Our last fiscal year that ended in June saw continued growth and momentum for Lync in the market. Lync grew at double digit rates, reached over three million enterprise voice users who are using Lync as their only telephony solution, two million Lync mobile clients were downloaded in just six months, and many customers such as Sprint, Helly Hansen and Astra Zeneca are benefiting through cost savings and increased
productivity with Lync and the rest of the Office applications. 

Our partners play a critical role in our journey to transform communications. Partners have been instrumental in helping customers decide, implement, manage and support Lync. They also continue to push the envelope in creating innovative offerings and solutions on our communications platform.  We’ve seen a bunch of great innovation from partners, and I’d like to take a moment to highlight our Lync award winners and finalists.

Communications Market Acceleration Partner of the Year: Hewlett-Packard for their expertise in planning, deployment and management of Lync and launch of the HP AppSystem, a robust backend system for rapid adoption of Lync by customers.

Finalists: Wortell, Enabling Technologies Corporation

Communications Technology Partner of the Year: Avtex for their innovative suite of Lync based applications such as the Team Assembly System that provides real time availability of dispatch crew saving valuable time in gathering response teams during emergencies.

Finalists: Aruba Networks & Plantronics Inc

In addition to looking back at the last year; WPC also represents the perfect opportunity to share new initiatives, programs, and business planning with our partner community. The Microsoft Lync team has an action packed schedule
designed to help partners in accelerating their business with Lync.  We will be sharing our go-to-market efforts for the next fiscal year, discussing opportunities on deployment, support and development platform and how Office 365 partners can leverage the value of Lync Online to lead customer deployments.  I am especially looking forward to sharing the evolution of the new Premier Services for Lync Partners offering, based largely on direct feedback from our
partners.  In addition, we have a host of activities, networking events and meetings planned to connect with our partners and build off our joint success in FY12 to have an even more successful FY13. 

If you are a partner and heading to Toronto next week, here’s what you wouldn’t want to miss:

Lync Sessions:

You can add these sessions your calendar via the session scheduler at www.digitalwpc.com.  We are also giving out passes to the most coveted event at WPC, “The Party”, so be there to
not miss out on any of the action. Plan also to stop by the Future of Productivity booth (#M3) and the Lync calling stations in the Solution Innovation Center to see hands-on demos.  The Solutions Innovation Center will
feature:

LYNC CALLING STATIONS
Save those calling minute and experience the power of enterprise voice. Make phone calls to friends and family all via the power of Lync.

LYNC TECHNICAL EXPERT DEMOS
Even the savviest experts may not realize all of the features and functionality that Lync has to offer customers. Swing by the demo stations to meet with Lync technical experts and learn more. 

LYNC DEVICE WALL
Touch and experience the latest audio, video and conferencing devices that would make any office phone green with jealousy.

PREMIER SUPPORT FOR LYNC (PSLP) ASK THE EXPERTS LOUNGE
Talk directly to PSLP experts about opportunities around Premier Support for Lync partners. Ask questions and learn more about how PSLP can benefit your business. 

From keynotes, sessions, interactive discussions, demonstrations in the Solution Innovation Center, networking opportunities and not to miss parties, there will not be a dull moment at the conference. I look forward to seeing you in Toronto!

Ashima Singhal
Group Manager Lync, Microsoft

Not familiar with the Lync mobile client? Check out the video below for a quick introduction

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKNgT_xdSPc&list=PL1E199CA91D2F6BE1&index=2&feature=plpp_video]

Skip Chilcott (@Skip_C), Marketing Manager for the Microsoft Unified Communications team and Brian Crum (@CrumBrian), Product Manager of Lync for Mobile client were kind enough to lend their time and insight to the cause answering questions, fielding suggestions and getting feedback on the Lync mobile app which is available on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, and other devices.

To kick things off we asked Skip a few questions that we commonly have come through our Twitter handle (@MSFTLync) and Facebook page.

Q1: What is needed to make Lync accessible from a mobile device?

Resource(s):

• Lync Clients

Q2: How do companies get the app onto employee’s mobile phones?

Q3: How secure are the communications between the Lync mobile app and Lync servers or Lync Online?

Q4: Do users neeed to be logged into the Lync mobile app all the time to use it effectively?

Q5: What is the best resource for more information about Lync mobile services and the mobile apps?

Resources(s):

• Technet page
• Mobility Guide

Q6: What are a few big takeaways our audience should leave with from today's chat?

