Next Generation Telephony

Published: April 24, 2010 Updated with new naming: November 4, 2010

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Executive Summary
Next generation telephony is delivered by Microsoft Lync Server 2010, a single, comprehensive unified communications solution that includes enterprise grade telephony, instant messaging, presence, and audio, video, and web conferencing, all integrated with commonly used applications such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and with infrastructure elements such as Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center Operations Manager. Lync Server customers can extend the full set of communications capabilities to customers, partners, and suppliers over the Internet. The user productivity benefits of integrating communications within desktop and line of business applications are significant. Unicomm Consulting estimates savings of 2% to 12% of staff time based on productivity improvements, and highlights a customer that reduced labor costs by 75% while simultaneously growing volume by 70%. Forrester Consulting studied 15 Microsoft UC customer deployments, and found a composite 563% ROI with nearly 1/3 attributable to individual and workgroup productivity improvements.1 Organizations can also realize significant total cost of ownership savings by unifying the back-end communications infrastructure with other data center tools and techniques including Active Directory, and by providing communications tools that are intuitive and rapidly adopted by employees. Lync Server enables customers to eliminate separate PBX and conferencing directories, utilize existing deployment and operations models, and reduce help desk call volume and cost. It allows the replacement of travel with unified conferencing, and enables more efficient real estate management by making communications as mobile as employees, both inside and outside the company walls.
RealPage, a software vendor, projected adding $2.5M to their 2009 bottom line due to improvements in their sales efforts made possible by Office Communications Server, while Lionbridge estimates annual savings of over $1M each in conferencing and telephony management costs.

This data is from a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft.

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Overview of Next Generation Telephony Based on Microsoft Lync Server

Consistent with the Gartner observation that the focus for enterprise telephony is now in UC2, Lync Server provides the full set of capabilities that position Microsoft in
the Leaders quadrant of the 2010 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications3, including telephony, IM, presence, and audio, video, and web conferencing.
Consulting firm A.T. Kearney cites the importance of a unified solution as a factor in its decision to deploy OCS instead of expanding an existing IP PBX deployment

The solution consists of:

Microsoft Communicator, a single, desktop client for IM, presence, voice, and audio, video, and web conferencing. IP and USB endpoints Optimized for Office Communicator. Microsoft Lync Server, SIP-based server software that provides registration, routing, mixing, monitoring, and other capabilities. Third party gateways and services for PSTN connectivity and emergency call routing, and qualified via the Microsoft Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program.

Robust enterprise telephony

Lync Server is architected for high availability and scalability, and includes: Automatic failover if a server becomes unavailable. Automatic failover if a data center becomes unavailable. Survivable communications for branch offices. Network agnostic call admission control to manage voice and video traffic on constrained wide area network links. Scale-up and scale-out deployment options.

Customers may use servers from their vendor of choice, and may select survivable branch appliances from Audiocodes, Dialogic, Ferrari, HP, and NET. They may also reuse gateways from Cisco and other vendors as documented via the UC Open Interoperability Program.

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Source: Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, August 2009 Source: Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, July 2010

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Lync Server 2010 provides Enhanced 9-1-1 services for North American customers using an innovative approach that eliminates the need for local emergency trunks and Pseudo ANI management while simultaneously extending coverage to mobile workers. Lync Server Enhanced 9-1-1 requires no additional on premise hardware or licenses, and dynamically determines client location automatically based on network address (including BSSID, port, switch, subnet, and MAC address) or user entry.

Connexon and Intrado provide emergency call routing services that allow Communications Server customers in North America to provide region-wide Enhanced 9-1-1 services using a single centralized trunk.

Robust Management
Lync Server includes identity based calling authorization, dial plan and call route management, call detail records (CDR) and Quality of Experience monitoring, and built-in 4 reporting. Lync Server enables administrators to control the operation of analog devices connected to third party gateways, and simplifies the administration of gateways by enabling dial string manipulation and other functions to be performed centrally rather than on each individual gateway. Lync Server also integrates with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager to provide real-time alerting capabilities that include not only server level alerts, but also system level and end-to-end service level monitoring. This latter capability can be used to pro-actively identify when network or other problems are affecting user communications. Finally, Lync Server utilizes role-based administrative controls (RBAC) for both command line and GUI interfaces to match the capabilities available to different individuals and constituent groups to their specific needs and responsibilities. This enables organizations to define the most effective administrative processes given their unique needs, and to assign the right levels of access and control to the people implementing the processes. This simplifies operations for administrators and lowers the risk of inadvertent or malicious damage.

