A Few Key Differences
One of the key differences between Microsoft OCS and Lotus Sametime is how these products approach telephony. Microsoft has chosen to build significant call control and call routing and capabilities into Office Communications Server, to the extent that OCS supports dialing plans and even least-cost call routing. While OCS is designed to work in tandem with a PBX today, it will ultimately displace PBX and key systems “if it delivers on its promise, ”as Johan Krebbers of Shell put it in his VoiceCon Orlando 2007 keynote. OCS will natively provide compatible phones and video devices with all of the call-control capabilities that most users rely on, such as call hold, transfer, and forward, independent of the enterprise PBX. Of course, OCS can be integrated with the PSTN through gateways, and with telephone PBX systems using either SIP or CSTA (Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications, a series of protocols developed jointly by Microsoft and the European Computer Manufacturer’s Association.).
OCS can integrate with a SIP PBX, but the manufacturer must make some changes in the SIP protocol stack. Furthermore, a “mediation server” is required to transcode Microsoft’s proprietary audio format to one of the standard audio formats, such as G.711. Presently, OCS does not support SIP trunking with a service provider, but Microsoft reports that it is addressing the SIP trunking issue, and we expect announcements this year.
IBM Lotus, on the other hand, provides two ways for doing telephony integration and remote call control within Sametime, but it has no intention of building call routing and switching capabilities in the product. Using Sametime’s extensible model, telephony vendors can independently develop as much call control and switching capability for Sametime as they wish using the Sametime API and Eclipse. A second, preferred method is the standard remote call control interface, known as the Telephony Conferencing Service Provider Interface (TCSPI), that IBM Lotus has built within the Sametime interface. Either telephony integration method lets users answer, hang up, mute, and transfer desktop telephone calls from within Sametime; however, these features only work when a third party provider’s PBX or conferencing bridge is integrated with Sametime through the interface.
In 2007, IBM Lotus has announced Sametime Unified Telephony, a solution that promises to deliver a softphone within Sametime, multipoint IP voice, and a seamless way to integrate Sametime with telephony environments containing PBXs from different vendors. Although we are not at liberty to discuss Sametime Unified Telephony in this article, the details of this new solution will be forthcoming at VoiceCon Orlando in our Monday morning tutorial titled, “Choices in Unified Communications Solutions: Comparing Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to IBM Lotus Sametime 8.”
Another significant difference between Microsoft OCS and Lotus Sametime is operating system support. Naturally, Microsoft has designed OCS to work with and require Microsoft’s other software components including Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2000 and 2007, SQL Server, and Speech Server. IBM Lotus, on the other hand, supports Lotus Sametime Server on IBM Lotus pSeries (AIX), IBM Lotus i5/OS (iSeries) Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows Server (2000 and 2003), Red Hat Linux, and Novell SUSE Linux. The Lotus Sametime Connect client is supported on Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, RedHat Enterprise Linux, Novell Linux Desktop, and Mac OS X. Because many organizations run a variety of server and desktop operating systems, IBM Lotus has a stronger offering for organizations with heterogeneous operating system requirements.
Both solutions can be extended or embedded. Lotus Sametime is built upon Eclipse while OCS is built on Microsoft’s .NET architecture. Although Sametime is built using open software components, there is a layer IBM Lotus created, called Lotus Expeditor, which provides significant functionality and makes it easier for developers to extend or embed Sametime. IBM Lotus charges for Lotus Expeditor. Furthermore, to extend Sametime, one must use the extension points that IBM Lotus has defined.
Thus, it appears that extending Lotus Sametime or Microsoft OCS still requires proprietary components from each company, as well as a clearly defined API. Based on our discussions with both Microsoft and IBM Lotus partner companies, we conclude that the Sametime platform is somewhat more open than OCS 2007 even though Microsoft has said that the OCS 2007 API is freely available. Thus, for the time being, we give the nod toward Lotus Sametime as being the more open and easily extensible/embeddable product.
While Microsoft appears to be competing with some of its partners, by promoting its own voice capabilities, IBM Lotus has publicly drawn the line on the functionality it will develop within Sametime and what it will encourage its partners to create. Sametime Unified Telephony, however, may alter one’s perception of what IBM will and will not deliver. One big philosophical difference, at least for now, is that IBM Lotus wants both telephony and unified messaging partners, while it seems like Microsoft’s approach, at least in the arena of unified communications, is to partner today and compete tomorrow. That being said, Microsoft does need telephony partners today for its unified communications strategy to be adopted, and it has a very active and vibrant partner community.
Conclusion
IBM Lotus and Microsoft both have compelling unified communications platforms. Each has an intuitive interface. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The basic products have similar capabilities. Today, Microsoft clearly has an edge with respect to native telephony and unified messaging features, but will the new Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony allow IBM to catch and possibly surpass Microsoft? Our tutorial on integrating telephony with OCS and Sametime at VoiceCon Spring 2008 will reveal the answer.
Lotus Sametime supports multiple operating systems and LDAP directories, whereas OCS 2007 requires Microsoft-only infrastructure. Sametime has been deployed for a number of years in many companies, including 26 installations of over 100,000 users, proving it is robust and scalable; OCS has now been deployed by several large organizations, and it is proving its scalability.
E. Brent Kelly, Senior Analyst and Partner, leads the Unified Communications Practice for Wainhouse Research. He has over 18 years experience in developing and marketing highly technical products. Brent has authored reports and articles on migrating to IP communications, unified communications environments, IP video network providers, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and telephony-based unified communications providers.
