By Bonnie James
Travelling in a car doing 130kmph in Europe, Microsoft Qatar official Lonnie Wong Veros participated in a video conference with colleagues in the IT giant’s Dubai office.
Ahmed, Veros, and Masri at the technical demo of Lync yesterday at Microsoft Qatar’s office in Qatar Science & Technology Park. PICTURE: Nasar T K
“This was made possible by the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 through a 3G connection on my laptop,” the solution sales specialist (Unified Communications) said yesterday after a demo.
Lync is a single platform that integrates instant messaging, presence, audio, video, web conferencing and voice to bring people together.
The interface works with applications including Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange from their computers or from handsets.
“Users can communicate from anywhere in a cost-effective and secure manner through Lync which facilitates rapid user adoption,” explained Microsoft country marketing manager Asad Ahmed.
Some very large enterprises in Qatar are using Lync, according to Veros, who maintained that users can stay connected from virtually anywhere, with just a standard Internet connection.
“We successfully use Lync over the Internet from hotel rooms, from anywhere around the world, as long as you have 256 to 384kbps as minimum,” he said.
Lync offers the same rich functionality and security features outside the firewall without requiring a Virtual Private Network connection, and enables mobile and Web access across leading browsers and platforms, Veros pointed out.
The communications platform encourages closer social connections with a new activity feed that shows updates from contacts when they change status note, picture, title, or office location.
The new Office Backstage view integrates various communication options so users can share documents and presentations via instant messaging (IM), share the application itself, or click to call directly from the application.
It offers enhanced virtual meetings for improved productivity. Users can schedule a meeting from Microsoft Outlook and join through Lync 2010 via the PC, phone, or Web interface.
The tool provides a meeting user interface with integrated audio and video that enables participants to share presentations, annotate slides, superimpose text, and use visual pointers for more effective discussions.
Lync Server 2010 comes with complete set of enterprise-grade voice features. It delivers a standalone voice offering to enhance or replace traditional PBX systems, and extends these capabilities outside the office via Internet access without requiring a VPN connection.
This includes common calling features such as answer, forward, transfer, hold, divert, release, and park, and support for legacy devices and a broader range of IP and USB user devices from partners.
Lync Server 2010 supports federation with public IM networks such as Windows Live™, AOL, Yahoo!, and, through the XMPP Gateway, Google Talk, allowing workers to use their corporate identities to connect to customers and partners. It supports audio and video calls with users on Windows Live Messenger.
Conferencing interoperability enables organisations to use existing infrastructure including room systems and high-end conferencing solutions.
Lync Server 2010 can provide presence, IM, and conferencing for organisations with up to 10,000 users per server, 100,000 users per pool, and an unlimited number of pools. Microsoft Qatar’s account technology strategist Ra’ed Masri was also present on the occasion.
