Améliorez votre Lync

Microsoft a plublié un ensemble de 8 outils pour améliorer votre infrastructure Lync.

Je ne vais pas discuter de l’ensemble de ces outils, mais simplement des 3 les plus utiles pour la plupart des organisations. Plus les utilisateurs trouverons Lync utile, le plus il seront content de votre travail!

Conversation translator : Ecrivez dans votre langue, et envoyez dans la langue du contact. Même si la traduction est de type automatisée, c’est souvent suffisant pour se faire comprendre dans un environnement multilangue

Information Dashboard: Choisissez un endroit pour vos contacts et obtenez les informations météo, les informations locales et soyez toujours plus proche de vos contacts.

Tabbed Conversations: Vous aimez les onglets et détestez vous battre avec quelques fenêtres flottant sur votre bureau? Avec cet addon vous aurez l’ensemble de vos conversations dans une unique fenêtre.

Lync Phone firmware Repository

A special post this time as I will update it as often as possible to add new device firmware location. How to upgrade can be found after the firmware list.

Manufacturer(s)	Phone(s)	Last checked	Last updated	Link
Aastra	6721ip 6725ip	10/17/11	07/26/11	http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=18390
Polycom	CX700 Tanjai	10/17/11	07/26/11	http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21644
Polycom	CX500 CX600 CX3000	10/17/11	07/26/11	http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23866

* 10/17/11 added polycom after some testing

How to upgrade

1. Download the package on the Lync Front-End.

2. Launch the .exe and extract the cab file in a local directory (no need to be a file share)

3. From your Lync Management Shell use Import-CsDeviceUpdate -Identity service:WebServer:<LyncFQDN> -FileName <Cab File>, for example I used:

Import-CsDeviceUpdate -Identity service:WebServer:lync2010.showroom.nc -FileName C:\temp\UCUpdates.cab

4. Check the result in Lync control panel (Clients > Device Update)

5. Now its time to push the update to the device, so lets go to Clients > Test Device > New > Global Test Device and configure it by MAC address.

Don’t forget to Commit 😉

6. Wait 10 minutes for the phone to check for update (Idle Time) or go to lunch/take a coffee.. there is no way to reduce that timer.

7. Once tested and validated, return to the Clients > Device Update, select the approved update and do Action > Approve. Previous version will automatically be changed to « Restore Version ».

Added Notes: Polycom CX700 and LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540 TANJAI phones

Just to warn everybody again about the « strange » behavior of those phones: If they don’t update at all, its maybe because you are working on the secondary BIOS chipped in those phones.

When you try and fail to update those phone, just reset it five time in a row (wait for the phone to ask you about your loggin information each time) and it will change the active BIOS. One of the two BIOS can’t be updated, and sometime the phone is delivered at your office with this firmware « active ».

So update the phone before putting them on the end user desk, it will save you many time.

Lync as a PBX – Features list

Each time you want to replace a PBX by Lync, you have to be clear about what you can do and what you will have to « work around ».

So here is a short list of feature supported (or not) by Lync.

