QuickTip - Securing Collaboration with Office Communication Server 2007

Organizations, small and large, have been using various means to collaborate from Email to SharePoint and internet instant messaging (IM) services to web conferencing. However, with third-party IM services running in an organization, the lines between corporate and personal messaging can be blurred. The threat of confidential information being leaked and/or a new means by which viruses can be transferred into an organization can haunt both corporate management and the IT security team.

One solution is to ban all instant messaging services. This eliminates the security threat, but at the cost of efficiency through corporate collaboration. Another solution is to implement Office Communication Server 2007. Office Communication Server 2007 provides the IT staff the control of messaging to help eliminate the security risk often associated with third-party messaging software. Office Communication Server also brings the ability to control and archive messaging. This feature may require Human Resources to make a few modifications to the company's employee handbook, but in return organizations can now link remote teams from anywhere in the world with an internet connection to collaborate on their projects.

With Office Communication Server organizations collaborate (initiate "conversations") using Microsoft Office Communicator, and because it interoperates with your Exchange server individuals can be easily added from the corporate address book to their list of messaging contacts. Another benefit of integration with Exchange is the ability to see a person's availability according to their Outlook calendar allowing users to know if an individual is available to collaborate now. These features are not limited to Communicator, once implemented and integrated into Office and SharePoint, users can see if those who are assigned to a document or project are available to collaborate and initiate a Communicator "conversation" with them from within the file or from SharePoint.