Microsoft Lync 2013 Unified Communications: From Telephony to Real Time Communication in the Digital Age

Complete coverage of all topics for a unified communications strategy **Overview** * A real business case and example project showing you how you can optimize costs and improve your competitive advantage with a Unified Communications project * The book combines both business and the latest relevant technical information so it is a great reference for business stakeholders, IT decision makers, and UC technical experts. * All that you need to know about Unified Communications and the evolution of telecommunications is packed in this book. **In Detail** Unified Communications brings all relevant types of communication technology and modalities together: telephony, chat, availability information, video, sharing, and the integration into line of business software. "Microsoft Lync 2013 Unified Communications: From Telephony to Real Time Communication in the Digital Age" is a business and technology book combined into one about Unified Communications and it shares everything you need to know: how to evaluate and integrate a Unified Communications project in your own company and how you plan, design, and implement the technology itself. Additionally you get to know current innovations and available technologies for social networking, collaboration, cloud services, contact centers, and also enhanced collaboration for mobile devices. This book also offers a real business case of a transformational project from traditional telecommunications to Unified Communications and what business case you can realize for all business sizes. Get to know what Unified Communications is about and how you can use it in your company to reduce cost and increase the level of effective communication and collaboration. This book offers you eight compelling chapters with a mix of business and technology content. Unified Communications is a great and very important topic in the evolution of how we communicate and collaborate and on how to create a better interface to customers and business partners. "Microsoft Lync 2013 Unified Communications: From Telephony to Real Time Communication in the Digital Age" is a unique book which brings business relevant content and technical details of Unified Communications together in one place with everything that you need to know. In this book, you will learn how you can use the benefits of innovative communication technology for your business and how this technology can be implemented in your company’s environment. **What you will learn from this book** * History of telecommunications. * From the past to today: Unified Communications, collaborations, social networking, and cloud technology. * Implement real time collaboration with knowledge management. * Improve collaboration between companies. * The business case: where to save costs and optimize inside the company. * An example project: What factors need to be considered when implementing UC? * UC Contact Center, Skype-Lync and Cloud – a way into the future. * Save and load text, XML, or media assets from local or remote sources, and communicate with websites and their databases to create online scoreboards. **Approach** This is a tutorial guide to gain in-depth knowledge such as realizing projects to migrate traditional telephony to Unified Communications inside an organization. Cover 1 Copyright 3 Credits 4 About the Author 5 About the Reviewers 8 www.PacktPub.com 10 Table of Contents 12 Preface 16 Chapter 1: Innovation of Communication and Information Technologies 22 Defining communication 23 What changed the communication industry? 24 Understanding modern business communication needs 26 Evolution of communication tools 29 Increasing the number of ways to reach a person 30 Benefits of UC 31 Introducing cloud services in IT and telecommunication 34 Summary 37 Chapter 2: Information Technology Meets Knowledge Management 40 Microsoft SharePoint Server as a knowledge platform 44 Microsoft SharePoint as FAQ, collaboration, and best practice platform 45 YouTube as a video knowledge portal 49 A company's central intranet portal and team sites on Microsoft SharePoint 51 From skill search and real-time communication to mobile integration 54 Summary 55 Chapter 3: Business Cooperation in the World of the World Wide Web 56 What technological barriers are we talking about? 59 Understanding the unified communications umbrella 60 Learning about My Site 63 Instant messaging and chat 64 Knowing the modular IT platform 69 Summary 70 Chapter 4: Value and Potential for End Users 72 Technology supports our daily life 72 Persistent instant messaging 79 Being mobile – the mobility advantage 84 From Roundtable and Email to CRM 86 Do more with real-time messaging 91 The great advantage of the unified communications platform 92 Developing your own UC add-ons 95 Summary 96 Chapter 5: Cost Optimization Approaches 98 Need for an efficient communication solution 98 Optimization opportunities with UC 100 Reducing direct costs of communication services 101 Reducing the costs/fees for Internet and data services 102 Reducing costs/fees for conference services 103 Reducing costs/charges for mobile and