UC Exchange seamlessly and securely federates users on Microsoft Lync 2010, OCS 2007 R2, OCS 2007 R1, & LCS 2005 environments with colleagues on IBM Sametime; Cisco Jabber XCP, Unified Presence Server (CUPS) and WebEx Messenger (formerly Cisco WebEx Connect); Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, Isode M-Link and eJabberd.

Moreover, UC Exchange federates Microsoft Lync and OCS platforms with Skype and Social Media networks such as Yammer, Chatter, and Twitter.

With UC Exchange, there are no upfront capital expenses. There is nothing to install onsite. Simply point the Lync or OCS Access Edge Server(s) to the UC Exchange's FQDN and complete a SSL handshake to federate with one or hundreds of partners.

UC Federation

UC Exchange Federation Services provides a rich set of hi-fidelity federation capabilities across a wide range of unified communication (UC) platforms:

Voice & Video

Easily escalate a chat session with a federated colleague to an HD quality voice or a video call.

Presence and Enhanced Presence Support

Share not only standard presence states of either "Available," "Away," "Busy" or "DND" on OCS or Lync clients, but also share custom status messages and enhanced presence states with federated colleagues.

The enhanced presence capabilities of OCS/Lync platforms collect detailed information about a user and report this information as a presence status so that others can make informed choices about the best way to contact that user.

The main features of the enhanced presence are as follows:

• Automatic sensing of activity
• Access levels
• Interruption management

Automatic Sensing of Activities

With the OCS and Lync enhanced presence model, user activities are automatically collected and aggregated into a presence status that is selected on behalf of the user. No user input is required. For example, a user's presence status is set to 'In a Call' when that user places or receives a phone call or to 'In a Meeting' when that user's Outlook calendar shows a scheduled meeting. As a user signs in to Office Communicator, attends meetings, places or answers phone calls, or simply stops interacting with his or her phone or computer, the presence system continues to gather information about the user's status and distributes this information to others.

UC Exchange Federation Services supports automatic sensing of activities by showing on a federated client when a Lync or OCS user is on the phone, in a meeting, or in a conference call.

Access Levels

OCS and Lync Access levels provide a flexible authorization model so that users can control the amount of presence information that others see. For example, if a user wants to make a custom presence state available only to select federated users, he or she can assign those coworkers to the 'Team' or 'Colleague' access level.

UC Exchange Federation Services supports Access Levels by ensuring only the information allowed by a specific access level is shared with federated colleagues.

Interruption Management

With the OCS and Lync enhanced presence model, users can manage interruptions. Users can set their status to 'Do Not Disturb' and this status will persist until they manually change it, sign out, or lock their computer. Users can also select 'Do Not Disturb' from an incoming alert or an existing instant message or audio call. In that case, the 'Do Not Disturb' status expires at the top of the hour. When a user's presence status is 'Do Not Disturb' by default all incoming audio, video, and instant message alerts are blocked except for calls and instant messages from contacts assigned the 'Team' or 'Colleague' access level. Users can change this behavior if desired.

UC Exchange Federation Services supports OCS and Lync interruption management by showing "Urgent interruptions only" on federated clients.s

One-to-one Chat

Exchange instant messages with federated colleagues regardless of their UC platforms.

Full Multi-User Chat Support

Host and invite multiple federated users into multi-user chat sessions. Allow federated users to see all of the participants, including their presence status, and be aware of those who join or leave the session as if they are on the same platform.

Federated User Tagging

OCS and Lync user tagging capability enables users to tag colleagues and receive a notification when those colleagues become available. Trying to track down a busy colleague can be time consuming and difficult. Tagging users and getting notifications of when they are available is very useful and with UC Exchange Federation Services, users can tag their federated colleagues even if they do not reside on the same UC platform. With this feature, if a user tags a person in his or her contact list, a toaster message will pop up with an alert that that particular person is now available.

File Transfer

Share files with federated colleagues simply by dragging and dropping them into a chat session. This feature is supported for federation between Microsoft OCS or Lync and Google Apps.

Disclaimer Messages

Automatically display customizable disclaimer messages at the beginning of a chat or a multi-user chat session to all chat participants, regardless of the participants UC platform (including platforms that do not usually support this type of feature).

Organizations typically use this feature to share legal, compliance and security advisories or to display disclaimers.

Skype Federation

UC Exchange UC to Skype Federation allows end-users on Microsoft Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 to communicate seamlessly with colleagues on Skype.

Skype contacts can be easily added to Microsoft communicator client contact lists exactly the same way as other federated contacts. Users can share presence and exchange instant messages with Skype contacts or vice versa - as if they were on the same UC platform.

UC Exchange Skype Federation enables Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 end users to make voice calls to Skype users directly from their Microsoft communicator clients.

To call a Skype user from a Lync or OCS client, a user can either, open a chat window with their Skype contact and select the Call option, or they can right-click on the Skype contact directly within their contact list and select the Call option. UC Exchange Skype Federation allows users to chat with IM during voice calls.

Yahoo Federation

Microsoft announced that it has stopped renewing Yahoo PIC federation for customers on Lync 2013, Lync 2010, and OCS 2007.

UC Exchange UC to Yahoo Federation allows end-users on Microsoft Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 to communicate seamlessly with Yahoo users.

Yahoo contacts can be easily added to Microsoft communicator client contact lists exactly the same way as other federated contacts. Users can share presence and exchange instant messages with Yahoo contacts or vice versa - as if they were on the same UC platform.

Facebook Federation

UC Exchange UC to Facebook Federation allows Microsoft Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 to communicate seamlessly with their friends on Facebook.

Facebook contacts can be easily added to Microsoft communicator client contact lists exactly the same way as other federated contacts. Users can share presence and exchange instant messages with Facebook contacts or vice versa.

Social Media Federation

UC Exchange UC-to-Social Media Federation allows users on Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 to authenticate to their social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, or Salesforce Chatter directly from their UC client. By federating their UC platforms with social networks, organizations can allow employees to access social networks while still exercising control.

Microsoft Lync 2013, Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 users can:

• Update their status
• Post messages to multiple social media feeds
• Send private messages to other users
• Participate in social group discussions and trending topics
• Search users
• Search groups

The UC Exchange policy enforcement feature gives organizations control over which users are allowed or denied access to different social media networks. For example, a financial services organization can enforce a policy that allows only non-regulated users (by SIP or XMPP address) to post to a Twitter account.

More importantly, this feature eliminates the need to maintain expensive social media compliance and archiving tools, thus results in substantial savings.

XMPP Hosted Group Chat Federation

UC Exchange XMPP Group Chat Federation provides seamless federation between Microsoft OCS and Lync and persistent group chat rooms on XMPP-based UCs such as OpenFire. As a result, end-users with Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) and Lync clients can add the chat rooms to their contact list without the organization requiring the OCS or LYNC Group Chat server or specialized clients.

XMPP hosted group chat rooms can be added to a MOC or Lync client by their friendly names as if adding a federated user to the users contact list.

For a MOC or Lync client user to enter a group chat room, they simply open a 1:1 chat window with the chat room name which was previously added as a federated contact, and type "Join".

Upon entering a group chat room, the MOC or Lync user can see the participants' friendly names and presence status, room history, and chat as if they are on the same platform as the XMPP users.

Learn More
To join the UC Exchange, contact NextPlane today.