The Unified Communications Journey, A Real Customer Experience

© 2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Technology for better business outcomes

The Unified Communications Journey, A Real Customer Experience

Michael PrzytulaSenior Solution ArchitectHP Services, Asia Pacific Japan

2 April 22, 2023

Agenda• Customer Environment Background• Phase 1 – Exchange 2007 Upgrade• Phase 2 – Exchange 2007 Unified

Messaging• Phase 3 – Office Communications Server

2007• Phase 4 – Telephony Integration• Observations & Advice

3 April 22, 2023

The Customer• Lion Nathan is a leading

producer of premium beer, fine wine, ready-to-drink spirit products, and spirit brands in Australia and New Zealand. To maintain its leadership status, the company’s 2,800 employees – based at breweries, wineries, and administrative offices across multiple time zones – must be able to coordinate their schedules, manage documents, and communicate freely.

4 April 22, 2023

The Customer’s Journey

Exchange 2007 Upgrade

Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging

Instant Messaging, Presence, and Conferencing

OCS 2007 Telephony Integration

5 April 22, 2023

Communications Environment

• 2,800 users across all major AU and NZ cities

• 8x Exchange 2003 Mailbox Servers−All AU and NZ capital cities

• 2x Exchange 2003 Bridgehead Server• Cisco Unified Communications Manager

(CUCM) IP Telephony−2x Clusters

• 4.x in Australia • 3.3 in New Zealand

Pre Unification

Phase 1 – Exchange 2007 Upgrade

7 April 22, 2023

Exchange 2007 Goals• Reduce Complexity• Reduce Cost• Improve Service Availability• Provide Additional Services

−Outlook Auto Discover−Improved Collaboration−Anywhere Access−Enhanced Collaboration−Unified Messaging

8 April 22, 2023

Phase 1 Plan• Centralized Deployment

−Sydney-based−Split between 2x Data Centers

• Single mailbox cluster−Continuous Cluster Replication (CCR)

• 100x Production Users on Beta 2• Outlook 2007 deployed to all desktops

9 April 22, 2023

Phase 1 Exchange 2007 Architecture

10 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #1

• Customer has 134 SMTP domains that could be a users Primary email address

• Each SMTP domain must be represented in the SAN of the SSL certificate on the CAS

• How many SAN’s does your provider allow?

Exchange Auto Discover

11 April 22, 2023

Phase 1 Business Benefits• Reduced cost and management overhead

of Messaging Platform−Reduction in Exchange Servers from 10 to 4

• Increased Availability and Business Continuity−Clustered Continuous Replication−Load Balanced Client Access, Hub Transport and

Unified Messaging Roles• End User Benefits

−Access to Email environment from anywhere, any device

−Streamlined Calendaring and Collaboration

Phase 2 – Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging

13 April 22, 2023

Phase 2 Plan• Provide Unified Messaging capabilities by

integrated Exchange Server 2007 with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)−Outlook Voice Access−Unified Messaging (Voice Mail)−Unified Inbox−Auto Attendant for directory Lookup

14 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #2

• Call Manager 4.x does not fully support SIP−CUCM 5.x required for native support

• CIO Said..... “Find a way to make it work!”

• Resolution:−Implemented additional CUCM 5 system in

parallel−Inter-cluster Trunk from CCM 4 to CUCM5−Route calls from CCM4 thru CUCM5 to

Exchange UM

Cisco Call Manager Compatibility

15 April 22, 2023

Exchange 2007 UM & PBX Architecture

Inter-

Cluster

Trunk

SIP Trunk

Exchange 2007:Client AccessHub TransportUnified Messaging

Exchange 2007:Mailbox

Exchange 2007:Mailbox

Cisco Call Manager 5.1

Cisco Call Manager 4.1Cluster

PSTN Gateway

PSTN

16 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #3

• Exchange UM has no function to ‘alert’ the PBX

• Question: ‘Do you need a flashing light on your desk phone if you have your email or OC client open?’−Many desktop alerts exist

• Seamless migration was important• 3rd. party product used to bridge the gap

−Geomant MWI2007

Message Waiting Indicator

17 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #4

• Exchange Auto Attendant can’t find users or matching wrong users in the GAL

• Display Name format did not match default grammar generation rules−Firstname Lastname – BU

• Build a customized Grammar filter• SpeechGrammarFilterList.xml

<Pattern><!-- Firstname Lastname – BU --><Input>(\w+)\s+(\w+)\s+[\-\']\s+(\w+)</Input><!-- ==> Firstname Lastname --><Output>$1 $2</Output>

</Pattern>

Unified Messaging – Speech Recognition

18 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #5

• Names aren’t always written as they’re spoken−e.g. ‘Newson Ng’ is spoken ‘Newson Ung’

• People aren’t always known by their actual name in the GAL−“Robert Johns” is known as “Bob Johns”

• Need to populate the Phonetic Display Names to address this−Department Names that are abbreviated in the

GAL may need the same treatment

Unified Messaging – Phonetics

19 April 22, 2023

Phase 2 Business Benefits• Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging

capabilities−No costly and timely PBX upgrade required

• Leveraging the Enterprise Client Access License (CAL)−Low cost Voicemail/Unified Messaging solution

• Provided a single inbox for mobile’s and desk phone voicemail

• Voicemail’s delivered via Active Sync

Phase 3 – Office Communications Server 2007

21 April 22, 2023

OCS 2007 Goals• Improve Communications & Collaboration

Capabilities−Internal Users−External Federation with Customers and

Partners• Secure Instant Messaging conversations• Integration of Presence into the corporate

environment• Replace Net Meeting

−Integrated and Streamlined Web Conferencing• Leverage Investment in Cisco IP Telephony

