Microsoft goes after enterprise comms with OCS 2007 Release 2

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 05 February 2009 12:03

IT Industry - Market

Aspect claims to have installations at more than 5,000 customer sites worldwide, including two thirds of the Fortune Global 100, eight of the top 10 global banks and eight of the top 10 global telcos. Under the deal, Aspect agreed to design its Aspect Unified IP contact centre solution to interoperate with OCS 2007.

Jim Foy, president and CEO of Aspect. "We strongly believe that the combination of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Aspect Unified IP will redefine the way companies interact with their customers." This week, Aspect supported launch of OCS 2007 R2 as a platinum sponsor.

Another call centre specialist, Interactive Intelligence,  a global provider of unified business communications for contact centres and  enterprises, has already released a version of its all-in-one IP communications software, that will work with OCS 2007 R2.

Interactive intelligence says its software  will  add contact centre  features such as multi-channel skills-based routing, call and screen recording, an operator console interface, workforce management, and cradle-to-grave reporting to OCS 2007 R2.


Microsoft lists other new features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 as being
•    Dial-in audioconferencing: OCS 2007 R2 incorporates an on-premise audioconferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the overall communications infrastructure.
•    Desktop sharing: enabling users to share their desktop, initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organisation on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
•    Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time.

•    Attendant console and delegation. This allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences on behalf of other users, set up workflows to route calls, and manage higher volumes of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
•    Response group. A workflow design application manages incoming calls based on user-configured rules.
•    APIs and Visual Studio integration. This improves the efficiency of everyday business processes by enabling businesses to build communications-enabled applications and embed communications into business applications.

At the launch Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business division, claimed that Microsoft had 40,000 employees using OCS as their only voice solution an tht th company had already saved $US90 million in travel expenses and expected to save another $9 million on conferencing services over the next three years by using OCS.