Choice of Endpoints
Lync Server customers benefit from investment and innovation by multiple partners, and can select the resulting products which offer them the best value. For ex ample, they can choose from a rich selection of endpoints that are Optimized for Office Communicator, including IP phone models from Polycom and Aastra, and USB, and PC products offered by Polycom, ClearOne, Plantronics, Jabra, Logitech, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and others.. Both IP phone and soft-phone endpoints utilize SIP for signaling and support standard codecs, including RTAudio, G.711, G.722, and others, as well as QoS. These optimized endpoints offer a high quality user experience and just works installation in a wide variety of form factors and price points.
New IP phone models were announced at VoiceCon Orlando 2010 by Polycom and Aastra. Optimized IP, USB, and PC phone products are offered by Polycom, ClearOne, Plantronics, GN Netcom, Logitech, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and others .

Third party solutions from Aspect, Quest, FaceTime, Unify2, PostCTI, Enabling Technologies, and others extend the

built-in monitoring capabilities to provide accounting and billing, compliance, call recording, and other capabilities.

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User features
Lync Server provides the telephony features needed by most people within an enterprise, including, but not limited to:5 Rollover, hold, and retrieve Blind, safe, and consultative transfer Endpoint transfer Reverse number lookup, (and calling party name display) Departmental call queuing (Response Groups) Malicious call trace Call forwarding and simultaneous ringing Call park and retrieve Music on hold

Call Diversion Boss/admin coverage (via delegation)

Group pickup (via team calling) Do not disturb

Agent anonymity

Private line

A better phone
Presence and Instant Messaging improve dial tone
Traditional telephony solutions result in many calls being transferred to voicemail or going unanswered, simply because callers have no way of knowing whether the other party is available prior to making a call. Each failed call wastes time for the caller. Lync Server aggregates user presence information from a variety of inputs including login status, current PC or phone activity, Microsoft Outlook calendar entries, and manual selection, and makes the resulting presence status available to others. This status may be used, before a call is even placed, to determine whether another party is likely or even able to answer the call. Built-in instant messaging may be used to check the willingness of the other party to receive a call, or may be used to quickly conduct the business of the intended call, thus making the call unnecessary.

Mobile by design
Lync Server provides users with the ability to make and receive corporate calls nearly anywhere with Internet access: all communications capabilities are accessible from inside or outside the enterprise without requiring a VPN, special hardware, or additional end-user configuration. Users may take advantage of the mobility features from home, on the road, and while locations whether in hotels, airports, or even client sites. Users can also take advantage of simultaneous ringing to direct Lync Server calls to their cell phones.

Office Communications Server helpd the Bavarian Auto Group save $400,000 per year on long-distance charges and other travel related expenses. FranklinCovey chose to deploy Office Communications Server to provide mobility instead of up-

Read Appendix A for additional representative user features or the full Microsoft written response to the

grading its Avaya PBX, and saved $475,000 as a result.

VoiceCon Orlando 2010 Request for Proposal for an IP Telephony System to see a description of how Lync Server 2010 meets traditional IP PBX requirements.

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No need to call the telephony administrator

Lync Server and Communicator allow users to control call coverage and other settings without the need, cost, and delay of administrative intervention: Users can change their call forwarding behavior from their PC or from any web browser, inside or outside the enterprise. Users can configure their own administrative assistants, or delegates, that is, those people authorized to receive and make calls on their behalf. Users can configure any number of delegates and can easily modify the list for vacation, emergency, and other coverage reasons. Users can identify team members to answer calls on their behalf using the Team Call feature. This is useful for a variety of call coverage scenarios including group call pickup.

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No need to call voicemail

Figure 1. Automatic transcription of voice mail. Lync Server is integrated with both Outlook and Microsoft Exchange, and gives users the option to preview automatic transcriptions of voicemail messages, as per figure 1 above, or listen to them on their PCs rather than calling. This not only saves time, but also allows discrete review of messages during meetings and other situations where a call is in appropriate or impossible.

Much more than a phone

People at work want to get their jobs done. Lync Server helps them do it more easily and quickly by providing a full set of communications capabilities, not just voice, and by integrating these capabilities with the applications they use most. Lync Server is integrated with both Outlook and Microsoft Exchange, and gives users the option to preview automatic transcriptions of voicemail messages, as per Figure 1., or listen to them on their PCs rather than calling. This not only saves time, but also allows discrete review of messages during meetings and other situations where a call is inappropriate, impossible, or costly.

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Reaching someone you dont even know yet

Lync Server not only provides access to corporate directory information including user names, photos, and distribution lists, but also integrates with SharePoint to enable searching for people with a particular skill or area of interest. Communicator 14 Skill Search, shown in Figure 2, takes advantage of user profiles and other information in SharePoint to automate and simplify the process of finding people with the expertise required to complete a given task.

Figure 2. Skill Search helps users find others with needed expertise.

Sometimes a phone call is not enough

Lync Server allows users to easily add video and application sharing to any call, and to escalate any call to a multi-media conference. The addition of rich media allows users to collaborate in real time on shared projects, and to work more effectively together wherever they are. Lync Server supports up to 720p resolution for video, and integrates with a variety of high end video conferencing solutions.

