San Diego recently played host to the Microsoft Lync Conference and among the key messages was that Lync intends to become “people-centric”. A large part of the content in sessions and keynotes focused on new and improved features, designed to unify communications. Microsoft, or Lync at least, has clearly set its sights on user adoption.
The product marketing general manager for Lync, Giovanni Mezgec, said:
“Ultimately, it’s all about the changing human interaction, the way people communicate, and really being able to provide an environment that makes them comfortable.”
He is aware of the importance of the ‘bits and bytes’ in the eyes of IT professionals but users also view it as important in order for them to enjoy a positive experience. Mezgec continued:
“They don’t want to be constricted. They want to have the flexibility of looking at the information that they want. Bringing that experience in an environment that makes them feel like a natural extension of what they do already is so important to really foster adoption. It’s a highly technical product that connects with a legacy infrastructure that is as complicated as it can get, which is networking and IP telephony and all that.”
He went on to say that Lync hopes it is making that simpler due to what it learned between 2010 and 2013, with regards to how this can be done with more speed and more effectively for IT.
The 2013 version of Lync presents enhancements that should encourage IT professionals. One specific enhancement comes in the form of easier server architecture, which is expected to result in fewer servers needed for Lync to be deployed on-premises. Lync Room Systems is a modern way of integrating multimedia devices and meeting rooms to get the most out of the meeting experience, both online and in person.
