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Written by Bob Barnes

• Make calls from a Mac using it as a softphone.
• Make phone calls directly from your chat Lync client.
• Forward calls to various devices and numbers.
• Transfer calls to various devices and numbers.
• Simultaneous ring allows for incoming calls to ring both Lync for Mac and another phone.

Written by Bob Barnes

NextUC in partnership with Microsoft just launched a contest for new free trial activations of its voice-enabled hosted Microsoft Lync service. For every 10 activations, customers get Microsoft Arc mouse and for every single activation customers get a point and will be entered in a drawing for one of two Microsoft X-Box 360 Kinects.

What is Kinect for X-Box?

Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice. With Kinect, technology evaporates, letting the natural magic in all of us shine. Watch a video here.

What are the rules of the contest?

Sign up for a 90-day free trial of NextUC, start activating your users and for each user get a point to enter the drawing. One drawing will be held on November 18th and one on December 30th. Learn more about the contest here.

Why join?

Because Lync is cool and it is free! Lync will be your one place for telephony, conferencing and instant messaging. So check it out now. For free.

Written by Bob Barnes

NextUC leverages Microsoft Lync for Web Conferencing and Audio Conferencing.  The conferencing experience for both has come a long way since the days of OCS and OCSR2. The combined experience of the Lync platform creates a user experience that should allow users to consolidate spend for alternative solutions onto a single platform and create very happy users.

Conferencing cost can exceed all other communication expenses for a business depending on the type of industry they serve.  Services like Webex and Adobe Connect can drive a significant share of the overall communications budget.  NextUC combines those spends into a platform that can handle all but the largest and most complex conferencing needs… and does it in the base product for no additional cost.

Users can leverage all of the standard tools they use today which also drives down cost and pushes up productivity by easing user adoption challenges.  Companies should push the utilization of tools like this to drive mobile and high value employees to be productive and engaged
all of the time.  NextUC provides a perfect vehicle to allow companies to access the platform without investing in non-strategic expense.
Written by Bob Barnes

Recently, there have been many Microsoft Lync vendors popping up who offer ‘hosted Lync’. But is it a fully functional Lync? Or is it just the basic version with chat, presence and conferencing? Can you call any of your contacts no matter where they are? If that’s what you want but you are not getting it, please read on.

If you are looking for a platform that also provides voice services, NextUC is your product. It is the first hosted voice-enabled Microsoft Lync platform, that allows you to click-to-call anyone from your contact list, whether they are on their computer, desk phone or cell phone. And you can do that without the need to purchase any server or router, it is all delivered seamlessly from the cloud. So essentially, Lync can replace all of your phone and conferencing vendors and help you save up to 80% of your cost. Read more about this here. Here is a list of all the benefits that you get with NextUC:

• Voice over IP. Make PC-to-PC calls or PSTN calls to desk and cell phones with click-to-call directly from your Lync client. Replace your phone system and simply use your computer to make calls to anyone.
  
• Instant Messaging. Securely chat with co-workers in any office. Employees can chat using the Lync PC and Mac client, Outlook or directly in Outlook Web App.
• Rich Presence Capabilities. Lync provides an immediate, visual indicator of colleagues’ ability to chat. A wide range of indicators like available, away, busy and do not disturb are used to help manage reachability. Since Lync integrates with Exchange, presence indicators are automatically updated depending on users’ calendars and activities.
• Group Chat. Share information more efficiently with topic-based, multi-party discussions through Lync.
• File Transfer. Quickly message files from one user to another.
• Desktop Sharing. Chat partners can see any document, application or web browser so that ideas are communicated faster and work is completed more efficiently.
• Voice and Video Chat. Seamlessly transition to video with a single click, instantly improving collaboration with your chat partners.
• Join or Schedule Online Meetings. Integration with Exchange allows for single-click scheduling directly from Outlook with predefined conferencing properties that meet the needs of a majority of users without any modifications. Participants can join meetings directly from Outlook or from their Lync PC client with integrated voice and video.
• Desktop and Application Sharing. Presenters can broadcast visuals, applications, web pages, documents, software or any part of a desktop to conference participants.
• Virtual Whiteboard. Online meetings become more effective with the use of a virtual whiteboard, allowing presenters to draw, add text and highlight information with powerful and flexible annotation tools.
• Integrated in Outlook Web Access 2010. For accounts on hosted Exchange 2010, Lync is built right in to Outlook Web Access.
• Conversation History. Lync lets users save and search IM conversations inside Outlook, just like their email.

