The overall desktop experience was intuitive and simple, as facilitated by Office Communicator 2007. Overall, this combination lets users choose the best means of communication required at any given moment from within a single application. We also took into account the voice quality and user experience for calls placed with Office Communicator 2007 in conjunction with OCS. We looked at the general setup and administration of OCS along with its back-end features and endpoint offerings. That said, taking into account the IP-telephony focus the combination - OCS 2007, Office Communicator 2007 and Exchange 2007 - offers Microsoft shops, our testing of the public beta code evaluates how far Microsoft does go in terms of providing enterprise-ready IP PBX capabilities.Īll testing was conducted by Miercom engineers in our central New Jersey lab. Users can add individuals to their 'Contacts' list in Office Communicator and with a single click call that contact. The last numbered called is added to the recent contacts within Office Communicator.3. A call that comes in for that user will ring at all computers.Ģ. User can be logged into OCS from multiple computers, each running Office Communicator at the same time. To that end, we note that some core IP PBX features, such as call park and whisper page, are not available in this version of OCS, nor are many of the call-routing and -handling features of traditional IP PBX back-end systems.ġ. Microsoft is quick to point out that it is not proposing to replace the traditional IP PBX with this combination rather, it touts its standards-based Session Initiation Protocol ( SIP) ties for trunking and communications with traditional PBX systems. The pieces add up to a solid foundation for presenting voice at the desktop.

Furthermore, when Microsoft Exchange 2007's unified messaging services (see story detailing these capabilities) are added to the mix, voice mail and autoattendant features also are on the table. When OCS's software-based VoIP engine is coupled with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 client software, users have access to IP telephony, instant messaging and presence awareness.

Microsoft is getting ready to make a big splash into the VoIP pool with its OCS 2007, expected to ship this summer.

Microsoft office communicator 2007