Unified Communications with Lync 2013

Abstract: Unified Communications solutions bring together several communication modes, technologies, and applications in order to answer businesses’ and individuals’ growing need for simpler, faster, and more effective communications means.  Although many hardware-based products allow the integration of telephony within a computer network environment, telephony features of software-based unified communications solutions are seldom used, which limits their effectiveness or requires another solution to be used jointly. This master’s thesis project aims to demonstrate that unified communications solutions based on Microsoft Lync Server 2013 can effectively address a wide variety of business scenarios, including a traditional telephony system replacement.  The first part of this master’s thesis introduces background knowledge about unified communications and associated technologies, as well as the different components of the selected unified communication solution. The case study presented in this thesis is the first large-scale Lync 2013 deployment with a complete telephony offering in France. The presentation follows the complete deployment process, starting from the analysis of the client’s needs to the solution design, construction, and validation. This project demonstrated the suitability of Lync 2013 as a telephony system replacement. However, the transition from a classic telephony solution to a unified communications solution can be a technical challenge. An essential step in making this transition successful was to take the users’ needs into account. It was also essential to accompany these users throughout the transition.