Lync Partner Connect Newsletter – August 2013 Edition

News and Events Take advantage of the FY14 Office 365 Deployment Offer for qualifying partners It’s easy to deploy Office 365. Help your customers get up and running quickly using our 3 step approach. Start with a pilot, deploy to the rest of their organization and continue to enhance the solution. Customers can learn more at http://fasttrack.office.com/. Starting September 1, 2013, customers who purchase a minimum of 150 seats of eligible Office 365 Enterprise SKUs* will qualify for an investment toward their Office 365 deployment. During the offer period, Microsoft will reimburse MCS or a qualified partner up to $20,000 per tenant toward a fixed scope of FastTrack step 2 deployment activities. Net new purchases of E-Plans or Exchange Online will be eligible for this investment. This offer is available September 1, 2013 through March 2014. Take advantage of this offer today on the Drumbeat site (Sales Resources for Office 365) < Offer tab or directly at https://drumbeat.office.com/fasttrack#offer. * Visit https://drumbeat.office.com/fasttrack#offer for full offer details and eligibility. Guided walk-through for troubleshooting communication between Lync Online users and their federated contacts Need help setting up communication between Lync online users and their federated contacts in other organizations? This guided walk-through—based on analysis of Microsoft Support cases—walks you through the essential steps.

In This Issue News and Events Training and Readiness Hardware and Devices Lync Applications Case Studies Resources Communications Competency Microsoft Certified Master Win in Compete Situations Microsoft Pinpoint NextHop Blog UC Open Interoperability Program Contact Us Feedback and Questions Subscribe | Unsubscribe

Training and Readiness FY14 Lync Partner playbooks on MPN In case you missed them, no matter how you partner with Microsoft, there’s a playbook for you. You can access the FY14 Partner Playbooks on MPN at the following links. • Communications Competency and Lync Partner Readiness Playbook • Independent Hardware Vendors Playbook • ISV Playbook • Lync Solutions Providers Playbook • System Integrators Playbook As always you can access these updated playbooks along with other key partner resources on the Lync Partner Connect SkyDrive.

Hardware and Devices Audiocodes Expands Lync Branch Survivability Solutions AudioCodes now offers Lync survivability solutions for branch offices of all sizes. In addition to its range of Survivable Branch Appliances (SBA), which provide uninterrupted Lync voice communications for medium-sized branches, AudioCodes has added a series of Resilient Branch Appliances (RBA) for small branch offices. Based on AudioCodes Mediant 500, 800, and 850 Multi-service Business Router (MSBR) platforms, the cost-effective RBA solution makes use of redundant cellular and wire line WAN links to ensure uninterrupted communications with the central Lync Server 2013. For information, download the Branch Survivability for Microsoft Lync brochure or contact Rex Harris at AudioCodes (Americas) or David Messer at AudioCodes (Rest of World).

Novus fills unmet need for SMBs For many small and mid-sized businesses, load balancers are simply beyond their reach in terms of cost and complexity. Still, SMBs need these products to evenly distribute traffic among servers and routers. KEMP Technologies fills this need with its LoadMaster line of load balancers, which optimized traffic for Lync environments. Novus, a boutique reseller of telecommunications equipment and Lync hardware, now carries KEMP’s entire lineup of LoadMaster load balancers. KEMP’s load balancers for Lync environments feature enterprise attributes while focusing on ease of use and lower cost. KEMP’s load balancers provide 99.999% uptime for application infrastructures, which, in many organizations, is a requirement for meeting SLAs. Read the LoadMaster deployment guide and LoadMaster product datasheet for more info on KEMP LoadMaster products and contact Chris Meehan at Novus LLC for additional questions.

New Head of Channel and Partner Marketing Erna Arnesen has joined the company as vice president of Global Channel and Partner Marketing. She is responsible for developing the company’s global channel and strategic alliance marketing strategies. Read more at Plantronics Press Room.

