Collaborate and
communicate beyond
the boundaries
Our Hosted Lync unified communications
(UC) solution pairs Microsoft’s
market-leading UC technology with O
2’s
award-winning network. Together, we provide
a cloud-based, enterprise IP voice and UC
solution capable of replacing your
existing PBX.
It’s about breaking organisational boundaries and reflecting the ways of communicating we use in our personal lives. Fixed-line phones and email have begun to take second place behind online voice, video calling and messaging services on social networking sites. According to a recent study we commissioned in partnership with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, 80% of organisations say employees still don’t have full access to key business systems that allow them to work away from the office.
Hosted Lync UC gives your people better
access to the tools and information
they need to work as productively and
collaboratively as possible – wherever
there’s connectivity.
It’s a fully managed, cloud-based service for enterprise users designed to support 250 to over 10,000 users – the more users, the more cost effective it becomes.
Hosted Lync includes:
• Voice and video calls • Desktop sharing
• Online meetings and presentations • Presence
• Instant messaging (IM)
It can all be controlled directly from the Microsoft Office suite. It’s device agnostic, so your users will have a consistent, seamless experience regardless of the device or operating system they’re using. And it’s federated, so users can communicate and collaborate with people outside the organisation using Lync, Skype, or services like IBM Sametime and Cisco Unified Presence Server. This means that customers and suppliers can all be part of the collaboration mix too.
90-day pilot
We’re offering a low-cost, 90-day pilot
for up to 100 users so you can see how it
Internal Clients Load Balancers (HLB) Load Balancers (HLB) Internet MPLS WAN PSTN File Share -DFS SQL Mirror
Office Web App Lync Enterprise Pool
Domain Controllers (Resource Forest)
Internal Server VLAN –O2 DC
Reverse Proxy Edge Pool
DMZ Servers – O2 DC
Client Production Domain On Premises Services
O2 Hosted Lync UCaaS
E-SBC
, Internet Clients;
External Users, Federated Partners Skype, O365, UM Online
PSTN
E-SBC
Internet Clients, External Users Federated Partners, Skype, O365, UM Online Voice calls from
conventional phone lines to the corporate networkConnected directly
Protection for the core infrastructure from internet-based traffic
Internal Clients External Clients (mobile connections) Internet Reverse Proxy Edge Pool DMZ Servers – O2 DC MPLS WAN
Office Web App Lync Enterprise Pool
File Share DFS SQL Mirror
Domain Controllers (Resource Forest)
Client Production Domain On Premises Services
Load Balancers (HLB) Load
Balancers (HLB)
Management and control
Here’s a typical scenario for unified communications-as-a-service, based on what we’re
seeing with our customers’ Hosted Lync deployments.
It integrates external users such as remote workers connecting via mobile, Skype or
Office 365, with internal users connected directly to the corporate network.
Hosted Lync
incorporates all…
PBX replacement
Hosted Lync UC incorporates all the features of an IP-PBX, including call forwarding, call park, group pick-up, response groups and simultaneous device ringing, as well as voicemail escape, which automatically diverts calls to voicemail if a mobile is unable to take the call. Inbound voice calls can be delivered to any location.
Users can keep their existing numbers. New numbers can be added from any geographic location.
And your voice calls are secure with Lync. Hosted Lync traffic, both signal and media traffic, is encrypted by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. If someone intercepts a communication, they will only see encrypted text. Even on a public wifi network at an airport or a coffee shop, you can use Lync Online IM, calls, and presentations and know that your communications are encrypted to potential interception by network ‘sniffers’.
Enterprise voice (IP-PBX features)
• Call Forwarding and Simultaneous Ring –
so calls don’t get missed. Users can configure a simple rule to forward incoming calls. If a user is out of the office, calls can be routed to a co-worker. When Simultaneous Ring is enabled, incoming calls ring on two phones at the same time. Useful if you’re busy or momentarily unavailable.
• Call Park – allows users to answer a call and then
put the caller on hold, or ‘park’ the call. The user can then pick up the same call at another location or endpoint. If you need to leave the office to travel to another location you can switch seamlessly from a landline to your mobile without missing a word. • Group Call Pick Up – you can assign groups so that
if a user is out of the office or busy, a colleague can answer their incoming calls from their own desk. • Response Group Application – here you can
route and queue incoming calls to designated users for special purposes, such as customer service, an internal help desk, or general telephone support for a department. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can be configured to obtain information from callers and direct the call to the appropriate queue. Depending on the caller’s response to pre-recorded questions, the caller either hears a follow-up question, or is routed to the appropriate queue. These questions and the caller’s responses are relayed to the agent who accepts the call, giving them valuable information.
• Voice Mail Escape – detects if a user’s mobile
phone is turned off, out of battery or out or range and automatically routes the call to voice mail.
Hosted Lync UC
Collaboration
IM, virtual meetings, voice and video calls and conferences are all dimensions of the transformation in collaborative working that Hosted Lync can bring. It reduces the need for travel to meetings and enables the free and rapid movement of ideas and resources around the organisation. Individuals can exchange thoughts, ideas and information intuitively, using IM. They might hesitate to make a phone call, or there may not be time to wait for an email reply; IM allows the conversation to run smoothly and quickly, without breaking the rhythm of work.