So don’t wait and sign up for a 90-day Free Trial.

Foster City, CA: NextUC, a unified communications service that provides a full voice-enabled hosted Lync product and PBX replacement for businesses nationwide, just announced the release of apps for
iphone, ipad and android. These apps will be free downloads in the app stores and will deliver an enhanced mobile experience for the already strong product support for mobile workers.

The release of the NextUC apps, 3^rd party application availability from companies like Xync and Microsoft’s soon to be released Lync Mobile all creates very powerful mobile device support echo system that NextUC users can leverage.

With NextUC customers get access to a cloud based Microsoft Lync environment with full PSTN/Telephony support.  Companies can subscribe and be up and running on Microsoft Enterprise Lync in minutes with 100% functionality and can then extend functionality through a growing number of product integrations and partnerships.  This approach has enabled NextUC to get to market with a very powerful offering and has enabled the company to add users at a very impressive rate.

NextUC provides clients the flexibility to make phone calls from their PC’s, MACs, iPads and other devices.  Companies and users can choose new or port existing numbers and chat with users on other platforms, such as MS Live. Other advanced features include: federating with Office 365, and full unified messaging integration with any other email provider.

NextUC is currently offering a free trial of NextUC Enterprise, a comprehensive bundled service that includes secure chat, presence, unlimited calling to computers and PSTN, audio, video and web conferencing, unified messaging (Voice-to-text) and email integration and NextUC Messenger, a hosted secure chat and presence service. Customers interested in trying the service can sign up for a limited-time free BETA trial.

NextUC is delivered to all of the main operating systems on the desktop as well as mobile environments including Windows, iOS, Android and Windows phone. “The term Mobile Worker should be shortened simply to Worker.  Businesses today can benefit from improved employee morale and production at the same time by leveraging tools like NextUC to encourage work from anywhere and availability at all times.” Said Bob Barnes, EVP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development.

About NextUC

NextUC is a cloud-based communications product providing enterprise-class voice, messaging, conferencing, collaboration and mobility capabilities from a single unified client, hosted Microsoft Lync, all provided by CallTower. For a monthly subscription fee, NextUC replaces all of your voice and conferencing providers and streamlines your multiple communications channels into one collaboration platform that improves your team’s efficiency and productivity.  NextUC works on all operating systems including Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. For more information please visit www.nextuc.com.

About CallTower

CallTower is a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise-class unified communications (UCaaS) that integrates business phone service, email hosting, unified messaging, presence, instant messaging, conferencing and collaboration tools into one reliable platform. CallTower partners with leading technology providers: Cisco® (Unified Communications Manager) and Microsoft® (Office Communications Server, Lync Server, Exchange Server and SharePoint), integrating these services through CallTower’s proprietary vXML Voice Cube voice messaging platform. With CallTower, organizations gain the functionality of all available advanced Unified Communications features in a reliable, stable and scalable environment, without the complexity and costs of implementing, managing and upgrading solutions internally. For more information please visit www.calltower.com.

The term ‘mobile workforce’ should be simplified to ‘workforce’. Every company that I work with absolutely has a need for improved mobile workforce support even if they do not recognize it. The good news is that empowering workers to be mobile makes them happier and improves productivity out of each of the resources if there is a good communications strategy to support them.

Microsoft has begun the process of releasing Mango for their Windows Phone product line. It seems reasonable that they have held back the release of Lync 2010 Mobile until Mango is release because of the necessity for support of multiple active applications on the Windows Phones. Now that Windows Phones should have a good technical balance against Android and iPhone, it only makes sense that Lync Mobile should be on its way.

Other variations of the product have already been released for the iPad, iPhone and Android like Xync. Under any circumstance the fact that all core messaging and communications can all be accessed on a wide variety of mobile platforms further extends the value of Lync for any business. The challenge, or course, for many companies is the need for product evaluation, provisioning and support. The good news is that the adoption and effective use of products like Lync, Lync Mobile, xync and more are all supported on the NextUC product.

Keep your employees happy and productive and feel secure while doing it. Take corporate communications to the cloud with NextUC and make a positive impact for everyone.