DC Working Group meeting 2

www.uc.unimelb.edu.au1

Desktop Communicator

Working Group

Meeting 2


AgendaIntroductions

Microsoft Strategy Update

Cisco Strategy Update

Communication and Collaboration Scenarios (current and future)

Solution Overview

Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (CUPC)

Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC)

Cisco Meeting Place

Microsoft Office Communications Server

Hosted options (Web Ex & Live Meeting)

Discuss Scenarios for Product Demonstrations

Next steps

Business requirements

Evaluation Criteria


Gartner

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications

2007


Gartner

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications

2007


Current Communication and Collaboration Scenarios

• What modes of communication do you use?

• What proportion of time is spent on each communication mode?

• Why do you spend so much/so little time using each mode?

• Which modes are difficult or useful?

• Why do you choose to use a particular mode?


Solution Overview – Desktop Communicator and Web Conferencing


Desktop Communicator Core Capabilities

1. Phone and VOIP Audio2. Directory Integration and Contact Management3. Presence Management4. Instant Messaging5. Peer to Peer Video6. Escalation7. Federation and Public Instant Messaging Connectivity8. Integration with other Desktop Software


Phone and VOIP Audio Capabilities

• Largely about integration of Desktop Communicator with Enterprise Telephony system (ours is Cisco).



• Remote Call Control– The ability to control the telephone handset in your

office from your desktop computer (usually to initiate a call or to divert an incoming call on an ad-hoc basis)

– Remote Call Control generally requires you to be in your office, near your telephone handset



• Softphone– The ability to make a telephone call over the

internet from the Desktop Communicator without any involvement of the telephone handset in your office.

– Gives you the same functionality as Remote Call Control, without needing to be close to the IP Phone on your desk



• Click-to-call– Ability to initiate a phone call

to an individual by clicking on their name in the Desktop Communicator

– You can click to call using either Remote Call Control or the Softphone.


VOIP Audio Capabilities

• Audio Conferencing– Ability to add contacts from the Desktop

Communicator to a current call.


Directory Integration and Contact Management

• Takes the University’s electronic staff directory and delivers it to the Communicator client, enabling you to use it for initiating different modes of communication.





• Users can put people they work with frequently into groups within their Desktop Communicator


Presence and Presence Management

• Enterprise Directories can be enabled with real-time “presence” information.

• This information describes a colleague’s willingness and ability to communicate at the current time



• Presence information can be automatically aggregated from multiple sources.

• Like On Hook/Off Hook status of your office phone

• And the free/busy information from your Exchange Calendar.



Presence works best when its automatically derived, but it can also be manually set or over-ridden by the user when required




Instant Messaging

• Gives Users ability to send brief text messages in real time

• Can be escalated to phone and other communication modes


Peer to Peer Desktop Video

• Enables users with a webcam to send a real time video stream to another user.

• Where both parties have webcams, a two way video stream can be sent.


Peer to Peer Desktop Video


Escalation

• The capability to moving from one communication mode to another without interruption.– From Instant Messaging to telephony to

video calling to web conferencing.


Federation

• The ability to interoperate with other enterprise Instant Messaging Systems


Public Instant Messaging Connectivity (PIC)

• The ability to interoperate with consumer Instant Messaging Systems

• This includes Instant Messaging Capabilities

• Also includes presence states


Integration with other Desktop Software

• The ability to use Desktop Communicator functions from other commonly used programs and services.– Managing incoming calls from the Desktop– Presence information in other programs– Click-to-communicate capabilities in other

programs


Managing Incoming Calls:


Presence Information in Other Applications


Click to Communicate from Other Programs


Cisco Unified Personal Communicator Advantages:

• Excellent integration into University’s Cisco Telephone System– Offers RCC and Softphone from the one program– Exposes more Call Manager functions (made,

received, missed calls)

• Smooth Escalation up to and including Cisco Meeting Place Web Conferencing

• Feature equivalency between PC and Mac


CUPC Additional Telephony Capabilities


Cisco Unified Personal Communicator Disadvantages

• Currently no Public Instant Messaging Connectivity • Currently no Federation• No integration into Entourage or any other Mac Program• Poor integration into Outlook (click to call etc)• Limited presence information (if any) in rest of Office programs• No multi-party Instant Messaging• Basic Presence Model• No Web Client• Requires a VPN connection if you want to use it off the

University network


Current CUPC Outlook Integration


Microsoft Office Communicator Advantages

• Public Instant Messaging Support to AOL, Yahoo and MSN • Federation to other LCS/OCS enterprises• Multi-Party Instant Messaging • Simple User Interface• Superior Desktop Integration into Microsoft Office and other

Microsoft products including Sharepoint and Exchange• Rich Presence Model with user managed disclosure control• Web Client with Presence states and IM capability• Built in TLS/SSL encryption (no VPN required to use off the

University network)


CUPC and MOC Presence ModelsCisco Presence Microsoft Presence


MOC Presence Levels Control

• Gives the user the ability to control what information about themselves is exposed to their contacts by setting “presence levels” (logical groupings of the user’s information) for each contact which range from sharing a lot of information about their state to blocking contacts.


MOC Presence Levels Control


Microsoft Office Communicator Disadvantages

• Softphone and RCC can be achieved from MOC, but would require installation of Cisco IP Communicator

• Cannot access CUCM voicemails in MOC

• Mac Messenger not feature equivalent


Mac Messenger 7 Advantages

• Near feature parity with MOC for IM, presence and peer-to-peer softclient voice and video

• Integrates into Entourage with Presence and Click to Communicate functions


Mac Messenger 7


Mac Messenger 7 Disadvantages

• Not 100% feature equivalent with MOC.• Does not provide Remote Call Control for IP

Telephones (on your desk)• Softphone capabilities only possible for Mac to call

another softphone if Microsoft OCS Web conferencing is selected

• Thus Mac Messenger unlikely to give Mac users click-to-dial capabilities

• Differential Presence disclosure not available


Mac Messenger 7 Comparison Table


Internally Hosted Multi-Party (Web) Conferencing Core Capabilities

• Breakout rooms• Instant Messaging• Moderated/Facilitated Q&A• Mute participants/Individuals• Recording• Presentation (ppt, swf) support• Annotation• Whiteboard


Internally Hosted Multi-Party (Web) Conferencing Core Capabilities

• Application and Desktop Sharing with Remote Control• Meeting Moderator Controls (including eject participant)• Personal Controls• Real Time Identification of Speaker and Sharer• Scheduling from Web or Exchange• Locked Meetings• Encryption and Access Authentication• Dial out or Dial In (telephone participation)


Cisco Meeting Place Known Differentiators

• User interface written in Flash. Web content can be accessed using only a browser (no client downloads).

• Web, Video and Audio signals transmitted as separate streams.

• Participants external to the university network or organisation would have to establish secure connections to access Video and Audio signals (VPN, dial in, conference dial out etc)


OCS Conferencing Known Differentiators

• Requires an approved client (MOC, AOL Client, Windows Activex Plugin, Mac Messenger)

• Web, Audio, Video signals sent as single stream• Security and encryption resides in client – only one

secure connection required• Mac users can receive web content to Mac, audio to

telephony point. Cannot receive video, or screen/application share


Externally hosted conferencing (Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting)

• Both hosted solutions have web browser plug-in clients that can be run on Windows and Macintosh platforms

• Live Meeting can also be entered via the Windows only Meeting client or Activex web browser plug in

• Both platforms are feature rich with high service availability


Product Demonstrations

• Cisco - Thursday 12 June between 2pm & 5pm

• Microsoft - Friday 13 June from 9am to 11am


Product Demonstrations

The demonstrations will give visibility into:

• The experience an external party (Mac and Windows) would have within a web conference

• The experience a staff member (Mac and Windows, on and off campus) would have within a web conference

• The experience a staff member would have using the Desktop Communicator to communicate with an external party (incl. IM, Presence, Peer to Peer video, file sharing etc)

• The experience a staff member would have using the Desktop Communicator to communicate with another staff member (incl. IM, Presence, Peer to Peer video, file sharing, click to call, remote call control, escalation from IM/Email to Peer to Peer Video to a Web Conference etc)


Next Steps

• Next Meeting: • Wednesday 18 June from 1.30pm to 3pm

• Business requirements• Evaluation Criteria

Technology

DC Working Group meeting 2