This group held a conference call to discuss the announcements surrounding Response Point and determine how we could help Microsoft, the Partner Community and the Customer community in support of the product. The consensus was that while concerned on the lack of detailed information about the product roadmap, we partners would and should continue to support, sell and market the product and we would continue express our ongoing concern and support to Microsoft.

John Frederiksen, the GM of Response Point, had offered to join the call but had a conflict. We were however joined briefly by X.D. Huang, the original GM of Response Point and John’s direct manager. X.D. assured us that:

1) Microsoft will continue to support partners and customers running all current 1.x versions of Response Point;
2) Microsoft is NOT shutting down Response Point, and does have non-mgt personnel assigned to the product;
3) Microsoft is currently discussing what to do as far as Release 2 of Response Point
4) Microsoft plans to release more information about the future direction of Response Point soon, perhaps in one or two weeks
5) The best way we as partners can help the Response Point team is to continue to SELL the product.

The VAR Council was encouraged by the call; and while some of us have reservations, we as a group will continue to market and sell Response Point and we encourage and urge others to do so as well. We look forward to the upcoming Microsoft announcement on the direction for Release 2 of Response Point.

• Response Point SP2 Fact Sheet
• Is Response Point SP2 right for your business?
• Response Point SP2 Features and Benefits Overview

• Network Requirements for Response Point SP2
• Network Connection Considerations for Response Point SP2

• Maintaining Response Point SP2
• Configuring Customizable URLs in Incoming Call Notification Windows
• Deploying and Supporting Response Point SP2 with Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2

• Troubleshooting Guide for Response Point SP2

Thanks go to ipPhoneShack.com for hosting these documents.

They have also released a fact sheet detailing the features of SP2 – you can download it from here.

We’ve had a secret version of SP2 for some time – it appears to be a stable release with some useful new features.  Keep checking back as we go more in-depth with SP2.

This exam validates the skills needed to successfully deploy Microsoft Response Point products and services.  

  Audience Profile

Candidates for this exam are Microsoft Value Added Resellers and Partners who sell and deploy Microsoft Response Point products and services.

The successful candidate will be familiar with Response Point core system features and functionality that are independent of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) implementation.

In addition, the successful candidate must be familiar with general telecommunications industry terms that are used in pre-sales conversations with customers as well as Response Point integrated solutions with Microsoft Office and supported Microsoft operating systems. 

The successful candidate will also have basic network skills such as working with DHCP and TCP/IP.

When you pass Exam 74-675: Microsoft Response Point, Configuring, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s):

Microsoft Achievement
Exam 74-675: Microsoft Response Point, Configuring: counts as credit toward the following certification(s):  

Note This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format.

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Richard Spraque from the MS Response Point team blogged:

At last!  We have a new web site: the new and improved  http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint is open to the world.

Since the vast majority of customers see Response Point for the first time on our web site, our main goal of course is to make the best possible impression. Our original  site was designed like a brochure for potential customers, as simple and uncluttered as possible, because we wanted to convey the simplicity of Response Point.  We used a light-on-black text layout to make the site stand out and feel more graphical than your typical boring phone site. 

Now, after months of studying our web traffic, conducting usability studies on actual users, and receiving feedback from many of you, we are proud to roll out a new site that we hope meets an additional goal: we want it to be easier to find what you’re looking for about Response Point.  We’ve relabeled the tabs, simplified the organization, and moved to a black-on-light design that’s easier on your eyes when you read longer articles.  We also wanted to make it easier for different types of visitors to find what they need:  potential customers (of course), but also existing customers (who may have technical or other questions), and partners (both old and new).

We hope you like the new design, but please note that we’re never finished.  We will continue to add new content and extend the site to meet your needs.  As always, we rely on your feedback, so don’t hesitate to contact us with your thoughts and suggestions.

 Congratulations to Microsoft – the new site looks great!

We also checked this approach with the tech dudes on the Microsoft Response Point team.  They were comfortable with this approach, so I’d be comfortable recommending this to other customers in the future.