Office and other application Integration

Lync Server makes the full set of communications capabilities accessible through seamless integration with applications. For example: Usernames shown in Outlook and SharePoint also indicate presence status for the user, and allow real-time contact from the application via a right click. Communications initiated from an Outlook message automatically include the subject line from the message to give the called party context for the discussion. 9

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Users can schedule and join multi-media Lync Server conferences with a single click from Outlook calendar..

In addition, rich platform interfaces allow corporate developers, system integrators, and independent software vendors to incorporate communications within their own applications.

Unified Communications with customers, suppliers, and partners

Lync Server extends the above capabilities outside the enterprise using the Internet: Federation allows organizations with Lync Server to use the Internet to carry encrypted IM, presence, voice, and conferencing communications to other organizations that use Lync Server. This both improves the end-user experience and lowers communications costs. Public Internet connectivity with AOL, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo IM users: Lync Server users can also share presence information and exchange instant messages with users of popular Internet instant messages systems, and may make audio and video calls to Windows Live Messenger users. This is useful for extending rich communications to business contacts that do not yet use Communicator, and for staying in touch with family when traveling on business. Other instant messaging interoperability. Lync Server customers can also take advantage of basic presence sharing and instant messaging (IM) with Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) networks Cisco Jabber and Google Talk, and with IBM Sametime.
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Moving telephony into the datacenter

Lync Server enables significant operational efficiencies with corresponding cost of ownership reductions: One system, not several: Instead of purchasing and managing different systems for voice, conferencing, instant messaging, and video, the enterprise can deploy Lync Server to address all communications workloads. Single enterprise directory: Lync Server relies on Active Directory. There is no separate directory to maintain for communications. Datacenter consolidation: Lync Server enables an enterprise to operate enterprise-wide unified communications infrastructure from centralized datacenters that the enterprise already maintains for other workloads such as messaging, application servers, etc.
Lionbridge saves $30 per user per year by using their existing Active Directory infrastructure rather than maintaining a separate IP PBX user database.

Federation was first released in 2004 as part of Live Communication Server. As of March, 2010, Microsoft is federated with over 950 organizations; our employees conduct literally millions of federated conversations during an average month.
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See http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/Features/2009/oct09/10-01UCInterop.mspx

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Virtualization: Lync Server supports virtualization of all data center server 8 roles on any SVVP-certified hypervisor, including both Hyper-V and various VMWare products.

Summary
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 provides a single, comprehensive enterprise communications solution that includes voice, instant messaging, presence, and audio, video, and web conferencing, all integrated with commonly used applications such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and infrastructure elements such as Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center Operations Manager. Separate IP PBX solutions are no longer necessary. If you are interested in understanding more about Microsoft Unified Communications and how it can benefit your organization, please contact your Microsoft account executive or your Microsoft Partner for assistance.
Sprint projects annual savings of $9.3M based on its replacement of 489 PBX systems and the associated voice mail with Office Communications Server and Exchange.

Third party survivable branch appliances are delivered in an appliance form factor and are not currently virtualized.
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Appendix A: RepresentativeVoice User Features

Ad Hoc Conferencing Bridged Call Appearance (via Team Call) Call Coverage (Via Team Call, Delegation, and Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant) Call Park & Retrieve Call Waiting Conversation History Distinctive Ringing Enhanced 9-1-1 Hold Meet Me Conferencing Multiple Points of Presence Private Line Remote Access Ringer Cut-off

Call Forwarding Call pickup (via Team Call) Consultation Hold Delegation (for boss / admin scenarios) Do Not Disturb Forward Location Identification Message Waiting Indicator Music On Hold Priority Calling Response Group Agent Anonymity Rollover Transfer (blind, safe, consultative)

Call Hold Call Transfer Contact Lists and Dial by Name Dial by Name or Number Endpoint Transfer Group Pickup (via Team Call) Malicious Call Trace Multiple Line Appearances (virtually unlimited) Personal Roaming (hoteling) Redirect Reverse Number Lookup and Calling Party Name Display Send All Calls Visual Access to Voice Mail

Simultaneous Ringing Voice Mail Transcription (via Exchange 2010)

Appendix B: Representative Voice System Features

Automated Attendant (via Exchange AutoAttendant) Automatic Number ID Automatic Call Distribution (via Response Groups) Automatic Route Selection Class of Service (via policy and routing profiles) Direct Inward Dialing Automatic Alternate Routing Call Authorization (via user identity and credentials) Dial Plan Enhanced 9-1-1 support

Call Detail Recording Direct Department Calling (via Team Call or Response Groups with parallel routing) Facility Test Calls (via synthetic transactions) Hunting (via Response Groups) Music On Hold

Find Me Follow Me Integrated System Directory Night Service (via Response Groups and after hours routing) System Monitoring and Alerting (via System Center Operations Manager)

Hoteling (personal roaming) Least Cost Routing Off Premises Station (via Edge Server and Internet connection) Trunk Answer Any Station (via Response Group configured to ring all users)

Quality of Experience Monitoring