Monday, September 28, 2015

Persistent Chat: Challenges vs. Benefits



No, we are not discussing that office worker that tends to yack your ear off like Kelly Kapoor on The Office. That would be Incessant Chat. We are talking about Persistent Chat!

This post is a very brief one. We are simply going over some pros and cons, or rather challenges and benefits, to implementing Persistent Chat in your Lync Server 2013 or Skype for Business Server 2015 environment. For those of that need a brief jogging of the memory, Persistent Chat is what was previously known as Group Chat in Lync 2010. It enables chat "rooms" where the conversation persists independent of the participants. For instance, User A can come and go from the chat room, but the conversation will  go on without that user, and the previous conversation involving User A will remain in the room regardless of their involvement. Yes, it is very cool indeed.

Challenges


So, what are the challenges associated with implementing Persistent Chat? Well, there are some things that are simply good things to keep in mind, and others that are indeed challenges. For this sake of this list, though, I am going to list them all together into one bullet-ed list.
  • In an Enterprise environment, Persistent Chat cannot be collocated on the Front End Server. This means that if you are planning for Persistent Chat, you will need to plan in additional servers. Persistent Chat (PC) also requires a backend database. This database can live on the same SQL instance as your other roles, so you don't necessarily need another server for this role, but you should make sure your SQL server has enough computing power. The only case where you can collocate the PC role with the Front End is in a single-server Standard Edition build, in which case the PC SQL backend is simply another database in the existing SQL Express instance on the Standard Edition server. Of course Microsoft recommends that such an environment only be used for Demo and POC purposes, but anyone in the industry is well aware that these environments are used in production for MANY smaller businesses. If you are one of those smaller businesses, make sure you have enough RAM and CPU power on that server!
  • The ability to partake in PC as an end user depends upon group and room membership. This membership is managed on the Room  level by the Managers of the room. In order to create a room, as user has to be added to the Creators group for a "Category", which is setup in the Skype for Business Control Panel. To manage these Control Panel settings, and  to create Categories and assign Creators, a user needs to be a member of the RBAC role Persistent Chat Administrator. Once a room is created, managers must be assigned per room, and those managers can then add Members. As you can see, there is quite a hierarchy that must be accounted for when deciding how use of Persistent Chat will be managed and administered within your organization.Will your chat rooms just be "open"? Will users need to submit tickets to a central Help Desk team to gain access to any rooms? Will more granular controls be required?
  • A separate web interface is required to manage individual rooms, Managers, and Members. While this interface is fairly simple and  straightforward web portal that is managed through the Skype for Business client, it is yet another interface to be aware of, and to learn. This is not overly burdensome, but may require a bit of end-user training for those who will be "Managers".

Benefits


Alright, so, the challenges weren't too bad, were they? Nah. Now for the benefits. I am sure many of you have already started compiling into your own mental list.
  • Many teams may have slightly different use cases for PC, but despite these differences, most of these teams share the commonality that having a central chat room for their  team  to work out of in real-time is a key component to enhancing internal communication and increasing efficiency. Having the leadership of a time buy into the added benefit of this tool will not just deliver this enhanced productivity - it will also increase end-user adoption of the Skype for Business product as a whole.
  • Many teams run a 24-7 shop, meaning they have at least 3 shifts working around the clock, and such a structure usually include some sort of shift hand-off. Imagine how seamless and more complete this hand-off would be if all teammates were using a Persistent Chat room throughout their shift, recording all the happenings (good and bad) of that particular shift. Suddenly, Johnny ThirdShift won't be caught off-gaurd when an unhappy customer calls in to get the status of a down server when Suzy SecondShift forgot to mention that at turnover time.
  • Enhanced productivity means less time spent trying to track down various bits of communication. If less time is spent tracking things down, or looking for an available tech to escalate to ("Hey, anybody in this room that can help me out"), workers can be more productive. This eventually translates to cost savings, which in turn means greater revenue.
  • There are also "Auditorium" rooms. These rooms have a Presenter, who can essentially broadcast messages to a room with many members. While the members are not able to participate in conversation, they can closely follow the messages broadcast by the Presenter. This is especially useful in situations where there is a major outage, and several teams are trying to coordinate and work together to track the status and keep up with the latest developments of the issue. 

As you can see, Persistent Chat is not just as simple as flipping a switch on in your Control Panel, but depending on your company's needs, it may be well worth it to invest the extra planning into making Persistent Chat a part of your company's collaboration strategy. I hope this proved helpful for those of you currently weighing this decision. For others that have implemented it, and found additional Challenges or Benefits than what I have listed above, we would love to hear about your experiences! Drop a comment below!

Stay techy, my friends!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Setting Up Cloud PBX (Skype Voice Preview) Voicemail in Skype for Business Online

And another video...

Hey guys! So, I had a lot of fun doing the last video, short and simple as it was, so I wanted to do my next post in the Podcast format as well. This time, however, I used Google Hangouts On Air. I know, I know, I will look into Skype Meeting Broadcast one of these days, but for now, streaming the video on Google+ and then having it automatically uploaded to YouTube and ready to go was just a convenient way to go for a novice like myself. Plus, I really liked their "Showcase" feature for sharing the sites that I was working from!

Following up on Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling

So, following up my post on Configuring Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling, this video is a how-to on how to enable a Skype Voice user for Voicemail using Exchange Online Unified Messaging (UM). While I call these out in the video, there are a couple caveats that I want you to be aware of:

Caveats
  • Exchange UM in Office 365 requires at least Exchange Online Plan 2
  • All of this functionality is still in PREVIEW, and unless you are in the Preview program (apply at https://www.skypepreview.com), you will not have access to this functionality until it is GA.
  • Step 6 of the given Technet article actually includes 2 cmdlets all run together, so watch out for that.
  • Step 6 also has a policy named incorrectly, and per their example, should actually read "USTenDigits Default Policy" (you will see what I mean in the video).
At any rate, while this video is 5 minutes longer than my intended 15 minute target, it is still a good watch for seeing how to work through these steps. Please don't hesitate to throw some feedback my way!


Stay techy, my friends!

Friday, September 11, 2015

Deciding Where to Place Users in a Hybrid Skype for Business Environment

Trying something new...

Hello everyone! Things have been a bit crazy, schedule-wise, but I found some time to put something together today. Actually, I am changing things up a bit, and trying something new. Today, I tested out web-casting, a bit, and I have to say, I kind of like it!

It is a bit rough around the edges since it is a first blog video post, but I am hoping to incorporate these more and more, with deeper content and more substance. Since today was the maiden voyage for a video post, though, I went with something simple. Therefore, this is a brief walk-through on the feature comparison of Skype for Business Online Plan 1, Plan 2, and Skype for Business Server 2015 (On-Prem). If you are planning out a Hybrid Skype for Business environment, or just need to brush up on the differences in features/pricing of the different plans, this will be helpful!


Again, this was a very simple and basic recording, with very basic content, but I promise, these will get more in-depth and interesting as I incorporate them into the blog more regularly!

Stay techy, my friends!