Bear in mind that any phone-specific customization will not be carried over – it’s just the Response Point config.

http://www.dlinktv.com/?vid=117

Enjoy!
John

John

Scenario

Syspine Digital Operator Panel (DOS-A50) with 4/8-port FXO and Syspine IP Phone 310. Targeted Extension 101.

Asterisk Server with Polycom phones, extension 255 working on Polycom SoundPoint IP 501.

First, lets check the IP of syspine extension 101 by dialing #*47# gives 192.168.1.117 (example only)

Polycom 501 ext 255 on Static IP: 192.168.2.205 (you can find it out from MENU-2-2-1)

Dialing from Syspine IP310 to Polycom:

Dial: *205#
This actually dials 192.168.1.205 which is Polycom with Ext 255 registered to Asterisk.

Dialling from polycom to ip310:

Instead of trying to dial from the phone, I configured an extension on Asterisk with number 101 (same as syspine). You just need to mention it has the same ip as IP310 i.e, 192.168.1.117 in this case. Now, from polycom I dial 101 and rings the syspine ext 101.

Note on DHCP/Static IP

Syspine base unit and the IP-310 phones have to be on DHCP to work properly. Most of us on the other hand, want to use static IPs. The only solution I see to it is having a better DHCP server that can assign IPs based on the MAC address. This way your phone always gets the same IP, making it kind of static.

Additionally:

1 – SIP Trunks (Pre-SP1): you can use external ATAs to use your sip trunks and hook them up to the Syspine ATA (PSTN ports). Until of course you can get SP1.

2 – SP1 allows you one SIP Trunk. Again, if you need more than 1, you need the FXS ATAs. Or you can find a provider with multiple channels on one single SIP trunk. The one I have right now gives me 10 channels. Normally its 2 channels per connection. (Not sure if syspine can use multiple channels).

3 – If you only want to see how syspine works, you need to either hook up your office lines to it, or find another way around. Using one of your office lines for testing syspine may not be a good idea as you don’t want to tell your existing customers that your main line id being used for testing syspine for a few days. So, once again, I create Asterisk SIP extensions and configure them on external ATAs. Take this phone lines and hook them up into syspine as PSTN lines. Its just that they aren’t the actual PSTN lines, but extensions of another ip pbx. But this makes my life easy.

4 – MSRP has the sip trunk limitation, I like to have more than one just to keep testing different things. So… I use asterisk with ATAs or with MSRP SP1 and dial as many trunks as possible.

The Syspine product comes in two versions, one which supports 4 lines and another which supports 8.  As this is not a modular platform there currently is no way to either upgrade the 4-port unit to 8 ports, no less expand above 8 ports.  We have heard from CMPTel (the primary Syspine distributor in the U.S.) that they do intend to have an ability to expand later this year (Q4, 2008) using some sort of gateway adapter which presumably would sit next to the main base station.

D-Link’s VoiceCenter product is a bit different in that the base station does not directly support any  phone lines; it exclusively uses an external gateway adapter called the DVG-3104MS.  This gateway supports 4 phone lines, and then uses the data network (there is an ethernet port on the gateway) to move the calls on towards the base station using the SIP network protocol.  Up to 13 of these gateways can be conected to a single base station providing access to 50 lines connecting the Response Point system to the public telephone system.

Be sure to understand that this is the number of phone lines coming from your telephone company.  Both of these Microsoft Response Point base stations can support up to 50 extensions/handsets attached to them regardless of the number of “outside lines” available.  It’s just that not all of the handsets can handle an outside call at the same time, the number of simultanious call being limited by the number of outside lines available. 

As the Syspine system is a fixed configuration, the confusion has mostly been around the DLink VoiceCenter and its external gateways.  To clear the matter up we got in touch with one of our insiders on the DLink VoiceCenter product team.  (It’s certainly beneficial to being just across town from their corporate headquarters!)  Anyways, he made it clear that yes the VoiceCenter will currently support up to 50 analog lines using 13 gateways.  He also hinted that when Service Pack 1 comes out this summer it will support a single SIP trunk to an internet telephone service provider. 

John