Groups of up to five people can set up scheduled or unscheduled meetings, using Hosted Lync voice calling, or with multiparty HD video support. Joining a Lync Meeting requires only a single touch or click on smartphones, tablets, and PCs.
• Lync Meetings reach outside your organisation with browser-based access
• The Lync Web App allows PC and Mac users to join a Lync Meeting from a browser
• You enjoy a full online meeting experience including IM, voice, multiparty video, data collaboration and sharing
• OneNote Share allows users to create and share OneNote digital meeting notes within Lync Meetings (OneNote is Microsoft’s note-taking and storage app) • Lync video uses open standards including H.264 SVC
to provide a high-quality video experience on a wide range of devices
Civica reduces travel
costs by 25%
Specialist software and business process services provider Civica took business agility to a new level with a pioneering deployment of Hosted Lync.
As a result, the organisation has seen increased productivity and dramatically reduced travel for home workers, resulting in a drive towards 25% cost savings, over £40,000 savings on conference calls, and eliminating redundant IT systems. It has also led to reduced admin, higher staff morale and better customer service.
“
This is already having a significant impact
in some support areas, where this agile
collaboration is reducing the time taken to
resolve our customers’ calls.
”
John Hood, Managing Director, Civica
UC client
Lync unifies voice and video calls, Lync Meetings, presence, and instant messaging (IM) in one easy-to-use client, making it simple to choose and switch between different forms of communication.
Changing culture
for a better balance
Our own experience of Hosted Lync showed that cultural change is as important as the technology if you want get the full benefit of UC.
Before UC, we spent around £14 million
on travel, generating six million kg of CO2
– roughly equivalent to ten return flights between London and New York every day, for the whole year.
We also spent 12,000 nights in hotels, amounting to 33 years away from family and friends.
We encouraged everyone to think twice about every journey, and to work from home more often.
Now, after UC, we’ve made our people happier and more productive, while achieving significant cost savings.
Quick Lync
Quick Lync is a menu that appears over a contact in the Lync contact list and shows available communication modes.
Remote access
Hosted Lync offers users a completely seamless and consistent user experience regardless of location. Users who travel and use a hotel’s public wifi have access to the same features as office-based users connected to the corporate network. This consistent experience is provided without the need for a VPN connection, or manual configuration changes by the user. All the features work from any location.
Persistent chat
Hosted Lync persistent chat allows groups of users to participate in continuing discussions on topics of shared interest. The history of the conversation is maintained so that teams in different locations and departments can review discussions, even when users are online at different times. Persistent chat enhances team communication and enables geographically distributed teams to work together efficiently.
The interface provides users with a list of available chat rooms on specified topics, provides tools to search through the history of discussions, and offers filters and alerts for notification on new posts on a particular topic.
Public IM connectivity
Public IM connectivity (PIC) enables Lync users to communicate with contacts using the various public IM networks. Lync Server supports IM with MSN and Skype.
Federation
Federation within Lync lets different organisations communicate easily and securely with each other across the public internet. The participating organisations are federated between Access Edge Servers.
Hosted Lync federation extends unified communications securely over the internet to customers, suppliers, and partners using audio, web conference, IM presence and video. As well as other Lync users, participants can federate with Skype, IBM Sametime or Cisco Unified Presence Server.
Server type
Hosted Lync can be implemented in Standard or Enterprise edition server configurations, which both support High Availability enterprise voice. The difference between architectures is that the Enterprise server configuration also supports High Availability on the UC features of Lync.
The Enterprise edition pool is, in effect, a cluster of mutually aware Lync servers. They are designed to provide zero-intervention High Availability. These pools have a minimum of three servers and are capable of supporting from 10,000 to 80,000 end users. In the event of a server failure, the remaining two servers can support the full load of end users. Voice and UC services continue with no noticeable interruption.
The Standard edition server is a stand-alone entity capable of supporting up to 5000 end users. It is aimed at small businesses that only need High Availability for voice services. O2 will always deploy these servers in pairs,
using the backup registrar capability to provide High Availability for voice at a more appropriate cost. If one of the servers fails, clients will automatically failover to the surviving server and be able to make calls.
Deploying
Hosted Lync UC
Split domain architecture
Our split domain architecture allows you to run Office 365 alongside your Hosted Lync deployment. This allows you to get full value from both services, with Exchange email and SharePoint document management in Office 365, and Hosted Lync with enterprise voice in the cloud. Your end users benefit from a fully integrated UC and office application service.
Private cloud or
on-premise deployment
Why O
2
?
We’re experts in the areas vital for
the success of UC in an organisation.
Hosted Lync UC integrates with our
other digital capabilities like wifi, cloud
services and cyber security offerings. Our
heritage is mobile and we know all about
the benefits of flexible working – we’re
realising them every day on our own
collaboration journey.
Every organisation is different, so we’ll start by
understanding yours. What you do and how you do it. What your customers expect from you. And what you need to grow and stand out from the competition. Once we understand your business, we’ll come up with a solution, show you the benefits and put everything in place to get you up and running. You’ll only get one bill and one point of contact.