Apart from the Q & A with Brian & Skip, a few users also shared their favorite features on Lync for mobile.  Here are a couple highlights from some of our most engaged #LyncChat attendees that shed a little insight into how the Lync mobile clients are being used.

Skip & Brian shared their favorite Lync mobile feature as well.

For the entire Q&A dialogue check out the #LyncChat hashtag. If you have some questions you’d like answered by the Lync team, don’t hesitate to connect with us on Twitter @msftLync or on our Facebook page.

In addition we’re participating in a bunch of sessions at the conference and I encourage you to check them out. Here’s a list of the sessions the Lync team is participating in during the show:

A full list of all programs at Enterprise Connect can be found here: http://enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/program/ 

That’s the business side of things – but we also have some fun stuff going on:

While at Enterprise Connect, we'll not only share our viewpoint on the latest trends in the industry, we’ll also help you find things to do around Orlando after show hours with a special promotion called "Behind the Screens". With the "Behind the Screens" VIP pass, you'll get access to rewards on entertainment and restaurants around Orlando while you're in town. Come by booth 816 to pick up your pass today, we only have a limited supply and it's first come, first served.

What does the BTS pass get you?

• Buy one get one 50% off at the Wizardz
  Theater Magic Show when you mention the "Behind the screens"
  promotion. Buy your tickets in advance before it sells out by calling the
  number on the website www.WizardzMagicTheater.com
• Score $28 off tickets at the Arabian Nights Dinner
  Attraction
• Put 15% back in your pocket at the Falafel
  Mediterranean Market Restaurant
• Save 10% off your bill at the luxurious Venetian
  Room
• Earn 10% off and get a free appetizer with $30
  purchase at Hao Hao Chinese Kitchen
• Get all night happy hour, $5 drinks, and no cover
  all night at Pafos UltraLounge Cigar/Dance Lounge

Stop by booth #816 to learn more about Lync and to pick up your “Behind the Screens” VIP pass.

If you have any questions or would like to connect, tweet us at @ucteam with the hashtag #ec12 and we'll be happy to help you. The Microsoft Lync team is looking forward to a great Enterprise Connect 2012 and we hope to see you in Orlando!

For example, as you may have seen, BT recently announced their hosted platform for Microsoft Lync voice pilots. Originally unveiled at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2011, the platform is now fully operational and available for customers that want to evaluate both Lync and BT’s service offerings.  For customers ready to deploy Lync in production, BT offers on-premises Lync system integration, on-premises Lync managed services, and hosted, managed services.  

The ability to choose the appropriate deployment approach is critically important to customers. Lync enables customers and partners like BT to choose between on premises deployment, Lync through Microsoft’s public cloud offer Lync Online and Office 365 and, with the recent release of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multitenant Pack, multi-tenant partner hosting. 

The major features in the Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack include:

• Instant messaging (IM) and Presence
• Voice and video over IP
• Audio, video, and web conferencing
• PSTN calling to and from the Lync softphone

The Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack enables service providers and other partners to satisfy functional, data sovereignty, and business requirements sometimes not satisfied by Microsoft’s public cloud offers, and to combine Lync capabilities with their own assets to create compelling new offers.  The Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack is yet another milestone that demonstrates our commitment to deliver cost effective ways for our customers to experience the richness of Lync, while creating opportunities for our partner ecosystem. 

For more information about Lync, please visit http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx. 

Thank you, 

Wajih Yahyaoui, Lync Program Manager

The Lync 2010 mobile clients combine instant messaging, conferencing, and calling features in a single application that’s both familiar to Lync users and optimized for mobile productivity.

Windows Phone users will enjoy the beautiful Metro design of the Lync 2010 for Windows Phone app, while other platforms will recognize the familiar tabs they are accustomed to.

For the past several months, I’ve been using Lync 2010 for Windows Phone. I use Lync instant messaging multiple times each day and our single click conference join feature nearly as often--gone are the days of trying to remember and type 800 numbers and passcodes as I walk or drive! I travel a great deal and the ability to search our corporate directory and easily start a call or chat right from the search results on my phone is invaluable. I think the Lync mobile clients are a lot like Lync in general: now that I’ve got it, I can’t imagine how I’d get my job done without it.

If your company is already using Lync 2010, you’ll need to enable the functionality before users can take advantage:  this NextHop blog has details for on premises customers, and this Office 365 community article provides information for Lync Online. Once the mobile clients have been enabled, users can download and begin using Lync 2010 for Windows Phone today, with other platforms coming soon. Visit here for the latest update regarding availability.

Today is an important step for Lync on the road to fulfilling its promise as a ubiquitous communications tool and I’m proud to be a part of the team delivering these clients to our customers.

