Local councils offered free UC trial

Local councils in New South Wales and Victoria are invited to participate in a free trial of Microsoft's Lync unified communications system with Sydney-based integrator Computer Systems Australia.

The NSW far-north coast is one participant

Tweed Shire Council on the NSW far-north coast is one participant, and according to information systems and projects supervisor, John Bruggy, the trial will help determine the business case for unified communications just in case to the existing hosted IP telephony service.

Troy Green, director of innovation and corporate services, at Tweed Council said the organisation has toyed with Microsoft's OCS in past, nevertheless Lync is then-generation research and he is keen to see if business efficiencies can be achieved with better presence features.

CSA's strategic business development manager for government, Sarah Cunningham, is managing the three-month trial which the company claims is the first large-scale trial of Microsoft Lync to be conducted within local government in Australia.

The communications platform

To demonstrate the communications platform, councils will be invited to participate in one of four webinars to be hosted by CSA and Microsoft while August.