Benefits of Using Live Communications Server 2005

Live Communications Server 2005 provides instant messaging (IM) and presence technology capabilities to the organization or enterprise, along with audio, video, and data collaboration features that can augment the features offered by SharePoint technologies when used with the Office 2003 products. IM has been a popular alternative to standard email and can be a productivity enhancing tool. On the other hand, some organizations decide to not allow IM on the network for policy or security reasons.

For companies that are geographically dispersed and seeking to control costs associated with traveling and meeting in person, or companies that conduct online events, Live Communications Server can be a great investment.

Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 delivers the tools necessary to connect customers to public instant messaging (IM) Internet service providers (MSN, AOL, and Yahoo!). The new Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 enables users to now add contacts, send instant messages, and share presence information with users of MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and Yahoo! Messenger.

Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 also provides an IM filter application that blocks messages that contain URLs or attempt to initiate a file transfer to control propagation of viruses through these methods.

Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 offers administrators controls (for example, which users connect to which public IM service providers). A company may choose to connect to MSN and AOL public IM service providers but choose not to connect to Yahoo!. Where appropriate, administrators can also choose to log messages sent to and from the public IM service providers.

The Windows Messenger 5.0 client is used, which many users are already familiar with and which is in use on many networks already, and is integrated with Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 technologies.

Instant messaging is also an easy and reliable way to see whether the other person is at her computer and logged in. Due to its informal nature, many people are happy to respond when pinged via IM, whereas they might delay in replying to a voicemail or an email.

The presence awareness capabilities allow users to specify whether they are Offline, Busy, Away, On the Phone, or other options to make the information concerning their availability more accurate and customizable. If Live Communications Server is implemented on the network, SharePoint users can initiate an IM session from within the workspace, view availability information about that person, start an audio conversation using the computer microphone and speakers, make PC-to-phone or Phone-to-PC phone calls (with the appropriate gateway deployment), or start a videoconference (if the appropriate camera hardware is in place).

The whiteboard feature provides the ability for users to create drawings and diagrams, and the file transfer process allows files to be sent directly and instantly to the other party.