Office Communications Server 2007 delivers streamlined communications for users so they can find and communicate with the right person, right now, from the applications they use most. Without expensive infrastructure and network upgrades, you can deliver streamlined communications, including software-powered VoIP (voice over IP), Web conferencing, and enterprise instant messaging, while maintaining the operational control.

Read the Office Communications Server 2007 datasheet.

The free trial includes Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, and Speech Server (2007).

Office Communications Server 2007 builds on the foundation of Presence and Instant Messaging, Federated Communications, and Remote Call Control delivered by Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. Key new features include a number of improvements to Instant Messaging and Presence capability such as integration with Microsoft Exchange Server distribution lists as well as the addition of software-powered VoIP, allowing users to make, receive, and manage phone calls using Office Communicator 2007 running on their computer and multi-party on-premise audio/video and Web conferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 also supports the ICE framework of protocols, allowing users to take advantage of these communications capabilities from wherever they are without needing to establish a VPN connection.

Presence enables real-time status of employees (based on calendar information, login/activity status, and user preference) to be displayed across the organization and/or selected colleagues to enable users to contact the right person the first time using the best communications method.

Enterprise instant messaging enables instant messaging with the security, manageability, and reliability required for enterprise communications.

Software-powered VoIP is the next generation of voice communications. By enabling communications over an IP network and integrating these capabilities with the applications used most, voice communications can be integrated with e-mail, calendaring, voice mail/unified messaging, instant messaging, and Web conferencing to provide a streamlined experience rather than the disconnected experience provided by legacy systems today.

Web conferencing provides a virtual meeting experience that integrates data, content, video, voice, media, and text to enable real-time communication and collaboration whenever you need it.

Software-powered VoIP is the future of business voice communication. It’s a software-based solution that provides streamlined communications to information workers, enabling them to initiate voice communications from the context of the application they are working in, as well as receive calls when connected to a wide range of networks without a VPN. Software-powered VoIP, presence, instant messaging, and audio/video/Web conferencing form the core feature set of Office Communications Server 2007. Using Office Communicator 2007 as the principal client application, the solution provides a rich, integrated communications experience for enterprise users. Software-powered VoIP supports voice mail and auto-attendant capabilities through integration with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging. Office Communications Server 2007 also works with legacy enterprise telephony systems either natively over SIP, or via a media gateway and public switched telephone networks.

Web conferencing capability in Office Communications Server 2007 provides Web conferencing to users via an on-premise solution residing inside the corporate firewall. Users can connect to Office Communications Server 2007 or to Office Live Meeting using the same client. Office Live Meeting is a hosted Web conferencing service which will continue to be offered as a hosted service in addition to the on-premise Office Communications Server 2007 product.

Read Office Communications Server 2007 pricing and licensing information.

Yes. While organizations are in the process of migrating, Office Communications Server 2007 and Live Communications Server 2005 can interoperate.

Yes. The migration process involves deploying some Office Communications Server 2007 infrastructure in parallel to a Live Communications Server 2005 deployment and then easily migrating the users across to the new infrastructure. Read about migrating to Office Communications Server 2007.

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This depends on your organization’s requirements. For smaller deployments you could potentially run your infrastructure on one server, but for environments where greater scale, geographical distribution or fault tolerance are required, Office Communications Server 2007 has a flexible architecture to allow this kind of scaling in a multi-server environment. Download our Planning Guide for Office Communications Server 2007.

You can use Office Communicator 2005 or Office Communicator 2007 with Office Communications Server 2007. Note that to use the new features offered by Office Communications Server 2007 you will need to use Office Communicator 2007. For a specific user, once you have started using Office Communicator 2007 with Office Communications Server 2007 you will no longer be able to sign in with Office Communicator 2005.