Microsoft Lync, formerly known as Office Communications Server, delivers a unified experience for both end users and IT by integrating enterprise voice (telephony), instant messaging and audio, video, and web conferencing into a single, integrated communications experience.

"With Lync, Microsoft is enabling Canadian businesses to communicate and collaborate more effectively with employees, customers and partners through a single integrated client across the PC, phone and browser,” says Vineet Parmar, senior product manager, Unified Communications at Microsoft Canada. “At the same time, Lync offers IT the ability to help reduce costs by replacing PBX boxes with Lync while providing the choice to deploy on premise, in the Cloud, or a hybrid of both."

Microsoft Lync can make every engagement a virtual face-to-face meeting, because any interaction can include video and audio conferencing, application and desktop sharing, instant messaging, and telephony. Early beta user Creation Technologies, a Vancouver-based electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has been using Lync to enhance the level of communication and collaboration across the organization.

"Creation has leadership located across multiple sites in North America and China. Given the diverse nature of our locations, initiating a conference and collaboration session required the use of many layers of disparate technologies. Setting up a session was difficult and cumbersome and getting the technology synchronized took too much time. This lengthened our decision making processes. With Microsoft Lync, we now have a single integrated platform that allows simple conferencing and collaboration, thus eliminating the bureaucracy of location," says Douglas Besse, executive vice president and CIO, Creation Technologies.

"With Lync in place we can make better group decisions by getting people together more quickly and efficiently. I can now establish a meeting very easily, seeing full presence and availability.  Joining a session is simple, and with a few simple mouse clicks I can share my desktop, share files and allow collaboration very efficiently - no matter where I am or where my colleagues are located at any given moment."

Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 will be available for businesses of all sizes to purchase on December 1, 2010. Microsoft Lync Online will be available as part of Office 365 next year, with voice capabilities available in late 2011. Lync Online will include instant messaging, presence, audio and video conferencing, and PC-to-PC voice calls.

Microsoft Lync is the new family brand for the products formerly known as Microsoft Communications Server, Microsoft Communications Online and Microsoft Communicator, and now also includes Microsoft Lync Web App, and Microsoft Lync Online. Learn more about Lync at www.microsoft.com/lync.

Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Inc. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, a worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing.  Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Microsoft Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario with MSN.CA offices located in Toronto and eight regional offices across the country. The company supports local communities across Canada by creating innovative technology and partnerships that help people realize their full potential. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca.