masses, whilst giving customers the opportunity to migrate from existing IP-PBX infrastructure as and when the time is right.

Intuitive & Familiar Client

In addition, Microsoft’s focus on the user experience, a highly intuitive client, and ultimately the integration with other key Microsoft products such as Exchange, Dynamics CRM, and SharePoint, showed the way in which a truly integrated UC solution could benefit an organisation in terms of improved productivity, and simplified access to information & knowledge distributed across departments, offices, and regions, from wherever a user may be working. Microsoft has provided a client that looks and feels like other products from within the Microsoft portfolio, and one that users are ultimately familiar with.

This has two benefits. Firstly, up take and usage of Lync’s toolset is quick and widespread, enabling organisations to realise the benefits widely associated with UC much faster than expected. And secondly, training requirements are vastly reduced, thus lowering costs, and speeding up deployment.

Extending Integration

Having already highlighted how Lync looks and feels like other products from the Microsoft Portfolio, and indeed, how it seamlessly integrates with them, thus removing the need to have multiple applications open at any one time, Microsoft has gone a step further by releasing the Lync SDK.

By opening up the Lync SDK, developers are now able to write bespoke Lync Clients that embed and integrate into legacy line of business applications, such as HR systems, Finance systems, and Manufacturing systems, providing users with the full Lync toolset, irrespective of the application they are currently using. Clearly Microsoft’s goal here is to provide the user with all the tools they require in which to communicate, but at the same time, provide them in a way that allows a user to access them in the easiest way possible. That means in a single client, which can be embedded in 90% of the systems an organisation may use, thus reducing the time it takes to reach out to, and collaborate with, colleagues and partners.

Power to the people

Finally, and one might say, most importantly, both OCS 2007R2 and Lync have been designed from the ground up, without any of the baggage associated with a legacy in the PBX world. Microsoft have started with a clean sheet, and designed a solution that empowers the user.

Each individual user has the power to dictate how and when they communicate, how calls are distributed to colleagues when they are unavailable, and ultimately, how best to start and then progress conversations. All this without the need to approach the IT Department, and available from anywhere with a connection to the internet.

This change in focus means that pressure and responsibility has been removed from central IT Departments who historically setup and supported features such as call pick up, hunt groups, and call forwarding, allowing them instead to now focus on other IT related activities, and empowering users to design there own communication environments.

Furthermore, by embracing USB technology in its certified endpoints, support of the general communications infrastructure has been simplified and improved. Time spent connecting phones in patching cabinets, or updating firmware has been removed. Gone are the days when it took a day to move a department’s phone infrastructure to a new location. Gone are the days when a user could be waiting an extended period of time for their phone to be fixed leaving them inconvenienced and frustrated. Gone are the days when a user’s DDI is stuck firmly to the office from which they work, preventing them from truly embracing the new enthusiasm for agile working.

All in all, you could say that Microsoft has designed Lync for the modern worker. For a user who expects to be able to communicate and collaborate from wherever they choose, on whatever device, and most importantly, on their terms.

It would seem that over the past 12 months there have been plenty of obstacles placed in your way that prevent you from getting to the office, or to that all important meeting that’s been in your diary for months.

Public Sector strikes have impacted on rail and bus services, and even caused widespread disruption on the roads, as tunnels were closed for health and safety reasons because there were no staff on duty to man the cameras.

We then have the weather that seems more often than not to deliver a good dusting of snow each winter, again causing widespread disruption that brings UK PLC to its knees.

It’s estimated that 1 in 5 people have had to take a day off work due to inclement weather, or because schools have closed as a result of the weather, or industrial action.

And things aren’t about to change anytime soon. In fact, those unfortunate to live in the South East can expect a fair bit of disruption as we welcome the 2012 Olympics to London.

So what’s the answer?

Well those of you lucky enough to be working for a forward thinking organisation are already laughing at the inconvenience the majority of you are accustomed to. For a whole bunch of different reason, their organisation has adopted a Unified Communications Strategy, and more specifically, deployed Microsoft Lync throughout the company.

Some organisations may have embraced UC to address the growing cost of travel, or ever increasing audio/video conferencing charges attracted by using 3^rd party hosted solutions. Others because they want to streamline processes, and improve communication and collaboration between departments, sites, and regions.

But what all these organisations have in common, is that by deploying Microsoft Lync, they have been able to extend the workplace outside of traditional bricks and mortar, and ultimately to any location where its employees have access to the internet.

