OCS 2007 R2 Launch Notes

The Backpack contains:

• OCS 2007 R2 Datasheet (single page glossy on features/benefits
  
• Product Overview PDF (85 pages on features, functionality, licensing, requirements)
  
• Welcome Video from Eric Swift
  

  Keynote Address Highlights:
  

• Stephen Elop opens and announces the general availability of OCS 2007 R2
  
• First Virtual launch in Microsoft history - rightfully so.
  
• Eric Swift shows some demos on how OCS integrates and speeds up business processes
  
• He also performs a live demo of audio and video conferencing extending the normal conference call for better collaboration
  
• Back to Elop for more discussion on business suites that compliment OCS
  
• Video on Schlumberger and how they use UC to help their business processes.
  
• Elop back on cutting costs using OCS
  
  • Microsoft saved 90M in travel costs already
    
  • Swisscom, reducing customer proposal time by 20% and improving responsiveness
    
  • Linebridge, saving 1.3M in costs, saving 120,000 hours per year
    
  • Siemens, 120,000 users on IM, moving to nearly 500K in 2009
    
  • Shell, 100K users on IM, 8000 on VOIP. Retiring 200 PBX's over next few years
    
• Other UC Customers:
  
  • Gregory Bryant, VP at Intel - discussing multi site real time meetings, using lots of voice (1M meeting minutes per day in audio)
    
  • Victor Nunez, CIO at INFONAVIT, using R2 to increase connectivity, productivity. Using attendant features to convert CxO executives to OCS R2.
    
  • Mike Browne, VP at Sprint Nextel, retiring 5-8 PBX's per week moving to OCS VoIP
    
• Other OCS Partners, in hardware, add-on software, and systems integrators such as (incomplete list)
  
  • Audiocodecs
    
  • GE healthcare
    
  • HP
    
  • Enabling Technologies
    
  • Avia
    
  • Gold Systems
    
• Partner discussion with Mark Slaga from Dimension Data
  
  • 85 implementations
    
  • First tamberg implementation
    
  • Largest OCS integration
    
  • Why is OCS not slowing down
    
    • Economic savings to reduce travel and waste in business processes
      
    • Several success stories
      
• Q and A with Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate VP of Unified Communications.
  
  • Clint Patterson, Director at Microsoft is collecting and asking questions
    
  • Isn't R2 playing catchup in UC? No, it is setting the pace with unique features and leapfrogging the competition
    
  • Audio Conferencing isnt new, how is this different? Two problems - expensive POTS infrastructure, user experience tied to minimal input tool (keypad) - opening it up to cheaper existing hardware, and opening input to multiple sources.
    
  • Is the PBX dead? No, but it is a dead end. There is no new technology that is appealing within the old systems. A jab here at Callmanager being no more than a PBX.
    
  • Embedding communications into business process across all modalities is what makes it Unified Communications.
    

  Of course, the biggest benefit, is this is a virtual event, so it's going on RIGHT NOW (aka, anytime you read this) at http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/r2-virtual-launch/event/
  

  And of course, with new products, come new documentation. Matthew Wade has a conclusive list of all the links on Microsoft downloads up now.