Call Processing Features

Feature	Supported	Notes
ADD-ON CONFERENCE (6 party or more)	Yes
AUTOMATIC CALLBACK	No*	Equivalent functionality is achieved via presence state tagging. The calling party is alerted when the called party’s presencestate changes from “On a Call” to any other state, and may then call or contact the called party via IM other means.
AUTOMATIC INTERCOM	No*	Instant Messaging may be used to send non-obtrusive, immediate messages to all users logged into Lync, both at and away from their desk phones. In addition, third party analog overhead paging system may be used.
BRIDGED CALL APPEARANCE	Yes	Via Team Call and Delegation
CALLBACK LAST INTERNAL CALLER	Yes
CALL COVERAGE (PROGRAMMED)
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL CALL PROGRAMMING	Yes	Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant.
TIME OF DAY/DAY OF WEEK CALL PROGRAMMING	Yes	Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant.
ANI/DNIS/CLID CALL PROGRAMMING	Yes	Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant.
INTERNAL CALLER ID PROGRAMMING	Yes	Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant.
CALL FORWARDING – ALL CALLS	Yes
CALL FORWARDING – BUSY/DON’T ANSWER	Yes
CALL FORWARDING – FOLLOW-ME	Yes	Simul-ring may be set from Lync, browser (using Communicator Web Access), or from a Windows Phone.
CALL FORWARDING – OFF-PREMISES	Yes
CALL FORWARDING: RINGING	Yes	Users may re-direct the incoming call during the ring period to voice mail, IM, or one of their define phone numbers
CALL HOLD	Yes
CALL PARK	Yes
CALL PICKUP – INDIVIDUAL	Yes	Via Team Call
CALL PICKUP – GROUP	Yes	Via Team Call.
CALL TRANSFER	Yes
CALL WAITING	Yes
CONSECUTIVE SPEED DIALING	Yes	This is possible using normalization rules, but not recommended. Identity-based dialing using contact lists and corporate GAL search simplifies reaching any contact.
CONSULTATION HOLD	Yes
CUSTOMER STATION REARRANGEMENT	Yes	No administrative action is required. Users may either physically move their endpoint or login to a different endpoint.
DIAL BY NAME	Yes
DISCRETE CALL OBSERVING	No*	Not provide by Lync Server, but can be added with third party contact center solution.
DISTINCTIVE RINGING	Yes
DO NOT DISTURB	Yes
ELAPSED CALL TIMER	Yes
EMERGENCY ACCESS TO ATTENDANT	No*	A specific emergency access key is not provided, but users may call any Attendant or other user and specify high priority. Audio and visual call indications are given.
EXECUTIVE ACCESS OVERRIDE	Yes
EXECUTIVE BUSY OVERRIDE	Yes
FACILITY BUSY INDICATION	Yes
GROUP LISTENING	No*	Users may take advantage of built-in recording to enable post-call group listening, or may create an ad hoc conference to enable real time listening.
HANDS-FREE DIALING	Yes
HANDS-FREE ANSWER INTERCOM	Yes
HELP INFORMATION ACCESS	Yes
HOT LINE	Yes
INCOMING CALL DISPLAY	Yes
INDIVIDUAL ATTENDANT ACCESS	Yes
INTERCOM DIAL	No*	IM may be used in place of intercom functions to reach users both at and away from their desktop phones.
LAST NUMBER REDIALED	Yes
LINE LOCKOUT	Yes
LOUDSPEAKER PAGING ACCESS	Yes	This can be done via integration of third party (e.g., Valcom) paging system as an analog device.
MALICIOUS CALL TRACE	Yes
MANUAL INTERCOM	No*	IM may be used in place of intercom functions to reach users both at and away from their desktop phones.
MANUAL ORIGINATING LINE SERVICE	Yes
USER CONTROLLED MEET ME CONFERENCING (6-Party or more)	Yes
MESSAGE WAITING ACTIVATION	Yes
MULTI-PARTY ASSISTED CONFERENCE w/SELECTIVE CALL DROP	Yes
MUSIC ON HOLD	Yes
OFF-HOOK ALARM	Yes
PADLOCK	Yes
PAGING/CODE CALL ACCESS	Yes	This can be done through third party paging hardware.
PERSONAL CO LINE (PRIVATE LINE)	Yes
PERSONAL SPEED DIALING	Yes	Via Contact lists.
PERSONALIZED RINGING	Yes	Users can specify ringing patterns for their own Lync Client.
PRIORITY CALLING	Yes
PRIVACY – ATTENDANT LOCKOUT	N/A	Multi-party connections are not held on the Attendant console, and therefore lockout is not necessary.
PRIVACY – MANUAL EXCLUSION	N/A	Multi-line appearance functionality is provided for incoming calls via the Team Call and Delegation capabilities, but does not allow users to seize in process calls.
RECALL SIGNALING	Yes
RINGER CUT-OFF	Yes
RINGING TONE CONTROL	Yes
SAVE AND REDIAL	Yes
SECONDARY EXTENSION FEATURE ACTIVATION	Yes	Planned to be available via Resource Kit.
SEND ALL CALLS	Yes
SILENT MONITORING	No*	Built-in conferencing capability plus mute mode may be used to enable supervisor monitoring. Integrated third party contact center solutions can provide full capability.
STEP CALL	No*	Presence indicators allow attendants and other station users to determine that a particular station user is busy before dialing, and to instead choose an available station user.
STORE/REDIAL	Yes
SUPERVISOR/ASSISTANT CALLING	Yes
SUPERVISOR/ASSISTANT SPEED DIAL	Yes
TEXT MESSAGES	Yes	Via PC or mobile phone interface.
TIMED QUEUE	No
TRUNK FLASH	No
TRUNK-TO-TRUNK CONNECTIONS	Yes
WHISPER PAGE	No*	Instant messaging may be used instead. In addition, integrated third party contact center solutions can provide full capability.

