Microsoft IP PBX still needs to grow up

With lots of useful features on the day of release, Office Communications Server still needs time to mature and prove itself

By Tim Greene, Network World
March 21, 2007 11:42 AM ET

VoIP capabilities within Office Communications Server 2007 from Microsoft can offer significant business advantages for corporations, but it’s not all plug-and-play yet.

Global Crossing, which was a private beta user of the unified communications platform, says OCS delivers smoother interconnection of users with each other and the applications they are working from and has the potential for more functionality.

The OCS challenge
Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007, expected out later this year, offers many attractive communications features, but the platform also faces hurdles before it can reach its potential. Here are a few of its challenges, as well as ways for businesses to deal with them:

Challenge	Strategy
Embedding OCS features into proprietary applications requires custom programming.	Seriously consider the cost of the integration as a sound investment that can improve efficiency and add new features to existing business programs.
OCS offers VoIP features that compete with the features of PBXs already in place.	n the short term, don't even think about replacing your PBX with OCS. It has fewer call features than most PBXs. Use unique OCS unified communications features to improve business processes now, and wait for OCS to prove itself as a PBX.
OCS requires use of Exchange Unified Messaging.	Businesses not using Exchange Unified Messaging must consider its cost as part of the equation when deciding whether to pay for the benefits OCS can provide.
OCS doesn't integrate well with voice mail systems.	While some features will work, others — such as signaling within OCS when a voice mail has been received — won't. Microsoft has no plans to make full integration possible, so phasing out existing voice mail systems for those compatible with OCS is recommended. Exchange Unified Messaging includes compatible voice mail.
Microsoft platforms don't have a stellar reputation for reliability.	Control the phase-in of OCS so it doesn't become a critical corporate platform until it can establish solid, high-availablity architectures to support it.

Click to see: The OCS challenge

At the same time, though, the software requires custom coding to interface with the company’s proprietary applications and VoIP gear made by other vendors.

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Microsoft OCS 2007 brings e-mail, instant messaging, presence and most importantly, voice and video all together on a single server. The platform is based on session initiation protocol (SIP), which is the signaling and call-management protocol that likely all VoIP gear will ultimately adopt.

The significant difference between OCS and its predecessor, Live Communications Server (LCS), is the addition of VoIP, so the server can act as an IP PBX. VoIP is also supported in Office Communicator Client so a desktop with an OC client could make a softphone call through OCS to another OC client-equipped desktop, says Chris Cullin, Microsoft’s product-management director for unified communications.

Microsoft is so keen on breaking into business VoIP it is even selling a stripped-down version of OCS for use in small businesses as a phone system in conjunction with appliance vendor D-Link.