Unified Communication
Unified Communication, the name as given by Microsoft. This is a new Type of communication technique in which there is no use of any Hardware device like PBX to communicate. Microsoft is slowly entering into all the markets by which ever means possible. The hardware market, with its different products including the recent launch of surface computer. After launching its Response Point (as it is code named) and Live Communication Server. Microsoft is all set to enter the voice market. Infact, it is doing so from past few years. Even the upcomming release, The Office Communication Server 2007 is also a big hit, which can be integrated with the present products of Microsoft used in every office. The most advance feature of office communication server is that it can successfully be managed on an existing Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure environment.
Last year Microsoft, very cleverly partnered with major PBX service providers like AVAYA, Nortel, Cisco to test its PBX services embedded in communication server 2007. But today this product is competing with those vendors. The main aim of Microsoft is to deploy only soft phones for all the employees in a company. There is no use of a hard phone now and so the huge PBX box vanishes from our server rooms. With the PBX, came the programming and creation of extensions. With the launch of Communication server, this has been nullified. Now an IT administrator can create the extensions with a singly click.
The days have gone when it took hours to create extensions for all the employees in your company, with unified communication, this can be done in a single click. Just follow the screen shots and to your surprise, all the extensions will be created.
Technology
Microsoft is trying to deliver voice based solutions using its product, Office Communication Server 2007 (which is still in Beta) to be released some time this month. Office Communication Server makes use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) which we have discussed in our post about IP Telephony. But as you say old is gold, the old technology will still be there. There is some more journey to be covered by this technology to wipe out those PBX boxes from our server rooms. Just imagine the power consumption of those huge boxes, and how dramatically it will be reduced when they are transformed into a single server.
Reducing the Overhead
IT can manage the system with all the familiar system administration tools. Certainly, automating the extension creation process will reduce the overhead from IT. Moreover, all the extensions can be centrally managed. Office communication server 2007 can work in synchronization with Exchange Server 2007 and the Active Directory where all the details of the user’s phone number is stored along side his e-mail address. It also reduced overhead from users, they just have to click on the person’s name in outlook whom they would like to call. You can also vew which of your buddy is working to call him. It offers all the features of a normal phone like call forwarding, voicemail etc.. The upcoming product, Live Meeting 2007 can also be integrated with OCS.
There will be a time when the whole world will switch from PSTN to IP based communication. Then you will not find any huge PBX box in your server room. On that day there will not be any use of hard phones at your desk. This place will be taken over by more decoratives.
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