snom 821 Officially Listed As Compatible With Microsoft UC

I was just was notified that snom 821 and 300 are officially designated as compatible with Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2. The phone will also work with Lync 2010 as Lync is backward compatible with OCS devices.

While some vendors have taken the approach of resisting interoperability with Lync snom has entirely embraced supporting Lync, which is really an extension of snom's ongoing effort to be an open handset interoperable with almost every communication solution out there.

snom is among a very small handful of vendors who have Microsoft approved devices for Lync. And in that small group snom has taken a different approach than both Polycom and Aastra: They have written a Lync compatible firmware from the ground up instead of using the "Lync Phone Edition" firmware. This makes some very interesting features and device options possible:

• IPv6 enabled now
• SIP and Lync/OCS Registrations possible at the same time
• Use snom as SIP phone now and have Lync option available in the future
• snom has option to add innovations / differentiation not in the "Lync Phone Edition" firmware.
• Bridge PBX & Lync: Ability to change Lync Presence (Office365?) based on PBX SIP Calls
• Very low cost and non-traditional end point devices are possible (Example: snom PA1, snom m9 Dect)

Some of the benefits of going the Lync Phone Edition firmware route:

• RTAudio - very resiliant and wideband audio codec (great calls even on datacard reported)
• Very easy/integrated provisioning
• Outlook Integration
• USB connection to PC can make very unified experience

One of the challenges with snom handsets in the past has been provisioning but a free provisioning tool has been released to ease this issue. (If you have experience mass implementing the snom OCS edition I would love to hear your experience below.) Others mention that the road to Lync compatibility has been a journey. One of the continuing challenges with snom in an OCS/Lync environment is around high availability.

I am hearing the snom's innovation around Lync will continue in full force. What will we see next? My advice is to keep your eye on snom related to Lync.

Visit the Official Lync IP Deskphones page:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg278172

** Because of twitter title I want to note that snom 300 and 821 is not Lync 2010 certified. As the Microsoft site notes it is OCS 2007 R2 compatible, and because of this it works with Lync **