As UCMA developer, Are you worried about the agressive campaign to move everything to the SFB cloud?

[JONATHAN GLEN]

I am really worried about the way that MS is transforming the idea to have SFB cloud/online is the only possible way to use SFB. With this change, all the advanced solutions developed in UCMA for contact centers , like grab information via macros from internal CRM, web page, or internal database, and then give the information in a timely way via TTS and vice versa, And also, interact with information from the local server or network, or handle advanced voice routes/features, like whisper, B2B calls for internal contact center operations.

Is Microsoft forcing the killing of the best enterprise tool of the contact/call center industry?? really?? UCMA is the pillar of so many companies around the world that develop advanced CC solutions. Anyone knows what is going to happen next ?.
Regards

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jonathan,

As a Skype for Business developer I get where you are coming from, but there's a few things I can say which hopefully will make you less worried :)

Firstly, all the current UCMA stuff isn't going anywhere and continues to be supported for on-premise. However, you are right - Microsoft are not going to make UCMA for the cloud.

What they are doing, however, is building out a new set of tools, targeted specifically for the more loosely-connected world of the cloud. These are HTTP RESTful based APIs - which makes them a much better fit for the cloud (as well as being ideal for mobile users, people in and out of connectivity etc etc).

Announced at Ignite this year, the Trusted Application API (this isn't the best name but it's also not the final name) is your answer for server-side functionality in the cloud. It's built on the same UCWA platform that powers the Skype Web SDK and Mobile App SDK.

To be clear - you are never going to be able to have the same control over a SfB online tenent that you do over a on-prem installation. SfB Online is a service - it's not your own personal implementation to change at will. But, Microsoft recognise that there are lots and lots of differwent use cases such as those you mention (bots, ethical walls, call recording, compliance etc etc) that need a server-side API. It's really encouraging actually to see that the new Auto-Attendant and Call Queues stuff that is coming on SfB Online is written in this new Application API. So, developers WILL get this level of functionality in their applications. AND... this new API is planned to come BACK to on-premise installations as well! :)

The Trusted Application API isn't generally available at the moment, but look out for communications as it moves into a Public Preview phase.

I've attached two slides you might find useful: one shows the new Trusted Application API and how it sits alongside the other APIs, and the other one shows the support matrix for the different APIs and SDKs.

Hope this helps,

-tom

Tom Morgan - Microsoft MVP
thoughtstuff.co.uk - @tomorgan

[#3]

Tom, I want to thank you so much for taking time to answer my question. Now, I am less intrigued for the next future of UCMA Since you are an important voice in this SFB world. Really hope that Microsoft does not change its mind about this subject. Regards.

[#4]

I really think that MS should take these mayor changes carefully, since they have done changes like this in the past, when they deprecated IVR and speech tools in Lync 2010, and again in 2013 they removed UCMA Workflow. Now they are planning to move everything to SFB online, and I am very sure that in this new change/release, they will be leaving in the past so many advanced features that UCMA community is using for Call Center industry. Right now there are several big call centers around the world that depends on UCMA development. They are using SFB on premise in replacement of traditional AVAYA, Cisco UM, and Lucent ACD/PBX due to the promise that MS did when launched Lync server 2010 as replacement of PBX legacy infrastructure for CC solutions. These companies will not take Microsoft serious if they keep taking out core features or deprecating enterprise products so fast.

[#5]

On a somewhat related note - Some of us can't migrate to the cloud due to on prem and security constraints. I wish there was full feature parity between online and on-prem.