22 April 22, 2023

Phase 3 Plan• Extend the Unified Communications

Platform−Instant Messaging and Presence−Web Conferencing−External Federation−Peer to Peer Audio and Video−Roundtable Conferencing Device−Application Integration

• Consolidated Office Communications Server 2007 Deployment

• 100x Production Users on Beta 3

23 April 22, 2023

Phase 3 Architecture

24 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #6 (lesson)

• OCS depends on CA/PKI for − TLS connections between client and server− MTLS connections between servers− Federation using automatic DNS discovery of partners− Remote user access for instant messaging− External user access to A/V sessions

and Web conferencing• OCS Supports

− Windows Server 2003 Enterprise CA− Windows Server 2003 Standalone CA− Windows 2000 Enterprise CA− Windows 2000 Standalone CA− External (public) CA’s

Security Infrastructure – CA/PKI

25 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #7

• Customer has 134 possible primary namespaces−Should the SIP namespace = SMTP namespace?−Certificate providers wanted to charge per SAN

• Est. cost = $50k• Entrust and Digicert have released a ‘Unified

Communications Certificate’−Revised Cost = $4k for 19 namespaces

• Implemented a sub-set of ‘core’ namespaces

Choosing the SIP namespace(s)

26 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #8 (lesson)

• Auto-Discover simplifies deployment and support for the Unified Communications Environment

• Requires split DNS for all SIP Domains• Required internal records (TLS);

−_sipinternaltls._tcp.<domain> - for internal TLS connections port 5061

−Sip.<domain> used as a failback if SRV records cannot be located

• Required External records (TLS);−_sip._tls. <domain> port 443 −_sipfederationtls._tcp .<domain> port 5061−Sip.<domain> used as a failback if SRV records cannot be

located

Auto-Discover

27 April 22, 2023

Phase 3 Business Benefits• Anywhere Access

−Provides mobile workers with up to date information regardless of location

• The Power of Presence−Reduced phone tag, increased speed of issue resolution−More effective communications−Application Integration, click to call from any Microsoft

Application• Conferencing and Collaboration

−Immersive Team meetings performed between multiple locations with RoundTable

−Add-hoc meetings through a single click−Simplified scheduling and access to Conferences

Phase 4 – Telephony Integration

29 April 22, 2023

Phase 4 Plan• Upgrade Cisco Unified Communications

Manager• Integrate OCS 2007 with Cisco Unified

Communications Manager−Provide Remote Call Control capabilities

• Deploy Cisco Unified Presence 6.0 for CSTA Gateway

• Normalize Phone numbers in Active Directory

30 April 22, 2023

Phase 4 Architecture

OCS Director

Cisco Unified Presence Server 6.0Cisco Call

Manager 5.1 Cluster

PSTN Gateway

PSTN Internet

OCS Access

Edge

SIP CSTA

CTI

OCS Back-EndOCS Front-End

Load Balancer

OCS Front-End

31 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #9

• RCC requires a CSTA over SIP gateway

• Cisco Unified Presence Server (CUPS) provided limited support for OCS during beta phase−v1.0: very limited functionality (not supported)−v6.0 Beta: better, but still a few ‘quirks’−-V6.0 RTM: Full functionality support

OCS - Remote Call Control

CTICSTA/SIP

SCCP

SIP

Cisco Unified Presence Server 6.0

OCS Front-End Cisco Call Manager 5.1

32 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #10

• OCS is designed to use the E.164 number standard (i.e. ‘+61288771234’)

• CUCM does not recognize a “+”−Call fails if OCS->CUCM sends a “+”−CUCM->OCS contains raw number only; no “+”

• RCC requires you to normalize to the exact format you would type in the handset

• Use Address Book Service (ABS) to normalize to acceptable format−+61288771234 = 0288771234

CUCM – E.164 Numbers

33 April 22, 2023

Deployment Challenge #11

• Used to match an inbound call to a user or contact name from the GAL or Contacts

• Default rules cater for US number formats only

• GAL & Contact phone number standardization is required for successful resolutions−Normalization rule needed to cater for each

potential use format• +61-2-9865-2345 –ne +61298652345 –ne +61 (0)2-

9865-2345

OCS – Reverse Number Lookup

34 April 22, 2023

Phase 4 Business Benefits• Leveraged existing investment in Cisco IP

Telephony• Improved employee efficiency with click to

call−Integrated phone numbers−Integration with Exchange Unified Messaging−Missed call notifications

• Control desk phone from any internet connected location−Set forwarding, redirect calls

• Reduced “Voice Mail Jail”

Observations &Advice

36 April 22, 2023

Observations• Users drove adoption

−100->350 in 4 weeks (beta software)• Play-On-Phone usage was much higher

than anticipated−Quicker to have UM call you

• Live Meeting used for Helpdesk support−Faster session setup than NetMeeting

• Multiple Helpdesk calls logged over network security concerns−OC logged in seamlessly at home on

broadband… something MUST be wrong!

Advice from the Field1. Do not pilot UC for too long!

− Confirm the functionality and deploy2. Roll out in functionality phases, not user

phases− Create a foundation for everyone and grow it

3. Educate the users enough to whet their appetite

4. Group pilot users by geography AND function

− Users will learn more about how best to use UC in their job from each other than from a teacher

5. Do not be afraid to get started− The foundations of Microsoft UC do not need to

impact the way you work today

37 April 22, 2023

Questions…