Microsoft Office Communications Server simplifies the mechanics of communicating with others and broadens the potential for interactive collaboration. Our team’s vision is to simplify and integrate the possible modes of communication into a seamless experience that centers on the person you want to interact with and the type of communication you want to have. This paradigm shift is the new world of Unified Communications.
Office Communications Server 2007 was a significant step forward in streamlined, integrated communications with unified presence, voice, instant messaging (IM), e-mail, and Web conferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers the next generation of Unified Communications with greater integration and richer features:
Call delegation. A user can manage calls on behalf of another user.
Team ring. Incoming calls can be forwarded to each member of a team.
Response Group Service. Administrators can create response groups for routing and queuing incoming phone calls to designated people.
Group Chat. Users can engage in persisted, ongoing IM conversations within chat rooms.
Dial-in Conferencing. Users can join an audio/video conference by dialing a number from any Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) phone.
Desktop Sharing. Windows users can share their computer desktops with other, including those running Apple and Linux operating systems.
SIP Trunking Support. Enterprises can connect their voice network to a PSTN via an Internet telephony service provider.
Mobility. Office Communicator Mobile users can communicate using presence, IM, and voice.
Enhanced Media. High Definition (HD) and VGA video support for peer-to-peer calls as well as improved resiliency and voice quality for all calls.
Enhanced Developer Platform. Richer application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to do more with Office Communications Server and Visual Studio integration to enable faster/simpler development.
With this new edition of the Office Communications Server Resource Kit, Rui Maximo, Rick Kingslan, Rajesh Ramanathan, and Nirav Kamdar, along with 18 Microsoft insiders from the product, user assistance, and field teams, reveal the technical depth, scenarios, and diagnostic techniques specific to the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 product. The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit is the result of their efforts over the past year in pushing the first edition to a new higher standard. Rather than simply update the first edition, the project team rebuilt the book from the ground up, putting each chapter through extensive customer and peer review, removing extraneous content, adding important new content, ensuring that the information is readily understandable, and driving consistency and coherency across the 22 chapters. A special thanks to Susan Bradley for driving both editions of the Resource Kit to progressively high standards.
This book not only details the new features, it also adds five new chapters that delve into topics that are most important to customers, such as voice mail, Private Branch eXchange (PBX) integration (dual forking and Direct Session Initiation Protocol [SIP]), and client deployment. You’ll also notice many new sidebars in this edition, with even more tips from the field and in-depth information from the product team. An updated troubleshooting chapter offers detailed examples and techniques. In addition, you’ll find updated scripts that are easier to use and more easily customizable for your individual needs.
The first edition of the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit introduced Office Communications Server to those who were new to the product, and it provided a reference for experts who needed details about how the product works. The first edition of the Resource Kit was so successful that every new employee in the Microsoft Office Communications Server group now receives a copy. It has shown itself to be an important tool for customers, consultants, and our own developers. I hope that you will find this newest edition of the Resource Kit to be an indispensible tool that enables you to get the most out of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. And as always, we look forward to your feedback for the next edition.
—Gurdeep Singh Pall
Corporate Vice President, Office Communications Group, Microsoft Corporation