Office Communications Server 2007 is the next iteration of a Microsoft product line that began with Microsoft Live Communications Server 2003 and 2005 and Office Communications Server 2007.

Live Communications Server 2003 introduced the availability of presence information that is updated automatically instead of requiring users to constantly update their status manually. This presence information was updated based on a variety of information, including user activity on the computer and calendar information from Microsoft Office Outlook. Live Communications Server 2003 also introduced corporate IM as a real-time means of communication. Presence and IM were incorporated into much of the Microsoft Office suite and servers, making them readily available to information workers. Specific examples of presence-aware Office applications and servers are Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint.

Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 expanded on the functionality offered by Live Communications Server 2003. Remote access, federation, and public IM connectivity (PIC) became available. Integration with PBXs enabled Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 to control the user’s PBX phone by using the functionality of RCC, which is covered in Chapter 9. Phone activity was integrated into the user’s presence so that it was possible to tell whether the user was on the phone.

Office Communications Server 2007 introduced a large set of new features since Live Communications Server 2005 SP1, where IM was the only mode of communication supported. In particular, Office Communications Server 2007 introduced support for IM conferencing where two or more people could partake in the conversation, Web Conferencing for the presentation and sharing of content or desktops, Audio/Video Conferencing for streaming video and audio, Enterprise Voice for internal VoIP calls and interoperability with IP PBX, and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for external calls.

New features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 are discussed in Chapter 2, and in their respective content chapters.