Office Communication Server 2007 R2 Integration

Exchange Server 2010 UM provides OCS 2007 R2 with the voice mail feature, and OCS 2007 R2 can make presence information and instant messaging features available to your OWA users. You can also configure an automatic switchboard for your OCS 2007 R2 voice-enabled users using an UM auto attendant.

UM can also utilize an existing IP PBX that is configured with OCS 2007 R2—you do not need additional hardware to connect UM to your PBX if OCS 2007 R2 is installed already. Thus any PBX configuration can be managed from the OCS 2007 R2 side, and does not need to be configured again in Exchange 2010.

OCS 2007 R2 also provides other features that integrate into UM:

• Instant messaging The OCS 2007 R2 client provides instant messaging (IM) functionality that the OCS hosts. The solution provides IM features, such as group IM, and extends the internal IM infrastructure to external IM providers. You can implement IM directly into OWA.
• Presence information OCS 2007 R2 tracks presence information for all OCS users and provides this information to the OCS 2007 R2 client and other applications, such as Outlook 2007. You can implement presence information directly into OWA.
• Web conferencing OCS 2007 R2 can host on-premise conferences, which you can schedule or reschedule, and they can include IM, audio, video, application sharing, slide presentations, and other forms of data collaboration.
• Audio conferencing Users can join OCS 2007-based audio conferences using any desk or mobile phone. When connecting to an audio conference using a Web browser, users can provide a telephone number that the audio-conferencing services calls.
• VoIP telephony Enterprise Voice enables OCS 2007 R2 users to place calls from their computers by clicking an Outlook or Communicator contact. Users receive calls simultaneously on all their registered user endpoints, which may be a VoIP phone, a mobile phone, or an OCS 2007 R2 client. The OCS 2007 R2 Attendant is an integrated call-management client application that enables a user, such as a receptionist, to manage many conversations simultaneously.
• Response Group service This service enables administrators to create and configure one or more small response groups for routing and queuing incoming phone calls to one or more designated agents. Typical scenarios include an internal help desk or customer-service desks.

Notes from the Field—OCS 2007 R2 Integration: Extension Numbers

Korneel Bullens
Team Coordinator Unified Communications, Wortell, Netherlands

One of the things I am always asked about is when deploying OCS Enterprise Voice as PBX replacement; the users still require an extension number. When you configure the UM dial plan for OCS connectivity, you select SIP dial plan as the URI type and you still need to configure the number of digits in extension numbers for the UM dial plan. Many of the administrators I talk to would not expect to be asked for an extension number in an OCS- and UM-only scenario.

When you think about it, it's quite logical. You need a unique identifier when someone calls his voice mail from outside the company, and needs to select his own voice mail box. This is when the extension number comes into the game. You are free to assign your own extension numbers, just make sure when you create the UM dial plan, the amount of digits suits your needs. If you deploy 120 users for UM, use only three digits. Fewer digits mean fewer numbers to remember for your users.