Attendant Operator Features

Feature	Supported?	Notes
AUTO-MANUAL SPLITTING	Yes
AUTO-START/DON’T SPLIT	N/A	Attendants do not use a console dial pad to activate calls, but instead use a GUI interface on the PC.
BACK-UP ALERTING	Yes
BUSY VERIFICATION OF TERMINALS/TRUNKS	No*	User terminal status may be determined via Presence. Trunk status is reported via System Center Operations Manager or other monitoring tool.
CALL WAITING	Yes
CAMP-ON	N/A	CAMP-ON is not required for Attendants as calls may be presented for disposition even to called parties currently on a call (there is no concept of “lines” to limit how many active and on hold calls a given user may have). If the Attendant requires greater control of the call, presence state tagging may be used to alert the Attendant when the presence state of the called party changes (from “In a Call” to any other value).
CONFERENCE	Yes
CONTROL OF TRUNK GROUP ACCESS	No*	Trunk group access may be restricted based on administrator controlled dialing rules, but not via the Attendant.
DELAY ANNOUNCEMENT	Yes	Call forwarding settings or Response Group timeout may be used to direct delayed callers to the SIP URI of a Response Group queue with a delay announcement.
DIRECT STATION SELECTION w/BLF	Yes
DIRECT TRUNK GROUP SELECTION	No*	Trunk group selection is controlled by administrator defined routes, not the Attendant.
DISPLAY	Yes
INTERCEPT TREATMENT	Yes	Intercept announcement service may be configured to route calls to an Attendant or Attendant Response Group (hunt group) if desired
INTERPOSITION CALL & TRANSFER	Yes	Calls are not held on the Attendant, but can be transferred back to the Attendant for additional routing.
INTRUSION (BARGE-IN)	No	IM may be used instead of audio intrusion.
OVERFLOW	Yes
OVERRIDE OF DIVERSION FEATURES	No*	Attendants cannot override diversion features set by users.
PAGING/CODE CALL ACCESS	Yes	3rd party add on hardware
PRIORITY QUEUE	Yes	Response Group functionality may be used to implement priority queues.
RECALL	Yes	Calls are not held on the console, but Attendants may be recalled at any time.
RELEASE LOOP OPERATION	Yes
SERIAL OPERATION	No*	The called party can transfer the call back to the attendant console for rerouting
STRAIGHT FORWARD OUTWARD COMPLETION	Yes
THROUGH DIALING	Yes	Attendant can place external call, add internal resource to the call, then drop off of the call
TRUNK-TO-TRUNK TRANSFER	Yes
TRUNK GROUP BUSY/WARNING INDICATOR	No*	Monitoring and warning indicators are provided by System Center Operations Manager and other tools and handled by administrators rather than Attendants.
TRUNK ID	No*	Gateway or SIP trunk ID may be captured in call records, but is not visible to Attendants.

