Sametime and OCS Compared

Brent Kelly from Wainhouse Research has done a great job comparing and contrasting Lotus Sametime and Microsoft OCS 2007. The biggest differences? Orientation and support for telephony. I've flushed details on Sametime's Unified Telephony that he wasn't able to cover and I've summarized the slew of functional differences he highlights across his six-page story into a table.

His main conclusion is that the two platforms differ in their orientation. Microsoft focuses on the person while IBM focuses on the platform.

Streamlining the user experience through software is a key element of Microsoft's approach for unified communications, and the company has focused its efforts on developing a "person-centric" communications environment. This means there is a single user directory, a single login, a single SIP URI, a single inbox, and a single source for all presence information, regardless of which device a person may actually be using. Furthermore, the nature of the communications itself becomes streamlined via rich presence through integration with Exchange's calendaring and email, as well as through the use of "activity level" indicators from the computer or telephone (that indicate when the phone is in use or a person has been away from their computer), and through communications capabilities embedded in other Microsoft and third-party, line-of-business applications.

By contrast IBM's approach:

... IBM Lotus seems to be approaching UC from more of a systems and platform standpoint. IBM Lotus's philosophy is that organizations embrace openness and that they work in heterogeneous environments, preferring best-of-breed systems and capabilities from a number of different vendors. Thus, IBM Lotus' unified communications strategy is supported by two fundamental pillars:

Providing an open and extensible platform that integrates presence, IM, unified messaging, web, voice, video, and telephony across multi-vendor operating environments and LDAP directories.

Integrating these capabilities together and leveraging them within business processes to create competitive advantage and reduce business latency. Beginning with Lotus Sametime 7.5 and Lotus Notes 8.0 (IBM Lotus' UC and email products, respectively), both products have been built on the Eclipse open software development and runtime framework....Eclipse's open software strategy allows IBM Lotus customers to easily extend or embed unified communications capabilities within their line-of-business applications, over a number of different operating systems. It also allows them to employ third-party, value-add products as part of the solution. Thus, you could think of IBM Lotus' approach to unified communications as offering a platform that can run on Microsoft, IBM Lotus, Sun, Linux, and Apple operating systems, and that utilizes IBM Lotus' collaborative client/server application

Telephony capabilities are the other key difference between the platforms.

Microsoft has chosen to build significant call control and call routing and capabilities into Office Communications Server, to the extent that OCS supports dialing plans and even least-cost call routing. While OCS is designed to work in tandem with a PBX today, it will ultimately displace PBX and key systems "if it delivers on its promise, "as Johan Krebbers of Shell put it in his VoiceCon Orlando 2008 keynote. OCS will natively provide compatible phones and video devices with all of the call-control capabilities that most users rely on, such as call hold, transfer, and forward, independent of the enterprise PBX. Of course, OCS can be integrated with the PSTN through gateways, and with telephone PBX systems using either SIP or CSTA (Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications, a series of protocols developed jointly by Microsoft and the European Computer Manufacturer's Association.).

(Although OCS can integrate with a SIP PBX, the company says it will only work with SIP-based PBXs from announced partner companies. Also, OCS will not support SIP trunking offered by service providers in the release scheduled for summer 2007, but Microsoft reports that it is addressing the SIP trunking issue.)

IBM has taken a more neutral approach to telephony working with other vendors. The introduction of SameTime for Unified Telephony changes the equation somewhat as I've explained here.

So which is the better platform? Thankfully, Brent is too smart to get caught in those sorts of simplistic statements. Each platform has it's own strengths and beyond saying one is better suited for "Microsoft shops" and the other for "Notes shops". Organizations will need to test drive both to determine the one that's right for them.

It should be noted  OCS and Sametime aren't the only choices when it comes to Unified Communications. There are a number of other players  out there that I'll be touching on  in the days ahead as  I ready a report on this space. If  you've got your own favorites or insights into Sametime or OCS ping me at dave@stanalytics.com