Microsoft Lync Server 2010, formerly called Office Communications Server and Live Communications Server, and currently called Skype for Business, allows you to take control of Presence and Instant Messaging (IM) while providing an advanced platform for unified communications that can save time and money while improving productivity and teamwork. Microsoft Lync Server offers a consistent user experience that spans desktop and laptop PCs, smart phones, and web browsers and allows users to communicate, collaborate, and share information from within the Lync desktop client, from Microsoft Office programs including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, or from custom applications and workflows.
Lync Server 2010 supports Instant Messaging, Presence, audio and video conferencing, desktop sharing, and both IP-based and PSTN telephony. Lync Server 2010 can extend the functionality of Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint and simplify management through integration with Active Directory. The extensive capabilities of Lync Server 2010 can also save capital and operational costs by replacing VoIP hardware and subscription services, PBX systems, or legacy video conferencing solutions.
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can provide online and on-premises support to help you manage and troubleshoot your current deployment of Lync Server 2010. Progent can also assist you to evaluate the benefits of upgrading from Lync Server 2010 to the latest release of Skype for Business, which is Microsoft's renamed and revamped version of the product. Progent can also help you plan and carry out a smooth Skype for Business migration from a legacy version of Lync. In addition, Progent can help you integrate your unified communications environment with Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server, show you how to use Lync or Skype for Business to enhance the collaborative capabilities of Microsoft Office and Office 365 applications, and provide custom online training for individuals or groups.
Overview of Microsoft Lync Server 2010
The hit-or-miss nature of phone and voice mail systems and the sporadic delays inherent in email can result in wasted time and lost opportunities. This has contributed to the wide-spread, and often uncontrolled, adoption of IM technology to help people get in touch with one another quickly regardless of location or circumstances. But this means yet another mode of communications for users to monitor and IT administrators to manage.
A complementary solution for reducing communications latency is Presence technology. Presence allows people to publish their availability status and helps colleagues determine the best time and method to contact them. Rich Presence technology removes most of the guesswork and latency out of getting in touch. The challenge for IT managers is how to allow Presence to surface within the natural workflow of a business so that users don't give back the time-saving benefits by being forced to master yet another software application or dramatically alter the way they do business.
The key to Lync Server 2010's business value is that it leverages the collaborative benefits of IM and Presence across multiple software applications, business functions, and computing devices by providing a single, standardized, manageable, secure, and scalable platform that integrates easily into existing IT infrastructure. Lync Server 2010 universalizes access to IM and Presence through its integration with mainstream applications such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint and by supporting Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux desktops as well as Android phones, iPhones, Windows Phones, BlackBerries and other web-enabled smart phones. Lync Server 2010 also utilizes IM and Presence to enhance or replace core communications solutions including IP-PBX systems and video conferencing.
Lync Server 2010 allows users to publish their availability status (e.g., Available, Busy, Off Work, In a Meeting) and how they can be reached. Lync Server 2010 supports advanced user information including a contact's picture and location. This status information is available wherever a user's name appears such as in an email message or on a team web site. Presence status can also be displayed and messages can be launched within a Microsoft Office application such as Excel or Word by hovering over the Presence icon. This provides a click-to-contact capability that streamlines communication without disturbing familiar workflows.
Lync's native integration with Active Directory simplifies management by doing away with the requirement to establish separate databases for users and policies, Lync's use of Role Based Access Control (RBAC) makes it easy to assign roles and scopes to various administrators.
Major Features of Microsoft Lync Server 2010
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 offers a rich array of features that enhance the usability and manageability of collaborative tools in the areas of Presence and IM, Unified Conferencing, and Enterprise Voice.
Presence and IM
Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can help you design and support a robust network infrastructure that provides the performance and reliability required for your Lync Server solution, and Progent's network security consultants can help you define and enforce company-wide security policies for Presence and IM applications based on industry best practices.
Progent's business continuity professionals can help you take advantage of Lync Server 2010's ability to be split across two geographical separate sites so that your Lync Server environment can survive a catastrophic data center breakdown, and Progent's Data Protection Manager experts can help you devise and test a backup/restore solution that minimizes business disruption and data loss in case of a network failure.
Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) can provide on-line support for IT managers responsible for maintaining Lync Server and the TRC also offers Helpdesk services for end users. Progent can train administrators and users to manage and operate Lync Server 2010 and the Lync 2010 client to maximize the business value of Microsoft's Presence and IM technology.
In order to get in touch with Progent about engineering support for Microsoft Lync Server 2010, call
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