System Features

Feature	Supported	Notes
ACCOUNT CODES	No	Can be done via third Party Application
ADMINISTERED CONNECTIONS	N/A	Administered connections are typically used for connectivity of data endpoints over ISDN DS1 or other circuits. Office Communications Server does not control data networking.
ANSWER DETECTION	Yes	Network answer supervision is generally used to ensure the accuracy of call duration information. The use of DSP-based answer detection to accurately reflect duration for calls that do not receive network answer supervision is gateway dependent.
AUTHORIZATION CODES	N/A	Lync Server relies on identity based authorization, and allows users to login to any IP terminal based on their identity. This eliminates the need for DTMF based authorization codes for most customers. If required, third party solutions available from Enabling Technologies and others enable DTMF-based authorization codes.
AUTOMATED ATTTENDANT	Yes	Via Exchange Auto-Attendant
AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTION	Yes	Via Response Groups
AUTOMATIC ALTERNATE ROUTING	Yes
AUTOMATIC CAMP-ON	N/A	An incoming DID call is presented to the user for disposition regardless of whether the user is currently on a call. (There is no concept of a “line” to limit the number of active and on hold calls for a given user.) Users may disposition the incoming call in the most appropriate matter: by answering (existing call is automatically placed on hold) or by redirecting to voice mail.
AUTOMATIC CIRCUIT ASSURANCE	Yes	Via SCOM alerts and reports based on Monitoring server thresholds at a gateway level.
AUTOMATIC NUMBER ID	Yes	Reverse number lookup and Calling Party Name Display are supported.
AUTOMATIC RECALL	Yes	Via safe transfer capability.
AUTOMATIC ROUTE SELECTION – BASIC	Yes
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION MEASUREMENT SYSTEM	Yes	Via SCOM alerts and reports based on Monitoring server thresholds at a gateway level.
CALL-BY-CALL SERVICE SELECTION	No
CALL DETAIL RECORDING	Yes
CALL LOG	Yes	Via Recent Contacts in Lync and Conversation History in Office Outlook.
CENTRALIZED ATTENDANT SERVICE	Yes
CLASSES OF RESTRICTION (SPECIFY #)	Yes	Via policy and user routing profiles with no practical limit.
CLASSES OF SERVICE (SPECIFY #)	Yes	Via policy and user routing profiles with no practical limit.
CODE CALLING ACCESS	No
CONTROLLED PRIVATE CALLS	No*	Controlled Private Call functionality is not natively provided, but could be added via combination of routing rules and third party IVR solution.
DELAYED RINGING	Yes	Via dialed user call forwarding settings.
DIAL PLAN	Yes
DIALED NUMBER ID SERVICE	Yes
DIRECT DEPARTMENT CALLING	Yes	Via Response Group with parallel routing or via Team Call.
DIRECT INWARD DIALING	Yes
DID CALL WAITING	Yes
DIRECT INWARD SYSTEM ACCESS	Yes	All features may be access remotely using the Internet
DIRECT INWARD TERMINATION	Yes
DIRECT OUTWARD DIALING	Yes
E-911 SERVICE SUPPORT	Yes
EXTENDED TRUNK ACCESS	Yes
FACILITY RESTRICTION LEVELS	Yes	Restrictions are applied at the user level, not the device level
FACILITY TEST CALLS	Yes	Scheduled synthetic transactions may be used to test operations at an Lync Server pool level, and administrators may also perform manual facility test calls.
FIND ME- FOLLOW ME	Yes
FORCED ENTRY ACCOUNT CODES	No*	May be done using third party add-on.
HOTELING (/PERSONAL ROAMING)	Yes
HOUSE PHONE	Yes
HUNTING	Yes	Via Response Groups.
INTEGRATED SYSTEM DIRECTORY	Yes
LEAST COST ROUTING (Tariff-based, TOD/DOW)	Yes	Tariff-based routing is under control of administrator. TOD and DOW are not supported.
MULTIPLE LISTED DIRECTORY NUMBERS	Yes
MUSIC ON HOLD	Yes
NIGHT SERVICE -FIXED	Yes	Via use of Response Group front-end to Attendants with after-hours routing to Night Service Response Group.
NIGHT SERVICE – PROGRAMMABLE	Yes	Via use of after-hours forwarding on Attendant Console.
OFF-HOOK ALARM	Yes	Tone generated at device level, not system level
OFF-PREMISES STATION (OPX)	Yes*	Via Edge Server and Internet connection.
OPEN SYSTEM SPEED DIAL	Yes*	May be done via call normalization rules, but identity based dialing, contact lists, and corporate directory search are recommended instead.
PASSWORD AGING	Yes
POWER FAILURE TRANSFER STATION	Yes	Media gateway can provide this feature
RECENT CHANGE HISTORY	Yes
RESTRICTION FEATURES:	Via user policy and routes.
CONTROLLED	Yes
FULLY RESTRICTED	Yes
INWARD/OUTWARD	Yes
MISCELLANEOUS TERMINAL	Yes
MISCELLANEOUS TRUNK	Yes
TOLL/CODE	Yes
TRUNK	Yes
VOICE TERMINAL (IN/OUT)	Yes
ROUTE ADVANCE	Yes*	Automatic selection of alternate facilities occurs for all calls.
SECURITY VIOLATION NOTIFICATION	Yes	Via PC-based security policy enforcement.
SHARED TENANT SERVICE	No
SNMP SUPPORT	Yes*	System Center Operations Manager can generate alerts based on SNMP traps from third party equipment.
SYSTEM SPEED DIAL	Yes	Administrators may use dial plan normalization rules to define speed dial codes, and users may also dial by name. The latter is the recommended approach.
SYSTEM STATUS REPORT	Yes
TIME OF DAY ROUTING	Yes
TIMED REMINDER	Yes	The developer interfaces enable the system to be programmed to automatically contact users at specified times, and to take a variety of actions including but not limited to playing a recorded announcement or music.
TRUNK ANSWER ANY STATION	Yes	Yes, via Night Service Response Group configured to ring all stations.
TRUNK CALLBACK QUEUING	No
UNIFORM CALL DISTRIBUTION	Yes	Via Response Groups.
UNIFORM DIAL PLAN	Yes
VIRTUAL EXTENSION	Yes*	Lync Server does not require virtual extensions for secondary extensions on voice terminals since there is no limit to the number of active and on hold calls for a given user or terminal. However, Response Groups effectively present “virtual extensions” in the form of SIP URIs and (optional) DID numbers.
VOICE MESSAGE SYSTEM INTERFACE	Yes

From: (http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/4/0/F409709D-D73E-4804-9B4E-DD4C62B8A0E9/IPTS RFP 2010 MSFT Response – FINAL 03 22 2010.pdf)

Those informations were posted on march 2010, some more features may be now available.

Empower your Lync

Microsoft have published a set of 8 tools for enhancing your Lync infrastructure.

I will not discuss about all of them, but three of them may prove to be usefull for just everyone in your organisation. And the more usefull they think Lync is, the more they will be pleased by your work!

Conversation translator : Write in your language and send with your contact language. Even if translation are provided « as is », it’s still a good way to be understood in a multilanguage environment

Information Dashboard: Set a location for your contact once, and collect forecast, feeds and other informations about what’s happening there each time an IM/Call is started with this contact.

Tabbed Conversations: You love IE8/IE9 tabbed design and you have a lot of overlapping IM Windows? With this tool you will have multiple conversation pane instead of filling your desktop with IM.