Polycom WPC 2013 sessions available on Youtube! Polycom would like to thank everyone who visited the Polycom booth at the Microsoft WPC 2013 in Houston. There was a lot of excitement and interest generated by the press release "Polycom Unveils Innovative Around-the-Table Video Collaboration Experience with Full HD, 360-Degree Panoramic Video Solutions Built for Microsoft Lync Environments." For those who were unable to attend, the following sessions are available on YouTube: • Polycom CX5500/CX5100 Preview and Voice Demo at Microsoft WPC 2013 – Polycom Senior Product Marketing Manager, Peter Huboi, previews newly announced Polycom CX5500/5100 and Polycom voice solutions available for Lync. • Polycom VVX- Lync Integration Demo (Part 1: Better Together over Ethernet) at WPC – Polycom UC Architect and Lync MVP, Adam Jacobs, demonstrates Better Together over Ethernet feature available on upcoming UCS 5.0 software release. • Polycom VVX-Lync Integration (Part 2: Call Park and Lync Directory) at WPC 2013 – Polycom UC Architect and Lync MVP, Adam Jacobs, demonstrates Call Park and Lync Directory feature available on upcoming UCS 5.0 software release.

Sennheiser Premium Wireless Headsets optimized for Lync Sennheiser introduces the availability of SD Series DECT wireless headsets in the North American and Latin American markets this quarter. This new series of headsets is designed to improve call quality and boost productivity for business professionals using Lync. Sennheiser voice clarity and excellent wearing comfort bring hands-free freedom and premium sound quality to the Americas. Features include: • Sennheiser voice clarity – wideband sound for natural listening experiences • Noise-cancelling microphone – filters out unwanted background noise • Full workday talk time – 8 hours in wideband sound mode and 12 hours in narrowband sound mode • Recharge 50% of your battery in 20 minutes – intelligent fast charging • Long distance wireless range – in typical office building: up to 180 ft./55 m.; in line of sight: up to 590 ft./180 m. • ActiveGard technology – protects your hearing against acoustic shock

snom demos enhanced better together over Ethernet! snom is once again "One Step Beyond" when it comes to Lync qualified IP phones. The snom UC edition will soon feature "Enhanced Better Together" PC pairing including click-to-dial, call transfer and ad hoc conferencing! Watch the Enhanced Better Together demo video! Viva las Vegas! snom will be a Gold Sponsor at ITEXPO in Las Vegas (August 26-29) and this will be another chance to witness Enhanced Better Together live in action! If you haven’t already done so, register now and get down to booth #715: Register for ITEXPO Become a snom UC partner at www.snom-uc-edition.com and for additional questions contact UC-sales@snom.com.

New Sonus Whitepaper: Understanding Lync 911 for Enterprises Enhanced 911 (E911) support is a critical component of an enterprise voice system. Lync natively provides users with industry leading E911 capabilities. However, to take advantage of these capabilities, organizations require an E911 solution to deliver accurate location information to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point. This whitepaper looks at the how E911 works with Lync and how an enterprise can provide a better E911 solution for employees. Read the whitepaper. Microsoft Technology Centers Integrate Sonus Session Border Controllers Globally Sonus has announced that its session border controllers (SBCs) are being integrated into Microsoft Technology Centers globally, allowing enterprise companies to experience first-hand the powerful combination of Sonus SBCs in a Lync Enterprise deployment. Read the press release.

Westcon Convergence Launches Two New Lync Solution Videos Westcon Convergence stood out from the crowd at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference last month, delivering its Lync value proposition and engaging with partners. Westcon launched two new videos at WPC that demonstrate how Westcon’s broad ecosystem can help resellers source the right partners for Lync, and simplify the deployment of the solution. Watch the videos! Westcon Marketing Contact: Runa Macleod@westcon.co.uk, European Channel Marketing Director, Westcon Convergence, UK +44 1293 806053.

Lync Applications Aspect Unified IP Aspect® is the only provider of a fully-integrated, multi-channel interaction management and workforce optimization platform for contact centers. Integrating Aspect Unified IP with Microsoft Lync Server 2013 connects customers through voice and instant messaging (IM) and empowers agents to find experts for first call resolution using presence and desktop sharing. Find out more about Aspect Unified IP.

Periscope Qualifies for Lync 2013 Periscope GC for Billing and Enhanced Reporting on Lync recognizes that Lync provides an opportunity to deliver more for our customers. Not only does Lync deliver a rich Unified Communications environment for users, but it coincides with the latest Microsoft technologies in operating system, database and web application development. Periscope GC takes advantage of these developments to deliver a rich web based user experience providing well established telecoms reporting features such as on-billing, Call Cost Accounting and service provider bill import and extending that further to drive business analytics around the Unified Communications play. Find out more about Periscope GC.

