Microsoft’s introduction of unified messaging support in Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 marks the start of unified messaging technology; robust, interoperable, server-based tools that integrate with desktop and mobile clients to give information workers access to voice, fax, and e-mail data from wherever they are and allows users to use the telephone to manage their email, calendar, and personal contacts.
Benefits include;
Foundation for unified communications. The combination of e-mail, voice mail, and fax capability can be increased with presence, instant messaging (IM), and real-time conferencing capability to expand the ways in which users can share information and communicate.
A major improvement in Exchange 2007 is Outlook Web Access (OWA), — this time to complement the interface used by Outlook 2003. This includes support for unified messaging, plus improved server-side storage of calendaring information to enhance things such as meeting-scheduling.
Outlook Voice Access, which provides telephone-based access to inbox data using speech or Touch-Tone (dual-tone multi-frequency, or DTMF) recognition, and offers text-to-speech functionality to read e-mail calendar, personal contacts, and directory information back to the caller.
The Outlook 2007 interface allows you to sort, search, and prioritize voice mail messages along with other data items; in addition, you can play voice mail messages on your desk phone, and add notes to voice mail messages so that the contents of the message are indexed along with associated sender and date information.
New features of Exchange Server 2007 include:
Exchange Management Console: The Exchange Management Console is one of two new administrative interfaces for Exchange 2007 and is based on Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0. The Exchange Management Console combines all management tasks into one user interface. By using the Exchange Management Console, you can manage all Exchange servers, recipients, and organizational components in your Exchange 2007 organization.
Performance improvements: Exchange 2007 supports deployment on a 64-bit architecture. Because of the move from a 32-bit to a 64-bit architecture, the Enterprise Edition of Exchange Server 2007 now supports a larger number of storage groups and databases per server. Exchange 2007 lets you create as many as 50 storage groups per server.
High availability for Mailbox servers: Exchange 2007 includes three built-in features that provide high availability for Mailbox servers: Local continuous replication (LCR), cluster continuous replication (CCR), and single copy clusters (SCC). The continuous replication features use log shipping to create a second copy of a production storage group.
Messaging Policy and Compliance Features: Exchange 2007 includes many new messaging compliance features. You can use the policy and compliance features of Exchange 2007 to apply rules to messages that are sent and to enforce retention requirements for stored data. The new Messaging Records Management (MRM) feature in Exchange 2007 helps users and organizations retain the messages that they need for business or legal reasons.
Security and Protection: There are several improvements to the suite of anti-spam and antivirus features that were introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In Exchange 2007, the anti-spam and antivirus features provide services to block viruses and spam, also known as unsolicited commercial e-mail, at the network perimeter.
Boost administrator productivity with new tools: Exchange Server 2007 helps administrators save time and reduce effort with advanced management tools. A new command line interface gives control over as well as the power to easily automate all types of operations with scripts. In addition, the graphical management console has been completely updated, with a more intuitive user interface, improved discoverability and a toolbox work center that integrates diagnostics, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools including the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant.
Integrating voice mail and fax messages with e-mail and calendaring systems offers valuable benefits as discussed earlier. Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging can help deliver these benefits by unifying voice mail and fax traffic with other data items in users’ existing inboxes, then making all of these data items available to users in a variety of ways. By allowing for centralized deployment and management of unified messaging services, Exchange Server 2007 lowers the cost of providing voice mail and fax services while simultaneously delivering services—like voice access to calendar items—that aren’t available on other systems.
To discuss how Exchange 2007 can enhance your business productivity and anywhere access please contact TNS on 1300 867 867.
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