At the recent Lync release Derek Burney (Corporate VP, Microsoft Lync & Microsoft Office Data) took the center stage showcasing Microsoft Lync 2013 fully running on Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365. This integration will be implemented across the service within the next 18 months.

Here are the highlights of the items demonstrated at the release event:

• The ease with which a new user can be added to an Office 365 account with whatever Office application license.
  
  
• Using Lync on array of mobile clients. Starting obviously with a Windows phone to Android and iPhones. He expressed that the client retains its “Lync-ness” while still adapting to the design of each mobile operating system. Creating ease of use and comfort.
  
  
• Discussion of Lync Web app for browsers. Allowing any user join a meeting from a PC or Mac browser
  
  
• WebRTC – the Web Real Time Communication and the premise to support this exciting initiative in the near future once standard is ratified
  
  
• Focus on moving Microsoft Lync into the conference room. Using two large touch-screen displays, Burney demonstrated how with single-touch to join a meeting and then designate one screen to video and the other to electronic virtual whiteboard. This allowed for note taking of the meeting eliminating the need to take pictures of the old-fashioned whiteboard.

While the demo wasn’t groundbreaking, the overall delivery signified the fulfillment of the vision Microsoft had for Lync. They have delivered a UC system that can provide voice as well as IM/Presence, video, desktop sharing and overall all elements of modern communications system. It can run on all the major platforms whether desktop or mobile and now is moving into conference rooms. The success and popularity of Microsoft Lync keeps on growing and enhancing.

Contact us if you need help implementing Microsoft Lync and Office 365 with your contact center.

ComputerTalk’s hosted ice Lync cloud can connect with your cloud for added communication features.

Adding communication capabilities to your contact center and day-to-day business processes can help drive business results and help you exceed customer expectations.  If you are looking for a full end-to-end unified communications solution for your office and contact center, combine Office 365 with ice in the ComputerTalk cloud.

You can also come to us for help in meeting technology goals.

If you are looking to replace your PBX with an IP-PBX, we can provide telephony expertise, so you can become SIP voice-enabled at the speed you choose. Once the transition is complete, you can take advantage of the benefits of SIP telephony in your office and in your contact center.

If your cloud is missing certain contact center or communication pieces, you can connect to ours for all the products listed in the ComputerTalk cloud (i.e. PCI compliant contact center, Lync IP PBX, ice, applications that make your processes more communications conscious.)

We can also work with you to provide your customers a joint offering.

Questions?  Send it to us using the Message Us section.

Skype is the communications hub that brings people together. With over two billion minutes used, it is a true testament to the effectiveness and its ease of use. Whether making a voice or video call, sending an instant message, connecting with business partners, stakeholders and customers has never been easier.

Do you have a contact center that supports connecting with your clients at such superior level? Contact us for direction on how to get there.

Lync - Skype connectivity for presence, IM and voice will be available to all Lync users. This move will begin to enable what we call B2X. B2X places the focus of business communication on enabling human interactions. B2X puts people first and looks at communications in a unified way, not as disparate technology silos focused on one task or protocol. Computer Talk is your gateway to unified communications.

As unified communications and collaboration (UCC) become staples in contact centers, technologies such as VoIP, video, web chat, email and calendars have become more common in the workplace.  Increasingly tech savvy employees, as well as customers - who have grown up using these technologies - have helped the market for UCC to grow and mature quickly.

UCC tools have evolved how businesses and contact centers operate.  The technology and tools give managers and staff a ‘birds eye’ view of all the experts within an organization, indicating their availability and preferred medium for contact at any given time.  If an expert is away from the bricks and mortar location, a contact center worker can quickly discover their availability and how best to contact them to get an immediate answer; employees simply have to maintain their status and preferred method of contact via a standard interface, such as Outlook.

Essentially, UCC technology and multimedia tools enable staff to best manage customer interactions and provide quick, satisfactory resolutions.

If you are a frequent user of Microsoft Lync for hosting web conferences then you must have encountered situations where the attendees cannot join the Lync web conference, or if they do, they cannot see your shared content. Another scenario, is that you get a networking error in Lync, when you try to share your content. These type of connectivity errors are often because of firewall restrictions, or incorrect network routing rules - somewhere between you and the attendee.

I have found that the Lync web client almost always works in these situations. However, attendees often have Lync installed already, so they don’t get the choice to connect via the Lync web client. According to Jeff Guillet, (http://www.expta.com/2011/12/how-to-force-using-lync-web-app.html) there is a way to force attendees and presenters to connect via the Lync web client. “To do this”, Jeff blogs, “simply add ?sl= to the meeting URL.”

For example,   https://meet.computer-talk.com/meet/dmenard/VFXXXM0Q?sl=

This will open the following form:

Microsoft has confirmed that it will release iPhone and iPad apps for its unified communication (UC) software Lync 2013 once the software has gone through Apple's App Store approval process.
Lync 2013 has already launched on Windows 8 Phone and is expected to come to Apple’s mobile iOS devices within the next few days.

Bringing UC for business to iPad will make several useful business features available to Microsoft Lync account holders with iOS devices; including instant messaging, VoIP and video calls, and viewing PowerPoint files or taking notes in OneNote when in Lync-hosted virtual meetings.

Microsoft demonstrated its Lync 2013 mobile clients at the Lync Conference in San Diego in February, when it announced that the apps for Windows Phone and iOS would be launching in March.  A Microsoft spokesman told ZDNet that an Android app will come to market in April, while Lync 2013, as expected, already works on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices.  Non-account holders can join Lync meetings from a browser on their PC or Mac.

Word has it that Microsoft is working on integrating Lync and Skype and expects to be able to deliver that integration to customers by June.

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