Instant Messaging / Presence Talk

I wanted to comment on this yesterday, but was up to my eyeballs setting up an Exchange cluster.
I think that first we need to lay out some basics as to what we are trying to provide.
UC (Unified Communications) is a buzzword umbrella that seems to want to incorperate everything including the kitchen sink. We need to define some basic goals here.

1. Presence. What is presence? At the most basic level it would be the ability to see when a phone is online. More advanced is the ability to see if a phone is in use, what type of use, and optionally, gather info such as calling/called number, length of call, etc.
That being said, my real preference would be to be able to display this stuff directly on my phone, but due to multiple manufactures, varying displays, etc I do not think this is really possible. While we can use things like BLF's, that is not enough.

2. IM. This one is pretty straight forward, We have all uesd various IM programs.

So, what do we really want to achieve? Obviously, with the greatly varying types of phones out there, hard phones, softphones, different display capibilities, etc., the only answer I can see is a standalone application.
HUD offers alot, but has serious drawbacks.
A. It is all or nothing. Our app needs the ability for the system admin to choose who can see what. The mail clerk does not need to be able to monitor the CEO's phone calls. Also, I do not want to see a display with 100+ phones on it..... Just my people, and key department folks please. Let me select which extensions I want to see.
B. HUD is slow, a memory hog, and takes FOREVER to start up.
C. HUD does not work reliably. It shows phones online that are not, does not always show what is in use (or not in use).
D. HUD takes up too much real estate. We need a more compact display mode. I run 2 monitors and I STILL do not have room to keep it displayed, especially on a large phone system.

Here is a wish list:
Quick response to changing states.

Selectable user abilities like barge-in, silent monitor, etc.

IM's that pop up if the app is minimized.

IM forwarding to SMS (my cell) if I am away from my desk.

The ability to disable IM on a user by user or system wide basis. Some CEO's see IM as a time wasting gossip/chit-chat channel.

Integrated faxing. Drag a document to the app and have it convert and fax on the fly.

A "print to fax" printer for windows.

Support for auto answer and auto dial. If my phone rings, the app shows the CID and I get to click answer, and have my phone go off hook in speaker phone mode or headset mode.
If I dial from the app, the same. Ring my phone, then ring the destination is horrid.

Drag and drop for transfer.

Send to voicemail button for incomming calls. Transfer(reroute) without answering would be nice too.

Call pickup

A priority list for calls to get thru even if DND is on.

The ability to transfer a call directly to anothers voice mail (Receptionist say Mister X is out, would you like his voice mail?)

Transfer to Ring Groups and queue's

Transfer to external numbers "Hey, if Joe calls, transfer him to my cell phone"

Real TAPI support. Lots of apps out there that a customised to specific needs, that work via TAPI.

More later :)

Greg Keys