For our customers and partners, more information about the content of this update can be found in the release notes.

Real-time intelligence
The presence control allows you to make intelligent decisions about whom to communicate with and about which medium is best, because it offers you real-time information about the availability of your colleagues.

So getting back to that document or request that needs quick approval. When your document is “pending” you can now see which of the approvers is available to act. A green presence “bubble” next to the name means the resource is available. By hovering over the bubble you’ll see some information about the person, like their availability status, job title, e-mail address and scheduling information. When you click on the bubble, you can select the means by which you want to communicate and even initiate the communication from there. If you want to send an e-mail, just click on the icon and an e-mail message will be created.

You’ll benefit in the same way when you want to call an emergency meeting with your project team. Look up your project team members and see who’s available, click on their bubble, and invite them immediately using the means most appropriate for their current presence status.

How does the system know?

The presence information you see in Exact Synergy Enterprise represents a combination of a user’s availability and his/her willingness to communicate. Availability is aggregated on the Office Communication Server. To represent the user’s overall presence state, the system uses the state manually set by the user (do not disturb, away, etc.), the machine’s state [briefly inactive (temporarily not typing) or away for longer (like a lunch break)], the calendar’s state (based on the user’s Microsoft Exchange calendar) and the phone state (busy or not busy).  

It’s very important to realize that in order for the presence functionality to work for you, a few basic requirements have to be met.

• Have Microsoft Office installed
• Have Microsoft Office Communicator installed and RUNNING!
• Include your Exact Synergy Enterprise website among your list of trusted sites within your Internet Explorer settings

Finally: start to enjoy the benefits of presence functionality!