Teleworking? Stay in Touch with Unified Communications and Instant Messaging Services

Working from home or any other location outside your usual office environment can be freeing. But being away from the rest of your team can also make you feel isolated and out-of-the-loop. CIT offers components of Unified Communications such as Instant Messaging (IM) Services, both enterprise and external, as a way to re-connect teleworkers to their co-workers through direct, live interaction online. IM is a near-instantaneous way to chat informally, via text, audio, or video, with one person or a group across geographical distances. With IM's many features, it's easy to stay in touch with the most important part of your work environment – the other people on your team.

Enterprise Instant Messaging with Office Communicator Service (OCS)

CIT offers NIH staff an easy and safe enterprise IM solution using MS Office Communicator (soon to be Lync). Communicator, also known as OCS, comes with a desktop tool and has a Web version that allows you to chat through your browser (http://webim.nih.gov).

At-a-glance benefits

• It's fast, secure, and convenient – no need to use email, just have a quick chat.
• It's compatible with your system – Communicator easily integrates with SharePoint 2007+ and Outlook 2007+, and has versions that can be used by Windows, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry.
• It can provide a real-time availability status ("presence") of other staff members – it automatically adjusts and presents user status and availability within Outlook, SharePoint, multiple mobile devices, and in many other programs, and also has options for setting levels of privacy.
• It offers one-on-one video and audio communications, and group chat - have team meetings online!
• It allows sharing of the desktop - IT staff can remotely support teleworkers with software problems.

Presence status in Communicator

When members of a work team all have Communicator installed and enabled, a little circle icon appears next to each person's name, not just within Communicator but also in SharePoint, Outlook, etc. This is the presence status icon and if it's green, that means the person is at their workstation, willing and able to communicate via chat. You can start a chat from any Office suite product that allows Communicator presence indication. Simply select the green circle icon, click the down arrow to open the drop-down menu and select "Reply with Instant Message." This opens a chat window where you can start typing to initiate the conversation.

From the presence status drop-down menu, you can also add this person to your Instant Message contacts, send them email, schedule appointments, and perform other collaborative actions.

If the presence status circle is orange, that means the person is in a meeting or otherwise busy. A half green/half yellow circle means the workstation is currently inactive but the person is probably nearby and available for chatting. A yellow presence status means the workstation has been idle for a bit and the user has probably stepped away from their desk for a moment. If the circle seems pale and faded, the user is not connected to the network. A red circle with a white bar in the middle is a Do Not Disturb sign that indicates the person is there but unwilling to communicate.

While Communicator determines presence indicators based on workstation usage and your Outlook calendar, you can also set your status manually via the drop-down menu of the presence status indicator in front of your name in the main Communicator window.

How to IM with Communicator

Start a one-to-one IM session:

• In the Communicator window, double-click on the contact you want to invite.
• Type your message in the text box at the bottom of the window, and press ENTER to send.

Start an IM conference with multiple contacts:

• In the Communicator window, hold the CTRL key, and then select the contacts to invite.
• Right-click on any of the selected contacts, and then choose "Send an Instant Message."
• Type your message and press ENTER to send.
• If you are already in a one-to-one chat, you can click the Invite button at the top of the Communicator window to invite more contacts.

Audio/Video chat in Communicator

To start a one-to-one audio/video chat:

• In the Contact List, right-click on the contact you want to call, and then click "Start a Video Call."

Multi-party audio/video conferencing and Web conferencing (with shared whiteboard and applications) is available with a higher level license. Please contact ISDP via the NIH IT Service Desk for more information.

Sharing your desktop in Communicator

In Communicator, you can show items on your desktop by sharing the view with another contact. You can also choose to give control to that user so that they can assist you with using or fixing applications on your desktop, adding quickly to a document, etc.

Sharing your desktop:

• In the Contact List, right-click a contact name, and then click Share, click Share Desktop.

Sharing control of your desktop:

• In the conversation window, click the arrow next to the Sharing button.
• Choose "Share Control with Participants."
• The other participant will see a Take Control button, which they can click to control the applications on your desktop.

How do I get Communicator?

To request a license (CAL) and installation of Communicator, please submit a service request to the NIH IT Service Desk (http://itservicedesk.nih.gov/support/). For information on higher level licensing, please contact the IT Service Desk and specify that you need to reach the ISDP program.

Instant Messaging outside of NIH

You can use Communicator to chat with contacts on the outside of NIH who use the following public IM providers:

• MSN/Windows Live Messenger
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
• Yahoo
• Google Talk

You can also use any of those IM services directly – CIT provides a security gateway, with antivirus protection, for all registered users. NIH policy requires that you register your screen name(s) to your NIH Domain Account. Simply log in to the IM Screen Name Registration website at https://www.mail.nih.gov/IMManager/imlogweb/common/IMEmployeeAction.asp?directaccess=1 using your NIH credentials (NIH\Username and password) and enter your screen names under their corresponding IM service.

If you need more technical information, please see the External Instant Messaging page.

Questions?

If you have any questions about CIT's Instant Messaging Service or Unified Communications, please ask the NIH IT Service Desk at 301-496-4357, 301-496-8294 (TTY), or 866-319-4357 (toll free), or online at http://itservicedesk.nih.gov/support/.

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