The following functionalities are available in Office Communicator 2007 R2 when a user is enabled for RCC. Note that each of these features is available in the Office Communicator user interface (UI) only when the PBX advertises these capabilities as part of the GetCSTA-CapabilitiesResponse message.
Make call. The RCC-enabled user can initiate a phone call by clicking a call menu provided in Office Communicator 2007 R2 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
Receive call. The RCC-enabled user can accept an incoming call that is presented to her in the form of a pop-up window by clicking on the pop-up window. The existing PBX phone will go off-hook, and the speaker phone will be activated.
Caller identification. If the RCC-enabled user receives an incoming call, Office Communicator 2007 R2 will try to resolve the calling party number to a more user-friendly format by presenting the calling party’s name. This will be successful only if the phone number can be matched against an entry in Office Outlook’s contact list, an Office Communicator 2007 R2 contact, or the Global Address List.
Call waiting. If the RCC-enabled user is already in a call and receives a second call, Office Communicator 2007 R2 displays a pop-up notification toast to inform the user about this second call waiting.
Call hold and retrieve. The RCC-enabled user is able to use the conversation window of Office Communicator 2007 R2 to place an existing connection on hold and to retrieve it later. By placing the call on hold, the call is held on the PBX and—if available—the existing PBX plays music to the caller on hold.
Alternate call. The RCC-enabled user can manage multiple calls at one time. Each call is represented by a separate communication window. The user can switch between the calls but can have only one active call at a time. All other calls are automatically placed on hold. Note that the other calls could be RCC calls, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, or VoIP conferences. The number of concurrent calls depends on the capabilities of the PBX.
Single-step transfer. Unannounced to the caller, the RCC-enabled user can forward an incoming call to another phone number by clicking the appropriate transfer button in Office Communicator 2007 R2. This is one of the Office Communicator 2007 R2 functionalities that is significantly easier to use than on a regular PBX phone.
Consultative transfer. The RCC-enabled user can place an existing call on hold, establish another call, and later connect the former call with the latter call. And the user herself drops out of the call. This is another one of the Office Communicator 2007 R2 functionalities that is significantly easier to use than on a regular PBX phone. Note that in Office Communicator 2007 R2, consultative transfer is available only if single-step transfer is already supported by the PBX.
DTMF (dual-tone multifrequency) digits. The RCC-enabled user can initiate the sending of DTMF digits through the PBX system by using the Office Communicator 2007 R2 conversation window DTMF dial pad during an active call.
Call forwarding. The RCC-enabled user can set the calls to be forwarded to another user or phone number. This feature will turn on Call Forwarding in the PBX system.
Conversation history. The RCC-enabled user can see all of her incoming and outgoing calls in the Conversation History folder in Outlook.
Missed call. The RCC-enabled user receives Missed Call Notifications in her Outlook Inbox for calls that the user did not answer when Office Communicator 2007 R2 is running. Note that Office Communicator 2007 R2 generates the missed call locally, and the functionality is not available when Office Communicator 2007 R2 is not running.
Reply with IM. The RCC-enabled user can reply to an incoming call with an instant message. The instant message is sent to the instant message address associated with the calling party. This works only if the calling party number can be resolved to a contact in the recipient’s Office Communicator 2007 R2 contact list or if the calling party is present in the address book.
Call notes. The RCC-enabled user can type notes in Microsoft Office OneNote directly from the Conversation window in Office Communicator 2007 R2.
Note
The following functionalities are provided with Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 but are not provided with Office Communications Server 2007 R2:
Conference calling using the PBX’s conferencing feature
Location-based forwarding
Setting the Do Not Disturb presence state on a PBX phone
Showing display names that are provided by PBX via CSTA gateway
Even if a user is enabled for RCC and the telephone functionalities are limited to a set of call control functionalities of the existing PBX phone, the following VoIP-related features are also available to an RCC-enabled user:
Make and receive Communicator-to-Communicator audio calls
Make and receive Communicator-to-Communicator audio/video calls
Establish a video conversation between two Office Communicator 2007 R2 clients while audio is handled by the PBX.
In addition, an RCC-enabled user can be invited to a VoIP conference created by an Enterprise Voice user and will be able to join to the audio and video using Office Communicator 2007 R2. This requires the user to use VoIP audio with Communicator and a headset attached to the computer running Office Communicator 2007 R2.
Note
With Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2, it is not possible to place computer-to-phone calls and phone-to-computer calls when the user is enabled for RCC, even if a SIP/PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) gateway is deployed. Instead, the Enterprise Voice scenario provides this exact functionality. There is one exception where RCC and Enterprise Voice can be configured for a single user. It is explained in Chapter 10.