This new enthusiasm for agile working is enhanced further as organisations are providing their employees with the communication toolset they require in order to operate efficiently. Presence, IM, conferencing (audio, video, and web), collaboration, and enterprise voice are all delivered to the desktop, enabling users to operate as if they were in the office. In fact, it doesn’t really matter where they work, the experience is the same.

The shrewd individuals among you would already have picked up on this fact, but just in case, here’s another low blow from those who have embraced Microsoft Lync. They have a better set of tools in which to communicate from home, than most of you have in the office.

So next time you’re inconvenienced and can’t get into the office, why not take a minute to think about how much easier it would be if you had access to Microsoft Lync.

Although Lync is one of the most intuitive applications you’ll find on a business desktop computer today, it can still be a bit confusing for users to know how to use the system effectively once you introduce a number of different voice endpoint types.

Kent Fire and Rescue (KFRS), a client of Modality Systems, have modified their environment to help users understand their extensive Lync voice estate better. By making some subtle changes to the look and feel of Lync, they’ve ensured their Lync environment is used to the best of it’s capabilities.

The Problem

Perception is one of the most important things in business. Making technology easy to use and intuitive is key to the success of a project. KFRS realised that although Lync provides a great experience out of the box, there was a way to make it even easier to use.

The new Pictures feature in Lync 2010 is a great way of putting a face to a name, but if the endpoint isn’t a user with a picture, it can be difficult to ascertain what contact type the endpoint is and how to interact with it.

By default, a non-user object like a response group or common area phone is simply represented by a generic icon, like this:

This doesn’t clearly define what the endpoint is or how it can be interacted with using Lync.

The Solution

To make the Lync experience more intuitive, KFRS created their own set of icons for Lync that make it clear what each contact is in the environment.

At a glance, users can tell exactly what each contact is and what kind of communication its capable of. This lowers helpdesk calls and helps staff understand the different contact types within Lync.

To suit their environment, KFRS created the following icon sets:

• Lync enabled employee
• Common area phone
• Switchboard operator
• Service Desk
• Team
• Location

From the above table, users can tell straight away what the endpoint is capable of and what to expect when they place a voice call to it.

Flexibility

It’s great innovations from a forward-thinking organisation like KFRS that demonstrate the flexibility and ease of customisation of Lync. The quick and simple ways the product can be changed make it easy to adapt to the business and cultural requirements and conditions within your organisation.

We see loads of requests on the Microsoft TechNet forums from time to time asking whether Lync can be configured to automatically bring the conversation window forward when a new IM comes through. This is because the flashing icon in the Windows taskbar can be easy to miss if someone has IM’d you and you didn’t happen to be at your PC.

Well, the development team at Modality Systems, headed by Paul Nearney, thought about how we could solve this problem, and have developed SuperToast

SuperToast will bring your new IMs up in a notification window on your desktop, so it’s totally obvious you’ve just been IM’d. No more missing critical messages because they’re sitting in your taskbar going unanswered.

What’s more, SuperToast is a cinch to install,and runs in the system tray. Click here to to view SuperToast in action.

Here’s what just a few of you have been saying…

"I just installed it on my workstation to check it out and it’s exactly what I needed. Definitely will be following the live launch in December and look forward to seeing future versions!"

"Overall, an easy to deploy, easy to use solution to a nagging irritation.  Now my boss and my boss’s boss are no longer complaining about the fact that they miss instant messages – so my life is happy."

"That is a really cool app.  It’s amazing that Microsoft didn’t think to do this."

For more info on SuperToast, and other applications developed by Modality Systems, email us at info@modalitysystems.com or check out http://www.modalitysystems.com/software/

As we know, Microsoft Lync has the ability to completely transform the way your organisation approaches communication. From allowing your employees to more efficiently access the information & knowledge embedded within business areas, irrespective of where they may be working, to integrating with back office and line of business applications in order to streamline processes, Microsoft Lync repeatedly out performs all other UC solutions.

When you then factor in the time saved by employees who no longer ‘blind call’ colleagues in the hope they are available to assist them, and also Lync’s ability to truly deliver an integrated agile working experience, you have a pretty compelling argument when deciding whether or not to implement a Unified Communication & Collaboration strategy.

However, talk is cheap, and without Senior Management being able to touch, feel, and witness Microsoft Lync in action, it can sometimes be difficult to prove that the above is anything more than a utopian dream.

Therefore, in order to help your organisation demonstrate the true power of Microsoft Lync, Modality Systems in association with Microsoft, Polycom, and Net Gateways are happy to announce the following Proof of Concept incentive….

