Grey Convergence Russell JF Kirk

CS14 to support LLDP

I blogged previously that Office Communications Server and the Tanjay handsets do not support any form of layer two discovery protocol to allow for automatic VLAN assignment.

Good news time.. in Communications Server “14” LLDP will be supported for VLAN assignment. Great news for everyone already using LLDP and if you;re a Cisco environment currently using CDP time to start thinking about migrating to LLDP. This comparison white paper is a good place to start followed by a short paragraph here which includes links for which devices and software loss support LLDP. Refer to the configuration and command guides for your specific switches and software options.

Note that if you are currently using Cisco phones and related products you can maintain this environment on LLDP also.

If you have any specific questions on how to migrate from CDP to LLDP please leave a comment.

Agent Communications Panel for OCS and Dynamics CRM 4

We’ve been using a beta of this for some time but it’s now been released publicly at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0d689f13-4953-40ea-995e-49469dae559e.

the application places a Communicator-like window inside the CRM web page and provides integration between OCS and CRM contacts. Excellent for making it easier to track calls and client contact.

Microsoft UC training materials

Recently released to the web is an excellent collection of training and internal publicity you can use for your OCS and Exchange UM deployment. The download includes ready-to-use PDFs and original Word and InDesign files for you to customise and brand as needed. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=9a599b27-eaa4-47f6-9672-d221242f1404

From the download page “The Unified Communications 2007/2007 R2 User Awareness and Training Materials Kit provides resources for IT Pros, Administrators, or Corporate Trainers to speed the usage and adoption Unified Communications technologies in the enterprise. Materials in the kit can be customized to the needs of the company and/or organization. The kit provides the following materials: Awareness Materials - Posters, Web Banners, Door Hangers, and Stickers Training Materials Quick Reference Cards, Tips & Tricks Cards, and links to Web-based Training, Getting Started Tours, and Office Online Help and How-to's.”

If you just want a sample of what’s available take a look at the Tips and Tricks Flash Cards available  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=bf635b79-bc5f-45f7-a38a-1ef816314bf2.

UC User Group at TechEd

If you’re attending TechEd IT Pro EMEA this week in Barcelona I’m running a user group event at 10am Friday, running for ninety minutes.

The theme of the meeting will be “What do I do next?” and will be a workshop / interactive style with questions from yourselves prompted by myself. the format is based on a day long gap-fit workshop we do for our clients who are considering UC and collaboration deployments and will be a combination of technical and business process discussion.

If you want your questions answered about what you need to do in your organisation to successfully use Microsoft’s UC and collaboration tools then come along and return home with some clear next steps.

We’ll be focusing on Exchange UM and OCS 2007 R2 but will also cover SharePoint, Groove and Identity Management.

Space will be limited but if you wish to attend please send me an email at russ.kirk AT GreyConvergence.com and I’ll let you know the room number and final arrangements.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Updated release of Messenger for Mac

An updated release of Messenger for Mac v7.0.1 has released-to-web, RTW, available here it fixes display issues with certain European languages.

Communicator 2007 hotfix 951662

A new hotfix for Communicator 2007 is now available at this link, the corresponding KB article is 951662. Summary of the update is:

951870 Event IDs 8239 and 8206 are logged when you schedule and then cancel a meeting in Communicator 2007

949498 Error message when a Communicator 2007 user sends a message that contains only Japanese characters to Communicator 2005 users: "<Username> cannot receive message in the format you used"

951871 The presence status changes to Away for all Terminal Server users when an administrator locks the desktop or lets the screen saver run in Communicator 2007

951868 Registry settings for certain protocols are overwritten, and Communicator 2007 becomes the default application for these protocols when you log on to Communicator 2007

Also note that "This update now enforces HTTPS in High Security mode. Some services that previously worked by using HTTP will now be required to use HTTPS when they are in High Security mode. These services include the address book service, the custom tabs service, and the custom presence service."

Messenger for Mac 7

The new OCS friendly version of the Mac client I blogged about from Interact is now available at this link.

To quote from the page:

Overview

Messenger for Mac 7 is an integrated communications client that enables you to communicate with contacts within and outside your organization. Messenger for Mac 7 is a Universal application that is built to run on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs and makes it easy to take advantage of the full power of real-time communications.
For more information see the Messenger section of the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com/mac.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Apple Mac OS X

Operating System Versions: Mac OS X version 10.4.9 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS

Note: To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac.
Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 can connect to the following networks and messaging services:

To use the personal service, a Windows Live ID, such as a Windows Live Hotmail account, is required. Personal account users can communicate with other contacts who use the Windows Live and Yahoo! messaging services.
To use the corporate service, an account on Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is required. Corporate account users can communicate with other contacts on a corporate network or on federated networks, and with contacts who use the Windows Live, Yahoo!, and AOL messaging services.

Important   Messenger for Mac 7 does not work with Live Communications Server 2005. If your organization uses Live Communications Server 2005, you should use Messenger for Mac Version 6.0.

Easily create a Communicator-friendly email signature

We've had this tool on our web site for some time but haven't given it much publicity. I got the inspiration for it after receiving signatures from Microsoft employees where the text would be changed but the underlying hyperlinks were related to the previous person. With the tool you can create a correctly linked signature and icons quickly and easily.

We've kept the formatting to a minimum so you can amend fonts and layout as you need. This is its first release, any feature requests please post a response to this thread and we'll do amendments when we get some spare time. Hope you find it useful.

Interact08 and MVP Summit in review

Some thoughts on comments on the last two weeks of events.

Interact08 was a great event, given the niche and this being it's first year smaller than your average Microsoft event but that allowed much closed interaction, no pun intended, between everyone there. A worthwhile event and trip for sure.

If you have existing knowledge of either Microsoft infrastructure or of VoIP and IP telephony it an excellent event to get up to speed on Microsoft unified communications.

The MVP Summit was excellent as always. An opportunity for us to hear from the product groups about their future plans and for us to give honest and heart-felt feedback.

Steve Ballmer's keynote has got a lot of press attention. The two that I've caught are over et The Register and Microsoft Watch. I've not Ballmer speak before but his reputation preceded him. I'm impressed, his frankness, ability to take criticism but also push back when needed was great. The transcript over at the Microsoft PressPass gives the full story although obviously lacks the atmosphere.

Finally, I got delayed on the way out due to snowfall at Heathrow, and this weekend as I leave Seattle yet more snowfall, in April.. what's happened to spring?

Office Communicator for Mac

almost....

Great news from Interact08 that a much more feature rich version of Messenger for Mac is due out. Currently in beta the next version of Messenger for Mac will support OCS rich-presence, peer-to-peer audio and video and GAL search.

Although not implementing the full Office Communicator functionality this is a great step forward. I'll post more as I find out together with feedback on Microsoft's first UC focused conference.