More and more BVA is getting requests for solutions wrapped around instant messaging and web collaboration. It’s amazing how popular it has become and have a feeling it is due to the large push in the consumer area with Skype, MSN, Yahoo, and other interfaces. It seems like the need for communication with other employees and friends on the fly is starting to become not a benefit but a need. Especially with the push of IM on mobile devises has really has changed they way people communicate. Microsoft Lync 2010 is a re-branding of the company’s Office Communications software suite. This old but new offering focuses on business users for enterprise VOIP (voice over IP), instant messaging, video and audio conferencing, and application and desktop sharing. Lync will operate in conjunction with other software platforms such as Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange. Forrester estimates that the overall unified communications market will be worth $14.5 billion by 2015. I had the pleasure of seeing Lync in action, which on the fly allowed groups of users to interface via voice or video, all while collaborating on a PowerPoint document. Because Lync integrates multiple services such as instant messaging, video and voice into a single client experience, experienced users can simultaneously juggle multiple tasks and calling partners. Microsoft formally launched Lync 2010 in November and has been in Beta with some large clients over the last 10 months. Microsoft’s Lync Website offers a free trial of the software, which will be available December 1. Mobile clients for the Apple iPhone, Nokia phones and Windows Phone 7 are expected within the year. Lync’s other features include the ability to select multiple people from a contact list to make a group call; test a network connection before initiating a video call; and flipping through instant messenger, video, and document-collaborating within the same client experience. Integration with services such as Exchange means that Lync will auto-update its users’ statuses, for instance if they’re in a meeting or otherwise away from their desk. Lync also interfaces with Windows Live Messenger and even Kinect, with users able to activate a video conference through gestures.
Microsoft Lync Website
Retail Pricing Construct
| Server license offerings | Estimated price |
| Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition | $699 |
| Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition | $3,999 |
| CAL offerings | Estimated price |
| Lync Server 2010 Standard CAL | $31 |
| Lync Server 2010 Enterprise CAL | $107 |
| Lync Server 2010 Plus CAL | $107 |