Customer purchases 100 x Lync plus CAL licenses by 15th Dec 2011 and in return receives:

1. 20% off cost of Lync plus CAL License
2. 100 Complimentary Plantronics Headsets*
3. 10 Complimentary Microsoft Webcams
4. 60 day trial of net UX 1000 Gateway (required for external voice) plus additional discount if you progress from POC to full deployment
5. Funding from Microsoft** to be used in conjunction with Modality Systems and to be redeemed against the infrastructure and professional services required to deploy a 100 seat Enterprise Voice enabled Microsoft Lync Deployment
6. Funding from Modality systems to be redeemed against initial design work, and installation.

*Terms & Conditions Apply

**Subject to Approval

Click here to find out more

Email info@modalitysystems.com to register your interest

Many of Microsoft Lync’s competitors will have you believe that its not a viable option for your Enterprise Voice solution, providing misleading examples of its reliability, and High Availability capabilities. Well to counter act the ill-informed, and dare I say misleading folk out there, may we direct your attention to Miercom’s Independent review of Microsoft Lync.

Without going into too much detail (you’ll find all the detail you need in their report), here are just a few of Miercoms Findings.

‘Microsoft Lync Server 2010 was able to sustain heavy call volume without dropping any calls or reporting any errors in a 4 million call completion test. The delivery rate with sustained operation without error is the highest capacity test applied to any Unified Communications / IP PBX product we have tested to date.’ Miercom Lab Testing Detailed Report DR101117B Microsoft Lync 2010 25 January 2011

‘Performance – Microsoft Lync successfully passed voice and video Quality of Experience (QoE) tests under heavily loaded and degraded network conditions. Even with significant jitter and a packet loss percentage in excess of 5% the voice and video quality of the Lync client with High Definition Video was superb.’ Miercom Lab Testing Detailed Report DR101117B Microsoft Lync 2010 25 January 2011

‘Resiliency testing on Microsoft Lync Client: To verify the branch resiliency Microsoft Lync 2010 was submitted through a series of tests including failing connections between Lync Client and the Lync Server as well as a failed WAN connection. We found the Lync Client to recover quickly (within seconds) upon restoration of the network connection to the Lync 2010 Server. We also conducted failover scenarios for simulated branch location using a Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) from NET the SX 20000. This appliance provided basic voice services to users in the branch during a WAN outage. Microsoft Lync passed resiliency tests for local client as well as branch office deployment’ Miercom Lab Testing Detailed Report DR101117B Microsoft Lync 2010 25 January 2011

‘Bottom Line Microsoft Lync 2010 is a resilient, scalable, feature rich Unified Communications System. Microsoft Lync 2010 should be in the short list of top three to consider for enterprises communications infrastructure upgrades.’ Miercom Lab Testing Detailed Report DR101117B Microsoft Lync 2010 25 January 2011

Pretty compelling evidence I’m sure you’ll agree. Read Miercoms report to understand how they conducted the tests here

We’re excited to announce that Modality Systems has been awarded the Microsoft Gold Communications Partner Competency.

Following Microsoft’s restructuring in this area, the Unified Communication competency we previously held was replaced with the ‘Communications Competency’, which more accurately reflects the ability of Microsoft Partners to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end Microsoft Lync Solution

In order to attain this level of competency, and to remain as the leading ‘go to ‘ organisations for the delivery of Microsoft Lync in the UK,  Modality Systems were able to demonstrate our advanced technical knowledge of Microsoft Lync, as well as the ability to ensure our customers have a seamless experience through the design, implementation, development, and support stages.

With the addition of the Gold Communications Partner competency, to the accolade of being Microsoft’s UK Lync Voice Partner for the second year running, you can be safe in the knowledge that by choosing to work with Modality Systems, you are selecting a partner with the skills, knowledge, and more importantly, the experience of delivering Microsoft Lync into whatever environment you may have.

For more information on how we can help you transform your business, contact us at info@modalitysystems.com

There’s been a lot said about the ability of Microsoft Lync to transform the way you and your organisation work. From its ability to effortlessly connect you  to the information and knowledge spread across your business, to its huge impact on productivity and decision making processes. There’s also been a lot of inaccurate statements from the ill-informed, and from those with a vested interest in selling an alternative inferior product, because that’s what their bottom line depends on.

In order to highlight  the true impact Microsoft Lync can have on your business, and also to dispel the inaccuracies spread by those with an ulterior agenda, Modality Systems in association with Microsoft have scheduled the following roundtable events, targeted specifically at Public Sector and Private sector organisations.

