Monday, November 22, 2010

Microsoft Lync: Ushering in a new generation of communications

Today, with our customers and partners in New York City, we are celebrating the launch of Microsoft Lync -- the next generation of Office Communications Server.
Earlier this year, Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 launched, delivering the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser. Together, these products provide the productivity backbone of modern businesses and help address the generational shifts impacting organizations of all sizes – shifts like the advent of the cloud, information overload, globalization and the consumerization of IT.
Microsoft Lync 2010 now delivers on our vision to transform communications by connecting people in new ways. Lync integrates enterprise voice, instant messaging and web, audio and video conferencing into a connected single communications experience.
If you’re not yet familiar with Lync, let me share with you some of my favorite new features:

  • Unified experience. Go from an instant message, to a voice call, to a video call, to a meeting, to a shared whiteboard session – all within the same Lync 2010 experience.
  • One-click web conference.  Use Outlook to set up a web conference with one-click of the mouse.
  • Connect with family. While you’re travelling, use Lync to start a high-definition voice and video conversation with any Windows Live Messenger user around the world.
  • Hush that annoying meeting participant.   When someone has poor audio on a conference call or lots of background noise, Lync will identify which phone to mute to improve quality – and productivity.
  • Device switching. Switch between your head-set and phone in the middle of a call with device switching.  Use that same head-set to make a phone call using WiFi on an airplane.
Read more: The Official Microsoft Blog