Enterprise Voice in Skype forBusiness Server 2015
by
MichaelTressler
www.evs4b.com
Published by Edgehill Publishing, Nashville, TN.
Amazon Edition
Copyright 2016, Michael Tressler. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer of Warranty: While we have strived to ensure thatthe material in this book is accurate, the publisher bears no responsibilityfor the accuracy or completeness of this book, and specifically disclaims allimplied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.Neither the author nor publisher shall be liable for any loss of profit or anyother non-commercial or commercial damages, including but not limited toconsequential, incidental, special, or other damages.
"Lync" and "Skype for Business",Exchange, Outlook, System Center Operations Manager, and System CenterConfiguration Manager are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
This book and its publisher are not in any way endorsed by oraffiliated with Microsoft Corporation.
For more information on this book, including updates, newsand new editions, please visit this books web site at evs4b.com
Cover design by Jessica D. Adams
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Id like to first and foremost acknowledge the Lync andSkype for Business community. In my opinion, its the liveliest and mostengaged community of any of Microsofts products. The amount of blog articles,tweets, forum participation, etc. by this group is unmatched. It is because ofthis community that Ive learned so much about Lync and Skype for Business. Somuch so that I figured Im qualified to write a book!
Many thanks to Ken Lasko for his technical editing,guidance, and support of this book. Its great to know that someone of suchdeep technical expertise was able to point out all of my mistakes. This book asdrastically better because of his help.
Id also like to thank Andrew Young at Edgehill Publishingwho guided me through the process of publishing this book and helping me get anISBN number. I owe him yet another beer.
Finally, Id like to thank Jessica Adams who providedoriginal artwork for the cover and also designed the front and back covers. Youcan view her art at www.jessicadadams.com .
About theAuthor
I have been working professionally with Microsoft Windowssince Windows NT 3.1 was released. The first Windows NT 3.1 server I installedfor a customer ran on a DEC Alpha. That should not impress you. That just letsyou know that I am old.
Since 1993 the majority of my career has been focused on theimplementation, support, and operations of Microsoft server products. In 2009,my boss at the time told me that I would be responsible for our companysimplementation of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Quite honestly I wasntterribly excited. I had always avoided the Telephony side of IT as best as Icould.
However, as we started enabling Enterprise Voice in OCS, Ibecame seduced by the possibilities of true Unified Communications. By the timeLync was released, I was voraciously reading every tidbit I could find on theInternet. We installed Lync into production in February of 2011, a scant 2months after it was released to market. Soon thereafter my job title changed toSr. Telecom Engineer. My avoidance of Telephony in IT had officially come to anend. But I didnt mind as the team with which I worked were rapidly convertingusers from old school digital handsets to Enterprise Voice enabled Lync users.By the time I left the company, we had converted around half of our usersacross the USA and Canada to Enterprise Voice.
I was briefly a Lync consultant and then landed at amultinational corporation where one of my primary responsibilities isstandardizing the corporation on Enterprise Voice. I have worked eitherdirectly or indirectly on projects on every major continent. I doubt Ill everdo much with Antarctica.
The web page for this book can be found at evs4b.com . On thatsite you will find updates and addendums to this book. My personal website canbe found at http://www.flinchbot.com where you can find articles I write about interesting things Ive learned aboutSkype for Business and Lync.
I also run the UC Now website found at www.uc-now.com .This site contains an aggregation of pretty much every English-language Lyncblog that is even somewhat active. As of this writing, over 130 feeds areaggregated to spit out the latest articles. For those with Windows Phones orAndroid devices, look for the UC Now app on your devices app store. There isalso a version for Windows 8.1 and later.
This book should help you greatly enhance your knowledge ofhow Enterprise Voice in the Skype for Business world works. If not, thanks foryour money and do everyone else a favor and plaster the Internet with negativereviews.
Michael Tressler
flinchbot@outlook.com
@flinchbot
About ThisBook
I wrote this book simply because it didnt exist. There areseveral major tomes in the marketplace that cover Microsoft Skype for Businessand Lync. These books are well-written and highly recommended. However, theyprovide only a cursory introduction to Enterprise Voice.
I wrote a review of one of those two books and said: Iguess someone should write the book on Enterprise Voice as it apparently hasyet to be written.
That line kicked around in my head for several days until Ifinally realized that I should write that book. Why not? I am experienced withEnterprise Voice. I am confident that I have a strong grasp on the topic. Plus,since I am focusing on only a small slice of the whole Skype for Business pie,this wont take up too much of my time.
Famous last words.
Three years later.
After you have read this book, you should have a firm graspon how Skype for Business and Lync integrate with the Public Switch TelephoneNetwork (PSTN). You will be prepared to meet with various vendors and speakintelligently about the design and implementation of Enterprise Voice at yourorganization. You will be able to edit and expand the Enterprise Voiceconfiguration that may already be running in your organization. You will bemore attractive and the sun will always shine brightly no matter the weatherand which direction you face.
In short you will no longer be scared to handle the Skypefor Business Enterprise Voice features. And if you believed that line aboutbeing more attractive and the sun always shining brightly, then maybe youshould stop here and read something else. I hear Dr. Seuss is a wonderfulauthor.
What This Book Covers
As the title clearly states, this book covers EnterpriseVoice within Microsoft Skype for Business and Lync. However, that is a fairlynebulous term. In short, with regards to this book, Enterprise Voice is thatpiece of Lync that allows you to have voice communications with the PublicSwitched Telephone Network. Everything in this book applies to both Skype forBusiness and Lync 2013 except for the Shared Line Appearance feature. Any otherexceptions will be noted. As such I will use the term Skype for Businessexclusively.
What This Book Does Not Cover
Other books, blogs, and TechNetarticles already cover the following pieces which are also often lumped intothe category of Enterprise Voice. As such, if this book mentions the followingtechnologies, then it is only in passing:
Call Admission Control
Call via Work
Cloud PBX
Interactive Voice Response withExchange
Location-based Routing
Monitoring (i.e. Call DetailRecords, Quality of Experience, Call Quality Monitoring)
Media Bypass
Response Groups
Unified Messaging with Exchange
For Whom Was This Book Written?
This book is being written for those IT professionals whoalready have some experience with Skype for Business. While pains are taken towrite in a clear, simple, and concise manner, assumptions are made that youalready know things such as what Topology is and that you have at least apassing grasp of basic voice technologies such as PRIs, T1/E1 lines, etc. Thisbook also assumes you have some familiarity with the SIP protocol and othertechnologies on which Skype for Business relies.
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