fixed line telephony 105 Optimizing communication and collaboration cost by using Federation 108 Reducing costs/fees for equipment setting up 109 Optimizing travel expenses and business travel 111 Potential savings 111 Optimizing communication infrastructure and replacing legacy technology 112 Potential savings 114 Advantages of cloud services 115 Optimization of existing infrastructure 117 Potential savings 118 Optimization of software licenses 119 Potential savings 119 Take advantage of knowledge and human capital 120 Potential savings 120 Business value assessment 121 Summary 122 Chapter 6: Unified Communications Projects in Practice 124 Initial situation 125 The role of a UC solution 126 Evaluating UC solutions 130 The Microsoft UC solution for Contoso 132 Additional benefits of UC solution 134 From decision, Proof of Concept to rollout of UC 136 The pilot phase 138 Implementation of training 141 The overall concept 141 Concluding remarks 143 Summary 146 Chapter 7: Analyzing the Key Points of a Unified Communications Project 148 Evaluation phase 149 How can this be done easily? 149 Selecting unified communications solution and solution provider 158 Decision making and pilot phase 160 Summary 168 Chapter 8: Technology Inside the Microsoft UC Platform and a Look into the Future 170 Microsoft Lync Server 2013 170 Lync topology planning 171 Migrating from another Lync or OCS topology 173 Creating a new Lync topology 173 Server roles and editions 175 Lync Standard Edition 175 Lync Enterprise Edition 176 Lync Server considerations, roles, and functionalities 176 Front End Server 176 Back End Server 177 Edge Server 177 Mediation Server 178 Director Server 179 Group Chat Server(s) 179 Enterprise Voice with Lync 2013 Standard Edition 180 Branch Site with Lync 2013 183 Operation system and virtualization 184 Lync Server 2013 supports all Lync Server workloads in virtualization topologies 185 Network performance for communication and collaboration 186 Network port and security in Lync 2013 187 Ports and protocols for internal servers 188 External A/V firewall and port requirements 193 Administration of a Lync Server topology 194 The Lync client 195 Features available in the Lync 2013 client family 196 Lync 2013 in contact center deployments 198 Skype and Lync 201 Future development 203 Future vision 208 Summary 208 Index 216 www.it-ebooks.info IT eBooks In Detail Unified Communications brings all relevant types of communication technology and modalities together: telephony, chat, availability information, video, sharing, and the integration into line of business software. "Microsoft Lync 2013 Unified Communications: From Telephony to Real Time Communication in the Digital Age" is a business and technology book combined into one about Unified Communications and it shares everything you need to know: how to evaluate and integrate a Unified Communications project in your own company and how you plan, design, and implement the technology itself. Additionally you get to know current innovations and available technologies for social networking, collaboration, cloud services, contact centers, and also enhanced collaboration for mobile devices. This book also offers a real business case of a transformational project from traditional telecommunications to Unified Communications and what business case you can realize for all business sizes. Get to know what Unified Communications is about and how you can use it in your company to reduce cost and increase the level of effective communication and collaboration. This book offers you eight compelling chapters with a mix of business and technology content. Unified Communications is a great and very important topic in the evolution of how we communicate and collaborate and on how to create a better interface to customers and business partners. "Microsoft Lync 2013 Unified Communications: From Telephony to Real Time Communication in the Digital Age" is a unique book which brings business relevant content and technical details of Unified Communications together in one place with everything that you need to know. In this book, you will learn how you can use the benefits of innovative communication technology for your business and how this technology can be implemented in your company's environment. Approach This is a tutorial guide to gain in-depth knowledge such as realizing projects to migrate traditional telephony to Unified Communications inside an organization. Who this book is for This book is targeted at three audiences: business decision makers, technical advocates, and IT decision makers. As this is also a fundamental book on real time collaboration technology, it is also suitable for anyone who is interested in the future of communications Innovation Of Communication And Information Technologies -- Information Technology Meets Knowledge Management -- Business Cooperation In The World Wide Web -- Value And Potential For End Users -- Optimization Approaches -- Unified Communications Project In Practice -- Analyzing The Key Points Of A Unified Communications Project -- Technology Inside The Microsoft Uc Platform And A Look Into The Future. Author's Name From About The Author Page. Includes Index.