Anyone worked or dealt with Lync? We are a heavily cisco invested organization with one person in IT who is now pushing to go to Lync. I can't find much info on lync and don't see the advantage of now switching over to a whole new platform
All help is appreciated.

Are you using Jabber? That is what we run here, at first I did not really like it, but after some training I don't mind using it.

Are you referring to the Microsoft Lync?

If so, not sure how that is going to replace your Cisco stuff

If you are in the position to do this, then have that person prepare a paper on the benefits of moving over to Lync.

The paper should include;

1. Cost analysis of the Cisco platform to the Lync platform.
2. Functions of the Cisco to Lync.
3. Maintenance costs of the two platforms
4. Training costs to bring staff up on Lync platform
5. Migration costs of moving from Cisco Platform to the Lync Platform.

There are several other points that should be covered in the paper, but I can't think of them right now.

We use Lync heavily, for presence and video conferencing. It's a game changer, especially when you already own the product via your Enterprise license.

Will it ever replace a real phone system? Microsoft might think so, but I don't.

DND ON,

I agree. The UC is awesome but, it is a horrible phone system. I just started at a new company that uses Lync and it has been a huge headache. Every aspect of administration is just horrible and "Microsofty".

We currently have a large Cisco Enterprise cluster that we built a large Microsoft Lync cluster on top of. We use Lync now to deploy end users with phone capabilities and use cisco for all analog/routing.

Works pretty slick.

what phones are on the desktops and what do they register to?

We elected to go with Lync phones so users had a single experience. We use the VVX300/VVX400's and usually only reserve them for an absolute need case. (Speakerphone in office, Plant Director, etc) They are cheaper than Cisco phones even on the used market, but take a bit to get the provisioning set up correctly.

We try to do 90/10 % Headset users to hardphone users for cost savings.