BJ Haberkorn

Lync group product manager

When we launched Lync 2010 last year, we made a bold claim: that Lync was “ushering in a new generation of communications.” At the time I wondered if that statement could have been too bold. We were excited about Lync, but you never truly know what you have with a product until customers really start to use it. After reflecting on some of the stories we’re hearing from customers, it is clear that Lync is indeed enabling people to communicate in new ways, increasing productivity wherever they are.

Feedback has been tremendous. From LA Fitness telling us they’re saving more than $650,000 per year using Lync, to the US Army using Lync to help keep soldiers connected.  Swisscom, which deployed Lync across its entire 15,000 employees, recently finished decommissioning all of its 94 PBXs, resulting in $17 million in savings. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia tells us that Lync was the fastest product roll-out in the history of the company, resulting in 60% adoption rate among its 32,000 employees within just 24 hours of roll-out.  Hendrick Motorsports is using Lync to collaborate and communicate on the race track during race day. Dell deployed Lync to support their Connected Workplace initiative, enabling their employees to work from any location that helps them to be the most productive, while helping to reduce Dell’s carbon footprint.  I am really thrilled and amazed at the progress and success when I look at these and other customers in aggregate! You can find more Lync customer stories at www.microsoft.com/casestudies/ and at the Lync website.

Beyond individual customers, the aggregate numbers also speak to Lync’s rapid adoption. Microsoft had long been considered a leader in IM and presence with Office Communicator and Communications Server 2007. With the R2 release, the product took things to the next level with audio, video, and web conferencing, enabling customers like Intel and Credit Agricole to dramatically reduce both audio conferencing and travel expenses. Lync 2010 went further, with full PBX-replace level unified communications, much to the excitement of customers who had been waiting to deliver a seamless experience to their users. The resulting adoption has been rapid, with nearly 3 million enterprise users relying on Lync for telephony instead of a traditional PBX.  In the last fiscal year alone, our enterprise voice deployments grew 250% – and these are just the ones we validate directly with customers.

No look back at Lync’s first year is complete without highlighting the innovation our partners are delivering. There are hundreds of certified partners across the world that are dedicated to selling and deploying Lync and many of them are creating differentiated offerings. BT recently announced a managed hosted service for Lync in the United States; Dimension Data and Unify Square are among the first Lync certified Premier Support partners on a global basis; and telco Swisscom is not only a Lync user itself, but is also redefining its service offering to customers based on the capabilities that Lync provides. In the device space, partners now offer over 130 Lync optimized devices (double the amount from launch) delivering customers the freedom to choose the device that works best for their needs. The amount of Lync interoperable network gear and gateways has seen similar growth. We predicted true innovation though the power of software and in the last year over 1,100 Unified Communications applications have been submitted by over 1,000 partners to the Microsoft Platform Ready program, enabling customers to get even more value out of their communications investments through communications enabled business processes (CEBP). I’m excited to see this space continue to grow as we believe the Lync partner ecosystem is one of the areas of greatest value to our customers.

If you haven’t considered Lync yet, I’d encourage you to visit www.microsoft.com/lync to learn more. And if you haven’t experienced the product yet, I’d encourage you to reach out to your Microsoft account representative or certified partner to ask about pilot opportunities and the “Turn on Lync Voice” promotion currently available when you add enterprise voice capabilities to the presence and IM features in Lync.  We are certainly excited about customer reaction to Lync over the past year and look forward to delivering additional capabilities for Lync and Lync Online over the coming months. 

Thanks!

Today, I want to talk about video Gateways and why they are important.

Why video Gateways for Lync?
One of the key features of Microsoft Lync is the integrated P2P and video conferencing capability, which adds desktop video conferencing to the palette of communication options while also preserving the click-to-call ease of use of the overall solution.  Customers who are interested in utilizing Lync desktop video capabilities may already be using room-based video conferencing, and they’d like to keep the experience consistent across all systems.

That is where video gateway solutions help us integrate board rooms, siloed video applications, and immersive video experience into Lync. Gateways provide connectivity between the two environments.  It allows any H.323 endpoint to register to the Lync server and act just like a native Lync client via the video Gateway.  The endpoint’s presence will display in the Lync contact list including offline, available or in a call, and calls can be made to the device in full HD using the familiar click-to-call user interface.    

Many customers will choose to deploy native interoperable endpoints as they expand their networks, but still require interoperability with their existing endpoints.  Deploying a gateway gives them this flexibility.  It also gives them the flexibility of having multipoint calls that include any endpoints on Lync’s built-in A/V MCU.  Without a gateway the only way to do this would require all the Lync clients and endpoints to connect to an MCU.

