What’s the hype on OCS?
Ok, we've been promising an insight into OCS and the buzz surrounding this new three letter acronym from Microsoft, so here it is. Firstly it makes sense to provide you with a literal definition of what OCS is and what stands for followed by an explanation of what we believe it means for businesses.
OCS stands for Office Communications Server and is a server side product from Microsoft which is said to enhance business performance by bringing unified communications to you desktop via your Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel etc.). Right, so you didn’t catch a word of that, what on earth does unified communications mean, how can it be brought to your desktop and why have we stooped to using clichés like enhanced business performance?...
So what is/are unified communications?
Through the advancement of technology over the course of history, new methods of communication have been developed and have revolutionised business practice the world over. From the postal system to the telegram to the telephone to email, communication has diversified to meet the needs of business within the boundaries of economic feasibility and technological know how. And where has this lead us? Today businesses use land line phones, mobile phones, conferencing over dedicated lines, conferencing over the internet, email and even instant messaging and SMS text messaging, offered by separate providers over bespoke technology infrastructure.
Unified communications is the principle of unifying each of these separate methods of communication to be delivered over a single technology infrastructure by a single provider for benefits in cost, manageability, interoperability and development. The technology we are talking about is IP or Internet Protocol, which has become business critical to most organisations because of the prevalence of email. Advancements in IP technology have seen businesses adopting instant messaging solutions, video and the term you have probably all heard a lot recently VoIP (Voice over IP). Unified communications essentially refers to the delivery of all traditional methods of communication over internet based technology.
Right, I think we have the principle of unified communications but who is doing it… and how?
Yep, you guessed it; Microsoft have been providers of email to businesses for over a decade, their Exchange Server product is the dominant messaging platform for businesses in the UK, they are a major provider of Instant Messaging technology and have begun making major inroads into voice and video over IP. It can be argued that Microsoft own the business desktop, from your windows system to the Office tools you are using to the messaging and email clients you are communicating with, these are probably the 9 - 5 of your day... but what about your phone?... Well Microsoft are now bringing the phone to your desktop, in such a way that you will be able to click a name on your screen and the handset right next to you will start calling them.
Ok, that just sounds like a gimmick, my phone works perfeclty fine and i can make a call at the press of a button right now, why all the excitement?...
Right, the point is we have now unified our communications, so voice, video, email, instant messaging and even sms can now be managed from your desktop, you can read or listen to voicemail and instant messages from your email, you can listen to email and instant messages from your phone and you can call, email or message anyone from any application on your desktop.
Now we can add in some intelligence...
Those of you who use instant messaging will appreciate the usefulness of settng your status to 'busy' or 'away' to stop you getting pestered during something important, like having some quality time with your partner watching Match of the Day or bidding for bargains on e-Bay. This is known as 'Presence Awareness' and by setting your prefered method of contact for each presence state you can have all calls, instant messages and emails diverted to your mobile when set to 'away' or to voicemail when 'busy', giving you full control over your working preferences. The Presence awareness feature is also intelligent in itself, if you pick up the phone it detects and sets your presence, if your calendar says you are in a meeting, you are set to 'busy' and if you are away from your keyboard too long, well you are 'away'.
There are a tremendous number of features and business benefits resulting from this technology which I will go into next time and provide some real business scenarios where it can be applied to enhance business performance.
Dan Hancock, Operations Director