Office Communications Server

A good month for Microsoft

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Last week I returned from a trip to find my new Windows Phone and my new Xbox + Kinect waiting for me.  (It's my job to try out new technologies.  Really.  I have to do it.)  Then on Wednesday, Microsoft officially launched Lync, the newest version of their UC product, formerly Office Communications Server.

Lync

I've had a lot time on Lync since Gold Systems was part of the early release program with Microsoft, and I believe we were the first or second company to go into production with it.  Lync is the first version from Microsoft that can really replace a PBX, which is what we're doing at Gold Systems.  This is such a big announcement, that they got Bill Gates himself to join in via satellite to talk about how he envisioned the day when software would replace hardware to really improve communications.  Check out the Bill Gates video and more information about Lync at http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/launch/Pages/launch.aspx

Having lived with Lync, and Office Communications Server before that, I really believe that Microsoft is going to have a huge presence in the communications sector.  I also have a used PBX for sale if anyone wants it.  🙂

I'll do more Lync posts soon, and I'll talk about how we're extending it to do even more interesting things.

Windows Phone

I've been using the Samsung Focus, which is one of the new Windows Phone devices for a little over a week now.  I have to say, I'm surprised by how nice it is.

Not that I was expecting it to be bad, but even Microsoft has said that they missed the boat the last couple of years and were starting from scratch on Windows Phone.  I think that everyone who has seen and held this device has said it is lighter, prettier and more interesting than their iPhone or Droid.  Given that it is only a week old, I don't expect it to compare feature for feature, though there are some things about it that I like even better than what I see on the iPhone or Android.  It's worth checking out and it is nice to see that Microsoft is back in the mobile business.

A few things to note about Windows Phone.  The new interface works and it is really snappy.  The Zune pass allows me to download and listen to a huge catalog of music for $14.95 a month rather than 99 cents a track.  I've downloaded at least 10 CDs worth of music since I got the phone.

It connects to Xbox, so if I play a game on my phone and get an achievement, it shows up on my Xbox Live account.  I can also access my account, including my avitar, on the phone as well as my friends accounts.  They are just getting started with the Xbox integration I think.

There are a few apps missing that I really need, like a Lync Communicator client (it's in the works) and a nice task list app.  Word, Excel, PowerPoint and even OneNote are already there, which is great.  It would also be nice to see eWallet, Evernote and a few others, but they are off to a good start and they already have more apps than some people thought they would at this stage.  They've even managed to get some of the best sellers that were exclusive to iPhone to create apps for Windows Phone.

Here's my thought on this.  If you are using a Blackberry, Windows Mobile device or you don't have a smart phone yet, be sure and check this out.  If you are using an iPhone or Android, but you are a gamer or you like the idea of lots of good music for one low price then the Windows Phone just might get you to make a change.

I got the Samsung Focus, but there are other devices available so if you prefer a real keyboard you can get it.

Xbox Kinect

Wow, the Xbox Kinect is just alien technology.  I happend to see a commercial for Dance Central today, and it really is just like the commercial makes it look.  Think Guitar Hero for dancing, except when you're done you might really be able to dance.  It takes you through the moves and gets people up off the couch who wouldn't ordinarilly want to stand up and dance.  One of the achiviements is the Off the Wall for getting past the Wallflower rank.

The Kinect really does track movement as well as they said it would, and I think we'll see a whole new type of game being developed over the next year or two.  The hardware has definately leaped ahead of the software, or at least the applications.  The current games that I've tried are good, but I imagine with just a little more time we might put down the controler for good.

 

That's it for now . . .

Another Social Center Demo

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It used to be that people could tell how busy I was by how long my hair got between haircuts.  Now you can by how long I go between blog posts.  The good news is that I've been very busy this past few months, and at least from where I'm standing, it looks like the economy is improving and enterprises are buying again.  We've already beat our sales goal for the quarter and now we're trying how much we can beat it by the end of the month – that's a good feeling.

I've recorded another demo of our Social Center concept software, and we're starting to roll it out to more users inside Gold Systems.  Internally it's like "Twitter for the enterprise" in that as people change their presence and notes I can see those changes appear in the order they happen.  Already I'm feeling better connected to the people I follow.  Sometimes it is work related but not always – for instance I found out that one of the people I'm working with is having twins, which is pretty appropriate for her to announce it that way, because she introduced me to her fiance a few years ago using Microsoft OCS video conferencing.

You can watch the demo here – www.youtube.com/goldsys  If you are interested in this sort of thing, Opus Research also just wrote a piece about what we're doing and that's available on the Gold Systems blog here – http://www.goldsys.com/blog/news/gold-systems-makes-ocs-more-social 

Social Networking in the Enterprise

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I talked to Dan Miller from Opus Research this week, and when he blogged about our conversation I realized that *I* had not yet blogged about this. 

Dan and I talked about how Microsoft's Office Communications Server can be extended and even embedded into other applications.  At the Worldwide Partner Conference this year in New Orleans I was doing a demo of how we had created "Twitter for the Enterprise" using OCS, and on the last day of the conference I recorded this live demo.  I was sitting in the U.S. Partner area, which of course included a Starbucks.  If you listen carefully you might hear the barista in the background.

Today Unified Communications and Office Communications Server in particular are getting attention because enterprises see the technology as cheaper than buying and maintaining legacy phone systems.

If they get some productivity improvements, which can be tough to quantify, then that's just a bonus.  But to me that's like replacing typewriters with PCs in the old days.   The future potential of the PC was far more valuable than the incremental costs savings that were gained by improving word processing.  The same thing will happen here.  Applications of great value will be created that simply aren't possible with today's communications infrastructure that is based on hardware more than software.

Enterprises will not buy phone systems in the future, any more than they buy word processing systems today.  Communications of all types, not just voice, will be a part of all of our applications and it will be because today we are rebuilding the infrastructure using software, not silicon and copper wire running to each and every place where we need to communicate.

Interview with W3W3 about Conference Server

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Last week Larry Nelson from w3w3 dropped by the office to interview me about Gold Systems' new Conference Server product that's based on the Microsoft Office Communications Server.  We talked about the new product, but I tried to not turn it into a commercial and spent a fair amount of time talking about what we're doing to make it easier for companies to say "yes" to new purchases.  Now more than ever as entrepreneurs we've got to take the risk out of purchases.  In the interview I listed a few specific things to do and talked about how the new product was designed to be "easy to buy."

I can't seem to find a permalink at w3w3.com, but the interview is on the page for August 2009 and shouldn't be too hard to find.  There is a picture of me in front of my bookcase and speech-enabled crank phone.  By the way, has anyone ever seen Larry without a camera?  He likes to joke that one source of revenue for w3w3 is people paying to have their pictures removed, but I'd have to say he's a pretty good photographer.

You can also read the w3w3 blog at http://w3w3.blogs.com/

Thanks Larry, it's always fun to talk to you!