Office Communications Server 2007 comes to the UK

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[Image of a Shuttle Launch]Over the past few months,  I have been working with a number of people around the business on the Office Communications Server 2007 launch in the UK,  it's suddenly occurred to me that I should really mention something about it here :-)

Organising a launch is something that takes a lot more time than just picking a venue,  buffet menu,  speakers and sending out a few invitations.  One of the side affects of the amount of work it takes to organise something like this is the resulting overload of ones mailbox.  As you work with more and more external parties,  you find yourself emailing back and forth spreadsheets and presentations and after a few weeks you start to eat into your mailbox quota.  I experienced this with the Exchange/Vista/Office launch a year ago and I didn't want it to happen again.

It's for this reason that a few of us decided to see if we could run this event using Groove :-).  I am sure there is a better more succinct marketing description of what Groove enables you to do but I would summarise by saying:

  • It's allowed Microsoft and the other organisations to share files and information across networks without having to send emails with big attachments
  • Allowed me to communicate with people without having to guess or ask them for their MSN address
  • Provided everyone with a central store of information,  no more 'where is the attendee list' or 'should I be looking at version x or y?

I must say its had a positive effect on my mailbox as I am now a little over two weeks away from the launch and I still have room in my mailbox.  In fact,  its been so successful at saving us time and mailbox quota that we are now using it for a number of other events we have arranged :-).

With that in mind,  I wanted to bring two simple things to your attention?

  1. If you want to hear more about Office Communications Server 2007,  the associated Unified Communications products and how they can help you better communicate within your business,  why not get yourself an invite to the launch.  If you are a Business Decision Maker then I recommend signing up here,  if you consider yourself to be a IT Decision Maker then I recommend signing up here instead.
  2. Sign up for a trial of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 here and use it to work on a little project of your own.  You will be pleasantly pleased with the results I think.