OCS 2007 competes directly with Lotus Sametime 7.5, which offers almost an identical feature set (see chart).
Other options include JabberNow, Jive OpenFire, and Reuters Messaging. While certainly not as feature rich, they may do the job, and all are far less expensive than OCS, especially if you are looking for just an IM product.
Several vendors can also help you cobble together your own UC environment by building off an existing VoIP infrastructure. They include Cisco's Unified Presence Server and Unified Personal Communicator, Avaya's one-X software, and Siemens' OpenScape. These systems may require more integration work than Microsoft's package, which takes full advantage of Office's dominance in the workplace.
 |
|
RELATED LINKS |
Message For You
Microsoft's OSC is built around the Communicator 2007 IM client. And the heart of the client is presence: your colleagues and their status are displayed in an IM contact list, and from there you can send them e-mail, dial them with a click of a button, initiate a chat session or start a web conference in Live Meeting or a voice or video conference with team members.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
