Unified Communications Production Pilot

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Information Technology Services is now offering a production pilot of Unified Communications (UC). This service offers many new features including integrated calendar, electronic messaging, and voice and video integration. It enables the community an easy way to bring people, resources, and ideas together at the precise moment in a discovery, learning, or clinical experience. Spontaneous collaboration becomes easier, and avenues for discourse expand as a result of this new service offering.

Participation in the production pilot is currently by invitation only. The service will become more fully available to the community in coming months.

What is Unified Communications?

How does Unified Communciations work?

Unified Communications Demonstration

Federation Partners

Office Communications Levels of Service

Service Level Features Available with Communicator 2007 Available with Messenger for Mac 7 Requirements 
Standard Instant Messaging Yes Yes PC with XP or Vista Outlook 2003 or 2007Communicator 2007 R2 Client software ORMacintosh OSX 10.4.9 or laterMessenger for Mac 7Download Optional camera Optional headset
Presence Yes Yes
Access levels to control amount of presence info available to contacts Yes No
File Transfer Yes Yes
Video Communication Yes Yes
Shared Desktop  Yes ?
Client to Client Voice (Audio Communication) Yes Yes
Look up names using Global Address List (GAL) Yes Yes (may be limited off campus)
Microsoft Office Live Meeting Sessions Yes No
Integration w/MS Office Yes w/Office 2007 Yes ,limited with Entourage 2008 and Word  2008
Enterprise Voice (includes All Communicator standard functionality) A unique phone number  Yes No UC Optimized phone or headset, center number for billing long distance charges
Ability to make and receive calls (PBX and PSTN integration) Yes No
Transfer calls  Redirect calls to other phones Yes No
Simultaneously ring on another phone Yes No
Group video/audio Conferencing Yes No
Unified Communications  (includes all functionality above standard and enterprise)  Voice mail with Exchange integration (Email, Calendar, and Contacts)  Yes No All of the above, plus and account on the Exchange 2007 environment UC Optimized  phone or headset
Receive voice mail in Outlook  Yes No
Voice access to calendar  Yes No
Manage voicemail options through Outlook or OWA  Yes No
Communicator Moblie (Communicator client for your mobile phone  Presence Yes (mobile version) No Communicator R2 Mobile Client  Download from PhoneWindows Mobile v. 6.x or higherSupported Mobile Devices
Single Number Reach Yes No
Global Address List (GAL) support Yes No
Multi-party IM Conversations Yes No
Outlook  integration Yes No

Expectations of the UC production pilot

  • To use the full functionality of UC you must be on Exchange 2007. If you cannot move to Exchange 2007 immediately, you will not have UC "Enterprise Voicemail."
  • UC is not yet a highly available production environment - it still has single points of failure.
  • Participants may experience service outages as changes are made to upgrade the service. ITS will make every effort to communicate with you when these changes are scheduled to occur.
  • Support for the production pilot is currently "best effort."
  • If you use the enterprise voice functionality you must provide a budget cost center for long distance call billing.
  • ITS offers a list of approved phone and headset devices that work with the UC service. Participants are responsible for purchasing their own device.
  • Only online training available through Microsoft will be offered for the production pilot.

Devices

Handsets, headsets, cameras, and other devices that will provide seamless integration with Microsoft Communicator display the Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator logo. See the example below.

Optimized Logo

List of Microsoft's Unified Communications Partners and Products