Millennium Stadium, 1st Dec 2011

With the current economic climate, and pressures from Central Government encouraging local authorities to collaborate with neighbouring authorities, and strategic partners in the delivery of services, this event will assist you in highlighting how your organisation can simplify communications, embrace a truly agile way of working, and ultimately improve the flow of information and knowledge across service areas.

As well as an overview and live demonstrations of Microsoft Lync, there will also be presentations from organisations who have embraced this technology, and ultimately realised the benefits widely associated with adopting a Unified Communications & Collaboration Strategy.

Williams F1 Conference Centre 19th January 2012

This roundtable event is targeted specifically at the private sector, and will again highlight the transformational benefits Microsoft Lync will bring to your business. We will discuss how Microsoft Lync addresses internal inefficiencies, drives down costs, and ultimately improves your all important competitive advantage.

The event will include presentation from organisation who have already realised the benefits from deploying Microsoft Lync, as well as an opportunity to speak with our team of technical consultants, widely regarded by their peers as the most knowledgeable individuals in this technology area.

For more information on either event, or indeed to speak with someone about how you can deploy Microsoft Lync in your organisation, email info@modalitysystems.com

iOS 5 BETA software for iPhone and iPad devices doesn’t play nice with iDialog

User are reporting that installing Apple’s recently released iOS 5 BETA operating system for iPhone and iPad devices is causing a hiccup with using iDialog.

User who have installed the update are getting the following error in iDialog when trying to log-in to their organization’s OCS or Lync systems:

Logon Failed, User not authorized.  CWA did not return a ticket.

We’re investigating the issue and will hopefully be able to respond with a solution or workaround as soon as possible. 

In the meantime, please don’t upgrade to the iOS 5 BETA if iDialog is a critical application for you.

10-June UPDATE:  We have identified the cause of the issue and are working on a fix.  The fix will be in the 2.0.6 update, not the forthcoming 2.0.5 update which is already in the Apple Approval queue.

Regards,

-John

John Lamb, Modality Systems

Multi-tasking and native iPad support have been added!

iDialog (including iDialogPro) is the Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) and Lync compatible client for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

We have been working hard to address all of our user’s feedback.  The update is very well tested and has been in use by a number of customers in production beta testing for several months.

The update will be available in iTunes from Wednesday May 18th, 2011.

New Features:

• Multi-tasking support on iOS4+.  iDialog will run in the background for 9 minutes.  During this time the user will appear online to other users and the user will receive a local push notification for any new chats.  An audio tone will be played and a notification badge will be added to the app icon for any new inbound IMs to existing chats.  After 9 minutes iDialog will sign the user out.  Bringing iDialog to the foreground (re-entering the app) will reset the 9 minute timer.
• Native iPad screen resolution
• Portrait and Landscape mode for all devices
• Supports searches that return Distribution Groups as well as users
• Users can email the contents of an IM session
• When viewing a contact and selecting email, iDialog now sends mail without leaving the app.
• Ability to capture debugging trace information to help us troubleshoot issues if users are unable to logon.

Q. What about “Push”?

A.  “Push” functionality enables a cloud-based service to send a wake-up notification to an application.   Some consumer Instant Messaging apps use this technique to notify the user of new incoming instant messages.   We do not believe push is the right model for iDialog, because this functionality would require us to host a service that captures your user’s enterprise credentials.  In order to support Push, a cloud-based service would have to act as a client and log into OCS/Lync on your user’s behalf.  We feel this is too much of a security/privacy concern for most customers.  Every customer we have spoken to about this agrees.   This is in contrast to consumer services like Skype, AOL, etc, where user’s supply their own personal credentials, and the user can make an informed decision about who they give these credentials to.

Q.  Why does multi-tasking only work for 9 minutes?

A.  The terms & conditions of Apple’s developer program do not allow instant messaging applications to use iOS background services for IM and Presence for an unlimited amount of time.  Apple’s App Store Review Guide states:

2.16 Multitasking apps may only use background services for their intended purposes: VoIP, audio playback, location, task completion, local notifications, etc

Battery usage and the impact of a background IM app on the device’s battery life was also a major factor in our design decision.  

iDialog uses a feature called “task completion” to run in the background for a short period of time after the user exits the app.  We feel that our current implementation, which is fully supported by Apple, is a significant improvement that addresses most user’s needs:  It provides the ability to switch back and forth between iDialog and other apps without signing-out and losing conversation state.

Q.  Who should I contact if I have any questions?

A.  Please contact us by email at iDialog@modalitysystems.com.  We always endeavor to respond as quickly as possible. Our office hours are Mon through Fri,  9am to 5pm GMT.

Thank you again to our users for all of their feedback!

-John