As part of our Video Interoperability Program, we are looking at qualifying video gateways that will enable these functionalities for Lync customers. One of those partners is RADVISION, which we’re happy to confirm has implemented some of the key scenarios for interoperability with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 and Lync 2010, including providing customers firewall traversal as well as secure point to point video calls between Microsoft OCS and Lync clients and third-party endpoints.  RADVISION is also working to add interoperability support for TCP protocols in order to complete qualification of their device.  We anticipate that they will complete that work by the end of the year. You can reach out to RADVISION for more information info@radvision.com. 

I encourage you to learn more about Lync Conferencing and how we are working with our partners to make it easier, better, and allow customers to leverage and integrate their current infrastructure.

More on the benefits of Lync audio, video and web conferencing: http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Product/Workloads/pages/conferencing-software.aspx

Maura Hameroff
 

Every year, Gartner publishes a series of annual reports sizing up the major players in the UC market, and the competition is tough. I’m proud to say I believe Lync has done exceptionally well in these reports and I want to take a moment to share the results:

In early July, Gartner published the MarketScope for Enterprise Instant Messaging and Presence in which Microsoft was rated Strong Positive based on evaluation of Lync. This report looks at IM/Presence vendors and evaluates their solution based on a number of factors including: federation, management and security, advanced features like video/voice, and market share. 

• In mid-August, Gartner published the Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications , which is considered one of the few definitive assessments of the UC market, and Microsoft placed in the Leaders quadrant. 

• In mid-September, Gartner published the Corporate Telephony Magic Quadrant where we landed in the Visionaries quadrant. Gartner notes in this report, “companies are increasingly focusing their strategies and acquisition decisions around unified communications and collaboration (UCC) technology; it is supplanting the historic domain of corporate telephony.”[i] Lync telephony has only been in market since last December, and we’re confident our UC platform will continue to gain against legacy vendors who have been in the PBX market for decades.

These reports, while a great recognition, represent a moment in time and Lync has continued to improve since these published. You probably saw the Lync for Mac RTM announcement a few weeks ago, and we have an exciting fall ahead of us with more Lync updates you’ve been waiting for. Stay tuned to see what’s next.

Cheers,

BJ Haberkorn

---

[1] The MarketScope is copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This MarketScope graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research note and should be evaluated in the context of the entire report. The Gartner report is available upon request from Microsoft.

 

[1] This MarketScope graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research note and should be evaluated in the context of the entire report. The Gartner report is available upon request from Microsoft."

 

[1] “Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony” Gartner Research, September 15, 2011.

 

[1] "This Magic Quadrant graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research note and should be evaluated in the context of the entire report. The Gartner report is available upon request from Microsoft."

 

The Magic Quadrants are copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Recent enterprise voice roll-outs include 15,000 seats at Swisscom in Europe, 33,000 seats at Western Kentucky University in the U.S. and 10,000 seats at Sharp in Japan.  Global energy group Royal Dutch Shell has 150,000 IM and presence users and nearly 20,000 telephony users. Information Week highlighted another customer – LA Fitness – that chose Lync for its 20,000 employees after assessing Avaya and Cisco, and is now saving $650,000 per year in hard savings and reaping significant other productivity benefits. At Microsoft, we’ve literally bet our own business on Lync, with more than 90,000 employees worldwide using Lync as their only telephony solution, in addition to IM, audio, video and web conferencing.  It is making a difference at Microsoft and for customers all over the globe, so if you’re considering Lync and want to hear about other customer experiences, check out the more than 450 case studies on Microsoft.com, or talk to another customer who has deployed it – your Microsoft account executive would be happy to make the connection.

Why are customers increasingly choosing Lync for telephony as well?  First, as the workplace and collaboration have evolved, many customers are looking for more than a phone replacement.  Lync is the first truly unified communications solution on the market – with a single client experience for the user, a single server and management experience for the administrator, and a single set of unified APIs for the developer.  This platform element of Lync in particular has also helped finally realize the aspiration around Communications Enabled Business Process, which was introduced as a concept nearly ten years ago.  With Lync, partners and customers can finally build rich, real-time communications into business applications and workflow (examples are here and here).   And for customers who have made a bet on Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Exchange, and Office, Lync works great with those products right out of the box.

Customer and market momentum may be one of the reasons behind recent legacy infrastructure vendor claims about Lync.  Let me address a few of the questions that have come up recently in the blogosphere.

