BB09
Oct 27th, 2008
Microsoft Office Communications Server and Exchange: Platform Futures

Speakers

Chris Mayo Technical Evangelist, UC, http://blogs.msdn.com/cmayo
Chris Schindler, Program Manager, UC
Chris Mayo and Chris Schindler gave an excellent presentation about where communications platform is going. The traditional way of seeing UC is just human-to-human, but there are huge possibilities in having machine-to-human-to-machine scenarios where platform has been extended for different scenarios. As important is the fact that communications can take place using various different software. Today, e.g. in SharePoint, human-to-human communications can be started just using the presence information available. / Mentioned Technologies
·  Exchange
·  OCS
·  OC SDK
·  OCS DSK
·  UCMA SDK
·  Silverlight
The same ideology can be leveraged in custom applications, for example ecommerce sites and CRM providing seamless interaction between peers. For extending user experience, WPF controls have been created to be used in WPF applications and Silverlight controls can be created. In v.Next, built-in controls are available for Web applications to be extended. Full user experience might require additional downloads, but nonetheless the way of communications is about to change even more. Exchange Web Services API provides access to information stored in Exchange to extend asynchronous communications while OC R2 SDK does the same for Office Communicator and OCS R2 SDK for Office Communications Server.
Developing applications does not only take place on the client side but also on the server side by using Unified Communications Managed API 2.0, UCMA 2.0 SDK. By using UCMA, developers can leverage the platform and by using Workflow foundation can take the communications to the next level by integrating processes with communications. Possibilities include call distribution, conferencing, gateways, etc. For example CWA has been built using the technology. OCS R2 is scheduled to be released in Q1/09 and a lot of effort has already been put into Wave 14, the next version of OCS. By using “Paris” controls, classes, and Web services, applications become even richer in the user experience and Soa/S+S solutions can be built easier.


List of demos

UC R2 Platform Contoso Demo / Contoso application (In-store ecommerce) done with WPF was shown and how customers can be served better by having eCommerce information bound with Presence information and voice capabilities of OC. When having PBX integration in place even customer-facing communications can be automated by changes in Exchange calendar and workflow functionalities. Text to speech enables interaction in a new and more efficient way.
OC 2007 R2 SDK / In the demo, WPF controls were shown and how to have WPF applications presence aware
EWS-managed API / In demo, interaction with Exchange Web services was shown with custom windows forms looking for changes in certain mail folder
UCMA Core SDK / A bot listened to what was typed and, according to that initiating instant messaging, presented capabilities of the platform
Agent communications panel for CRM4 / A scenario where agent receives a call was shown with integrated CRM4 user experience where CRM automatically opens the contact information view and the application provides the possibility to route the call


Conclusion

SDKs provide a new way of leveraging communications platform and utilizing Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office Communication Server 2007 R2 in new ways not only for human-to-human interaction but also for interacting with back ends in a more innovative ways.

Ilija Lazarov