Latest instant messaging and conferencing tool available as part of Intermedia’s Office in the Cloud
2011-09-19
Intermedia, a global leader in cloud services and the largest Microsoft Exchange hosting provider, today announced it launched Microsoft Lync – the latest instant messaging and conferencing service. Lync is available from Intermedia as a standalone product or, for the best value, as part of Intermedia’s Office in the Cloud™ suite of plans. Lync is also available for Mac and for resale by Intermedia’s partners.
“Lync is a powerful instant messaging and conferencing tool,” says Michael D. Osterman, President Osterman Research, Inc. “Realizing its full potential takes the right set of supporting communication, collaboration and content management capabilities – along with 24x7 support and tight security. A simple, cost-effective way for small and mid-size businesses to achieve this mix is Intermedia’s Office in the Cloud suite. It combines popular Microsoft services such as Exchange and Lync with Intermedia’s premium support and security, as well as tools for backup, mobility and other options.”
As the largest provider of cloud-based Exchange, Intermedia has a history of bringing innovations, such as Exchange 2010 and Lync, to market ahead of the competition. Customers manage Lync and their other Intermedia cloud services through Intermedia’s proprietary HostPilot® Control Panel. The control panel’s intuitive features enable technical administration to be delegated to non-technical staff.
Lync is the next generation cloud-based instant messaging, conferencing and collaboration service delivered by Intermedia and integrates advanced web conference tools. Users manage instant messaging, voice chat, video chat, meetings and shared whiteboard sessions right from their PC. Lync is particularly useful for organizations with more than one office or remote employees. Complete with security and corporate directory integration, Lync is the most advanced business-grade unified communications product. Its features include:
- Instant Messaging. Securely chat with co-workers in any office. Employees can chat using the Lync PC and Mac client, Outlook or directly in Outlook Web App.
- Rich Presence Capabilities. Lync provides an immediate, visual indicator of colleagues’ ability to chat. A wide range of indicators like available, away, busy and do not disturb are used to help manage reachability. Since Lync integrates with Exchange, presence indicators are automatically updated depending on users’ calendars and activities.
- Group Chat. Share information more efficiently with topic-based, multi-party discussions through Lync.
- File Transfer. Quickly message files from one user to another.
- Desktop Sharing. Chat partners can see any document, application or web browser so that ideas are communicated faster and work is completed more efficiently.
- Voice and Video Chat. Seamlessly transition to video with a single click, instantly improving collaboration with your chat partners.
- Join or Schedule Online Meetings. Integration with Exchange allows for single-click scheduling directly from Outlook with predefined conferencing properties that meet the needs of a majority of users without any modifications. Participants can join meetings directly from Outlook or from their Lync PC client with integrated voice and video.
- Desktop and Application Sharing. Presenters can broadcast visuals, applications, web pages, documents, software or any part of a desktop to conference participants.
- Virtual Whiteboard. Online meetings become more effective with the use of a virtual whiteboard, allowing presenters to draw, add text and highlight information with powerful and flexible annotation tools.
- Integrated in Outlook Web Access 2010. For accounts on hosted Exchange 2010, Lync is built right in to Outlook Web Access.
- Conversation History. Lync lets users save and search IM conversations inside Outlook, just like their email.
For more information, please call 1-800-379-7729.