PointBridge Blogs

I was in the process of evaluating Identity Lifecycle Manager v2 RC0 and it requires MOSS 2007 and Server 2008. I knew MOSS SP1 was out, and so I wanted to get a slipstream version so it would easily install on Server 2008. I always like to use ISO images, so I can easily mount […]

The TechNet documentation for SCMDM 2008 contains detailed steps for deploying each role, but the server prerequisites are a bitter scattered across the documentation and you really have to read through the entire document to understand how it all comes together. Although I highly recommend reading through all of the documentation, I’ve decided to put […]

Good news for UC at large: Here at VoiceCon, Microsoft and IBM have committed to having federation interoperability for Office Communications Server 2007 and Lotus SameTime – support for it will be official in Q1 of 2009. For OCS, this will be part of the R2 release, according to Eric Swift of Microsoft. There will […]

Today, a client brought up a common issue with web parts: they could set a fixed (scrollable) width for any web part, but for certain types, they could not set a fixed height. The option would be listed in the site’s Appearance settings, but saving it had no effect on the layout. This became increasingly […]

I recently worked on a MOSS 2007 project with a unique constraint: it required extensive customization without the use of actual code. Due to this architecture requirement, I found myself making heavy use of SharePoint Designer 2007 and calculated fields where I would usually write a custom feature. Since I was spending so much time […]

At VoiceCon, I’ve spent some time hanging around the Microsoft booth trying to squeeze those guys for information about R2. A lot of my conversation has centered around the devices available for OCS. I’ve blogged about this before, and so has Jeff. Overall the devices (headsets, handsets, speakerphones) provide a pretty good experience. But I’ve […]

Over and over, the presenters are stressing business integration. From Avaya to IBM to Microsoft to Nortel, it’s the commonly stated direction of UC. In one of the presentations yesterday, industry analyst Blair Pleasant laid out the four steps to UC nirvana (my words, not hers). They look something like the following: 1. IP communications […]

I’ve been prattling on about the need to integrate OCS into "business processes" for the past few months, and about how it shouldn’t just be about replacing like for like functionality. Let me diverge for just a minute from that thinking. Let’s just say you needed new communications infrastructure: Would Microsoft be competitive from the […]

So far VoiceCon SF has been great. And from an MS perspective it’s been quite interesting. It’s only the first day so no definitely conclusions yet. But one session was really informative and I wanted to recap and provide some insight. I sat in on a presentation that was about 3 hours long and consisted […]

Adding Value with UC How exactly can UC add value to the business?? It starts with asking some questions about the business: "Could my organization increase revenue if we reduced the amount of time it took to close a deal? Enter an order? Update an order? Process a request? Resolve an issue" "Could my organization […]

My Definition of Unified Communications Here’s my new working definition UC is using a single communications platform to increase productivity. That’s it. People in your organization aren’t communicating as effectively as they could; figure out how much money poor communication is costing you… AND FIX IT!! Maybe the fix involves a phone; maybe it doesn’t. […]

I’m getting ready for VoiceCon, which kicks off next week. I’ll be blogging everyday from the conference, focusing on what the UC roadmap looks like for the next 12-18 months. Obviously I’m going to be paying close attention to Microsoft at this conference. But I’m not really there so much to check out the new […]