Altigen’s Max ACD MaxACD Lync native contact center combines several separate compelling contact center productivity applications into one integrated system that works with Lync Server 2010 & 2013 to handle automatic call distribution (ACD), skills-based data-directed routing, call recording, and reporting functions. MaxACD takes advantage of AltiGen’s 15 years of contact center technology innovation to deliver a complete, integrated software-based contact center solution for Microsoft Lync. MaxACD includes a robust SDK with APIs to integrate information from your back office applications to build sophisticated routing rules, screen pops, CRM and ERP integration.

Trio Enterprise and Enterprise Attendant Enterprise Attendant is developed upon a Scandinavian model, Trio Enterprise Attendant Console brings you a high-end switchboard solution which integrates fully with the voice telephony and collaboration capabilities of Lync. When using the attendant console you can for example camp on busy Lync users or transfer calls to mobile phones. You will also get returning calls if the destination doesn’t answer so that you may transfer to someone else in the same department. Trio Enterprise is a multimedia Contact Center with Attendant functionality, Trio Enterprise from Enghouse Interactive is developed upon a Scandinavian model. Integrating fully with the voice telephony and collaboration capabilities of MS Lync it also supports Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory. Manage all types of customer interactions such as Voice Call, Exchange UM Voicemail, SMS, e-mail, Web Chat & Web Callback, in one single application. Find out more about Trio.

Netscout nGenious Voice | Video Manager nGenius Voice | Video Manager t is a unified communications performance monitoring solution enabling comprehensive service delivery management for Lync Server deployments by delivering real-time visibility into end-to-end call performance for voice and video sessions. Flexible workflows enable powerful analysis and troubleshooting procedures supporting both proactive and reactive service management tasks. A broad range of immediate and measurable benefits are provided which accelerate the adoption and deployment of Microsoft Lync. Find out more about nGenious Voice | Video Manager.

UNIFY2 PowerSat helps Fortune 100 Healthcare Services Company to increase productivity and reduce costs with a Lync deployment This large healthcare services organization grew rapidly through acquisitions, where legacy telephony systems remained intact. This resulted in a patchwork of aging systems and ongoing, costly and time-consuming upgrades and refresh cycles. Working closely with the Unify Square team and after evaluating different alternatives, the customer decided to deploy Microsoft Lync with Enterprise Voice and replace its existing PBX systems. Using PowerSAT allowed the customer to quickly survey people and pinpoint areas to address in a proactive fashion. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were established for this project: reduce conferencing costs; consolidate PBX infrastructure to a comprehensive UC platform, and increase employees’ productivity. Read more.

Case Studies The international law firm CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz opts for secure communication Vienna, Austria – International companies in particular face a challenge in heterogeneous telecommunications infrastructures and the lack of a fax connection to document management systems. Since introducing Lync 2010 and now Lync 2013 as a multisite unified communications solution, the international law firm CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz operates a state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure. Apart from the cost savings through IP telephony and simplified user administration, the firm benefits especially from the connection between the communications server and the other Office applications. The OfficeMaster solution by Ferrari electronic integrates a communications channel that remains vital for legal communications: fax. Read more.

Jetstar Takes off in Asia with Network-based Telephony and Multi-party Desktop Video Melbourne, Australia – To expand rapidly in Asia, Australian airline, The Jetstar Group (Jetstar) wanted an easily deployable telephony and video platform that supported top-grade collaboration and mobility. Between 2010 and 2013, the firm deployed successive versions of the unified communications platform, Microsoft Lync, with on-premises deployments of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 in Melbourne and Tokyo, and Lync Server 2013 in Hong Kong. Powered by multi-party desktop videoconferencing and click-to-call telephony, transnational teamwork soared, helping Jetstar launch a new airline in Japan months ahead of schedule. Read more.

Plantronics Wearable Technology enables Avtex to provide seamless Lync experience Rich presence, such as knowing the status of colleagues, and instant messaging (IM) capabilities help workers find and communicate with one another more efficiently and effectively. Integration with familiar Microsoft Office productivity tools and Microsoft Lync makes IM and presence a natural part of everyday workflow. Leveraging the Plantronics Spokes SDK and the contextually aware Voyager Legend UC, Avtex Smart Forward Agent Application allows users to automatically turn the Lync Call Forwarding or Simultaneous Ring features on when the user walks away from their PC. Watch the demo video and read the case study.