What’s New?
Microsoft Communications “14” now delivers complete presence, instant messaging, conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities through a single, easy-to-use interface that is consistent across PC, browser, and mobile device. Administrators benefit from a single, consistent management infrastructure, new capabilities to increase availability, and interoperability with existing systems.
Unified Experience
· Get easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, and audio, video, and Web conferencing—all from the new Microsoft Communicator “14” client.
· Use one set of contacts across Microsoft Communicator “14” and Office applications.
· Communicate with context from within the applications you use most, including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint.
· Deliver access to presence, instant messaging, and other capabilities for workers on the go via PCs, browsers, and mobile phones.
Connect and Collaborate
· Find the right people, make connections, and communicate more effectively with new rich presence features including pictures and location.
· Leverage internal expertise more effectively with Microsoft SharePoint-based Skill Search.
Simple, Essential, Reliable Conferencing
· Collaborate more effectively with built-in desktop and application sharing, PowerPoint upload, and rich white boarding, including the ability to copy and paste images and other content.
· Schedule and join meetings with a single click in Microsoft Outlook or the meeting reminder.
· Place attendees in a virtual lobby for greater security and control over who can attend.
Complete Enterprise Voice Features
· Delight your users with the features they need, a wide range of IP and USB devices, and the ability to work in the office, at home, or on the road.
· Architect your deployment for high availability using data center resiliency and survivable branch appliances.
· Manage bandwidth utilization and increase Quality of Experience with Call Admission Control, QoS markings, and an adaptive media stack that works well even on unmanaged networks like the Internet.
· Meet North American regulatory requirements with flexible Enhanced 9-1-1 capability.
Powerful Deployment and Management Tools
· Work with a PowerShell-based foundation for administration consistent with Exchange Server, Active Directory, and other Microsoft server products.
· Get consolidated management tasks in one location with dramatically improved navigation through the new Silverlight-based, scenario -driven unified graphical management tool.
· Improve security and administrative productivity with Role-based Access Control (RBAC) with built-in and customer-defined roles.
· Get support for server virtualization of most OCS roles.
Extensibility
· Easily embed Communicator UI elements in your applications, build your own client experience in .NET with open and documented APIs, and enhance contextual collaboration by launching applications right from Communicator.
· Get platform support for sophisticated contact center and help desk scenarios, enable access to all UC-enabled services from any phone, and deliver state-of-the-art speech technology in 26 languages.
· Significantly simplify deployment, operations, and interoperability with added features that improve provisioning, load-balancing, fail-over, and draining.
