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Choices in Unified Communications: Comparing Microsoft OCS 2007 to IBM Lotus Sametime 8.0: Page 3 of 5

  • Out of the Box Capabilities

    The most visible component each company provides is their unified client: Sametime Connect for Lotus Sametime and Office Communicator for Microsoft Office Communications Server. A careful look at each interface before any third party components are added shows a number of similarities.

    Figure 1: Interfaces for Lotus Sametime (left) and Microsoft Office Communicator (right)

    Both offer windows that display contact lists, presence status for individuals on the list, the ability to create groups, easy searching for people not on the contact list, conversation windows that show who is in an instant messaging session, and the ability to send messages with rich text, icons, and graphics. Both products display a series of control buttons that allow additional people to be invited to a meeting and which enable users to start a voice chat and/or a video chat session. These and additional controls can be accessed by right clicking the mouse over a contact’s name, which displays a pop-up controls menu.

    While the video layouts are a little different, the major functionality within each interface is similar. Both provide controls to mute audio or video, both can go full screen, and the video quality is actually quite good in both. However, each has advantages and disadvantages.

    Figure 2: Video interfaces for Sametime (left) and OCS (right)