Enterprise Voice

The big focus in Lync Server is in the area of Enterprise Voice. This is to say that Lync Server intends to be the entire voice system. Between soft clients running on desktops and laptops to standalone desk phones to receptionist call routing consoles to conference room phones, Lync Server is capable of providing the functionalities needed to maintain a full phone system.

Lync Server is able to bridge internal Lync Server calls to external phone systems through PSTN gateways and other forms of transcoding. Based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Lync Server is able to interoperate with many other existing voice systems.

An interesting coexistence option offered with Lync Server is the concept of remote call control. Although this capability is not emphasized in Lync Server, it can allow the Communicator client to place calls via an existing PBX or IP-PBX phone. This enables companies to more easily integrate Lync Server into an existing telephony infrastructure while older components are eventually retired in favor of Lync Server–based functionality.