I’m sitting in a Gold Coast hotel room, about to take part in a sales call with four other people. My wife Rachel, 1700 kilometres south in Melbourne and stuck at home with a sick child, will also be in the call. One of our firm’s Sydney staff is headed for the prospect’s boardroom, where he’ll be capturing requirements for a big project, while we hover electronically at his shoulder.
I worked on documents and answered email on my laptop during the plane journey- in flight mode, of course – and synced my work when I landed. I worked on the bus on the way to the hotel, and once ensconced in my hotel room, the laptop added a new duty, as an office video phone. This means that while I’m working from my hotel room, I can take voice and video calls as if I was sitting in my office. I have not bothered with one of those annoying out-of-office auto-responders, because you and the staff who can see my empty office are the only ones who know I am not there.
Offline email, synchronised documents, PC video phones: none of this is new technology. But Microsoft’s latest take on it brings together technologies that the company has been working on for some time. They include the tablet-friendly Windows 8.1, the bundle of network technologies in Windows Server 2012 known as Direct/Access, the long-serving Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Lync 2013.
Lync 2013 is Microsoft’s latest version of a unified communications system. It’s a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, complete with video-phone abilities, together with instant messaging and a bunch of collaboration features: application sharing, desktop sharing and whiteboard.
Microsoft has been providing tools like this since NetMeeting first appeared in the 1996 version of Windows 95. Lync 2013’s immediate predecessors, Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Communicator, didn’t make a huge impression on the market. Microsoft even bought Skype to improve its position in VolP communications.
As a constant adopter of new technology, I at first gave Microsoft’s latest claims a “so what”. Then the company persuaded me to attend a presentation, where I could put their solutions to the test myself. In fact, they connect and work together in a manner that is quite inspiring.
As an IT provider, I knew I had to get my office running on this system as quickly as could. We’ve now trained a team of people to work with the technology, converted our own expanding business and are now helping other business owners understand what it can do.
Of course, one thing it can do is cut costs. Calls to landline and mobile phones over VoIP lines save money on each call, and calls between staff phones are free even from site to site.
But beyond cost-cutting, an effective VolP Unified Communications (UC) phone system also brings functions that traditional phones just don’t have. For instance, Lync provides a service called ‘presence that helps you to call people only when they are available; it ends the hours of wasted time trying to contact busy people who are not at their desk or phone, as well as killing the paranoia of wondering whether a contact is avoiding your calls.
The etiquette for making a connection with someone who shows up as available has developed quickly to be an instant message to say, “I see you are online, are you free to take a call?” Then you hook up by voice or video. Or, you can just ask a question via instant message and get a quick answer. All very empowering and all totally mobile.
Lync also has a federated identity system, which lets address books connect across organisational boundaries. This allows me to connect to my major providers, such as Microsoft, HP and Telstra, and see internal contact information and presence for their people with whom I’ve connected. I even know when Microsoft Australia CEO Pip Marlow is available for a quick chat; her presence is shown along with the rest of the team at Microsoft Australia.
The result is that we have no need for a desk-based phone system anymore. We took our old PABX and threw it out. Desk phones are now purely optional.
It has taken some time, as it is complex to put together, but the hardware and software co-operate nicely. In my hotel room, I am using an HP Revolve Core 17tablet running Windows 8.1 enterprise edition with a Telstra SIM in it. I am not sure if the Telstra hardware is 3G or 4G, but it is fast. My version of Lync runs on HP servers in my office in Melbourne, but it could run as a hosted solution in a data centre if you don’t want it in your office. My Exchange email server is not the latest version but is due for an upgrade next, which will enable a few more Lync features.
Perhaps the best news is that once the complex and expensive work of setting up the multiple servers, telephony gateways and software is done, using this system is so simple that adoption rates are very high. The Lync desktop software, for instance, provides greater functionality than Skype. Soon, hosted versions here in Australia will offer smaller businesses all these rich options at a friendlier price point, as it already does in the US.
This technology makes the world that little bit smaller, as it connects people globally in powerful ways. For my business, it creates the ability to have technical staff working from anywhere with no office required. What does it mean for your business?
Six advantages of internet phones
How Lync and other unified communications systems outpace conventional phones:
. Calls are cheaper everywhere and free between VoIP users.
. You can make video calls from your desktop.
. Your phone can ring on PC and mobile simultaneously.
. Software shows ‘presence’ —that is, whether your intended call recipient actually wants to take calls.
. There is desktop or application sharing and whiteboards for collaborating on jobs.
. Built-in instant messaging is included
