Microsoft Lync: Integrating with or Replacing Cisco

Matt McGillen • October 30, 2013

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Perficient is a leading information technology consulting firm serving clients

throughout North America.

We help clients implement business-driven technology solutions that integrate

business processes, improve worker productivity, increase customer loyalty and create

a more agile enterprise to better respond to new business opportunities.

About Perficient

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• Founded in 1997• Public, NASDAQ: PRFT• 2012 revenue of $327 million• Major market locations throughout North America

• Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fairfax, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Northern California, Philadelphia, Southern California, St. Louis, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.

• Global delivery centers in China, Europe and India• ~2,000 colleagues• Dedicated solution practices• ~85% repeat business rate • Alliance partnerships with major technology vendors• Multiple vendor/industry technology and growth awards

Perficient Profile

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Business Solutions• Business Intelligence• Business Process Management• Customer Experience and CRM• Enterprise Performance Management• Enterprise Resource Planning• Experience Design (XD)• Management Consulting

Technology Solutions• Business Integration/SOA• Cloud Services• Commerce• Content Management• Custom Application Development• Education• Information Management• Mobile Platforms• Platform Integration• Portal & Social

Our Solutions Expertise

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Our Microsoft Practice

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• Two Lync Masters on staff (only 50 in the world)• One of only three partners to be a Office 365 Fast Track • Packaged service offerings focused on:

• Office 365• Lync Voice

• Experience with on-premise, cloud, and blended deployments• Over 500k cloud users deployed to date• Published O365 book in FY13• Strategic Partnerships with AudioCodes, Dell Software Group,

Clarity Connect, Proofpoint

Unified Communications Expertise

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Our Speaker

Matt McGillen, Director of Infrastructure

• More than 15 years of IT consulting experience focused on Unified Communications (UC)

• Responsible for selling and delivering UC solutions for complex business environments – solutions include all components of the Microsoft UC stack, with a particular focus on Microsoft Lync and the integration of Lync with existing voice systems

• Prior to joining Perficient, managed the professional services division of a regional Microsoft and Cisco consulting firm

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Deep Lync Telephony Experience

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Deep Lync Telephony Experience

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3 Lync/Cisco Integrations

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The 4th and Best Way

Lync is the application, Cisco is the network!

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Deciding How to Integrate

Use the Best Tool for the Job

Which users need which functions?

How do people actually work together?

Define Your Requirements

Segment User Populations

Sometimes IP phones on desks are good enough

Just because you’ve always used a technology doesn’t mean it’s the best

Different sites have different needs

Mobile workers, sales force, knowledge workers are require different functionality

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3 Ways to Integrate

Remote Call Control

CUCM 5.x and up supports “Direct” SIP

You may still want a gateway, depending on your situation

SIP: Trunk or Gateway

Client Side Plug-in

Using Lync client for IM, Presence

“Click-to-Call” takes your Cisco phone off-hook

CUCiLync

It’s bad, what can I say?

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Lync With Client-Side Plug-in

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Lync With Client-Side Plug-in

Cons

Pros

What It Is

It’s a Cisco softphone bolted on to your Lync Client

It registers with Call Manager

It gives you softphone and Lync

It’s difficult to manage

It’s confusing for end-users

It’s expensive

You need a VPN

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Lync With Remote Call Control

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Lync With Remote Call Control

Cons

Pros

What It Is

It’s a Cisco Presence Server integrated to both Lync and Call Manager

Gives you “click to call”

Gives you “phone presence”

It’s difficult to manage

It’s confusing for end-users

It’s expensive

You need a VPN

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Lync With Direct SIP

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Lync With Gateway Upstream

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Lync With Direct SIP

Cons

Pros

What It Is

You can send calls back and forth

Allows users to use Lync as a softphone

Allows you to use Lync as a conference bridge

Is well supported by Cisco & Microsoft

Clean lines of delineation: Microsoft on the desktop / Cisco as a handset

No “phone presence”

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Lync With Direct SIP

It uses G711

It uses TCP

It uses the SIP standard, but…

It has to be certified by MS

You can register generic SIP phones, but…

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Lync With Direct SIP – Why to Do it

Let remote users use Lync for softphone

• Ditto for traveling users

• Ditto for hoteling users

• Ditto for people who don’t like expensive, clunky handsets

Convert a single branch office

Keep PBX handsets, use Lync for everything else, especially conferencing

Replace handsets over time

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Lync With Direct SIP – How to Wreck it

We don’t need a plan, we’ll figure it out”

“I want my PBX phone to ring AND Lync to ring!”

• It can be done.

• That doesn’t mean it should be done.

• Not fun setup in the PBX to fork calls.

• Voicemail, etc. – It can be a problem.

• Just use a Lync phone if you want this scenario (easy for me to say).

But, yes, it can be done.

Golden Rule: Do Not Deploy the Same Service (Voice) to the Same User on Two Different Systems.

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Lync With Direct SIP – How to Wreck it

“I have 50 branch locations, can I tie into just 1 Lync server back in HQ?”

• It can be done.

• That doesn’t mean it should be done.

• This causes WAN hilarity.

• You really need to decide how you want Lync to work for you.

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Lync With Direct SIP – Easy Dial Plan

One Main Step in Lync: *.

• Create the trunks

• Create the route groups

• Create the route list

• Create the route patterns (88.XXXX)

• Forward the DNs

• Route the calls

• Serves 1-1000 users. Enjoy!

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Lync With Direct SIP – Easy Dial Plan

To Be Considered:

• QoS

• CAC

• MTPs

• Bandwidth Usage

• Codecs / Transcoding

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