First, because Microsoft is the only vendor in this space that builds its own mobile phone OS, one area I get asked about is mobility.  Mobility is a huge investment area for the company and Lync, and we are committed to building the best experience for customers.  In fact, many customers choose Lync because of its advantages for mobile workers in particular (e.g., built-in remote access in our PC and Mac clients that enables customers to effectively serve mobile workers without requiring mobile phones or VPN connections, as consulting firm AT Kearney describes in this case study).  Beyond a best-in-class softphone user experience, we’ve traditionally supported clients for the PC, Mac, Windows Phone 6.5, Symbian, and Blackberry, and later this year we’ll release the next generation of mobile phone clients for Lync 2010 for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android – clients built and supported by Microsoft.  Moreover, Lync has a rich set of unified APIs that enable developers and partners to build custom mobile clients and experiences, leading to an ecosystem of custom options for customers as well. 

Another area I get asked about is system level pricing for Lync, since we rely on a more ecosystem-oriented approach to our offer.  We’ve bet on leading global partners for hardware since we fundamentally believe this leads to greater innovation, more choice for customers, and more competitive pricing.  System level pricing for Lync depends on a variety of factors, and we encourage customers to make side by side comparisons based on their unique situation and requirements.   The telephony RFP evaluation at the 2010 VoiceCon (highlighted in this blog post) showed that the Lync based solution, including all hardware and software, compared favorably with legacy suppliers.  In fact, today purchasers of a Microsoft-based system will see much lower endpoint prices than those used in the 2010 sample RFP response, and many will see lower per user licensing costs as well.  

Another advantage of this approach is that customers can choose the best client and infrastructure hardware for their needs, taking advantage of the innovations of multiple device, server, gateway, and application suppliers.  From a purchasing perspective, the ability to procure software and hardware from different suppliers also often results in greater pricing transparency than single-vendor offers.

Finally, because we take a more software-oriented approach to UC, we often get asked questions about related hardware requirements.  Of course, hardware infrastructure depends on the capabilities deployed, as well as the required scale. For example, Avaya often suggests dedicated servers for its SIP Enablement and Application Enablement Servers, while Cisco requires a separate server to add IM and presence to a Communications Manager environment.  We provide multiple deployment options and guidance on the most effective configurations, which includes the use of dedicated servers in some cases. However, we also allow the use of both physical and virtual servers and allow multiple software elements (or roles) to be co-located on servers.

Does this automatically mean that Lync has a more efficient architecture than those competitors?  Not necessarily, though the Lync Standard Edition server, which provides IM, presence, conferencing, telephony, and application interfaces for 5,000 users using a single server, and can be made redundant with a second server, provides a starting point for comparison.  A customer can add secure remote UC access for those 5,000 users by deploying a Lync Edge Server, eliminating a need for the VPN infrastructure required by some traditional voice solutions.  And the results in terms of PBX voice scalability and reliability have been rock solid, with Miercom writing that:

“Microsoft Lync 2010 is the first Unified Communications product to pass the SIP Torture and Attrition Test with Miercom by achieving a record 4 million SIP calls complete without error…Microsoft Lync Server 2010 was able to sustain heavy call volume without dropping any calls or reporting any errors in a 4 million call completion test. The delivery rate with sustained operation without error is the highest capacity test applied to any Unified Communications / IP PBX product we have tested to date.”

 Nine months ago we launched Lync Server 2010, joining with customers and partners to change the way businesses communicate. There are new examples coming all of the time from customers who are embracing a more unified approach to communications and collaboration.  One great story that’s being told today is from employees of Volkswagen Group of America, who are blogging about their experiences with Lync at testdrivinglync.com. Thanks for your continued interest in Lync, and visit our website for more information on how Lync is harnessing the transformational power of software and changing communications.

Starting in October, our Mac customers will be able to experience the integrated communications experience that Lync has become well known for. From the updated contact cards to the ability to set up Lync conferences from Outlook 2011 for Mac to enterprise voice features, Lync for Mac 2011 offers Mac users integrated functionality for presence, instant messaging, conferencing and voice and is designed to work with both Lync Server 2010 and Lync Online.

VIDEO: Lync for Mac quick tour

Lync for Mac 2011 is available to customers as a part of the Office for Mac 2011 Volume Licensing SKU, Office for Mac Standard 2011, or through many of Microsoft’s Licensing programs. Customers can also purchase the application as a standalone volume licensing SKU.

For more information on Lync for Mac 2011, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/enterprise/lync.