Presence – Presence is the ability of a person or device to communicate with others and to display levels of availability. At its simplest, an Instant Messaging contact list tells one user whether another user is available to chat. However, extending the granularity of presence information, and extending the availability of that information can radically enhance business productivity.

'Presence Aware' business applications are becoming increasingly popular. Such applications utilise presence information for automated real time transaction routing, and require reliable, real-time presence data. This is why Geomant developed its suite of Presence applications.

Geomant's Presence Suite is tightly integrated with Microsoft's Unified Communications platform, and extends its presence capability further. Presence indicators can be more precise, and can be automatically derived through a variety of sources. Presence information is then made available to business applications through open interfaces, and to users through an enhanced user-interface.

The benefits go further - inbound calls can be routed through automated presence based call routing. And a database of historic presence information is maintained for analysis and presence forecasting. With Geomant's Mobile Presence solution, presence information can be extended to include users' geographic location, and to provide new ways of real-time communication with a mobile workforce

Component Products

Presence Repository & Reporting: Stores all users' historic presence information in a database, for real-time and historic analysis and reporting. Includes a portfolio of standard reports.

Presence Viewer: an enhanced Microsoft Office Communicator client displaying presence information and more.

Presence Based Intelligent Routing: Allows automated routing of inbound calls, based on a combination of factors, including caller details and recipient's presence status.

Presence Aggregation: Aggregates information regarding an individual's presence from multiple sources including Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, telephone systems and integrated applications. Provides a gateway for access to this information, accessible by other users (through Presence Viewer) and by business applications.

Mobile Presence: Extends the Presence suite to mobile devices. Collects users' geographic location, and provides two-way communication with mobile workers.

Presence Repository & Reporting

Presence Repository & Reporting: This component is at the core of Geomant's Presence suite. It provides the presence database used for all other components. Whenever an individual's presence state changes, an event is written to the database. This allows subsequent analysis and reporting.

A number of standard management reports are included. Secure access to the database allows custom reports and queries to be created as required. Standard reports include work-time reports for both individual and team. Breakdowns are available by work state; i.e. offline, available, away etc

Presence Viewer

Presence Viewer is the Presence Suite's user interface. Implemented within the Microsoft Office Communicator client or as a pop-up window it significantly enhances real-time and historic information available to the users.

Enhanced user information is available for all contacts, detailing their current presence information and historic analysis. The viewer will also provide a forecast of availability, based on information in the presence repository, to allow meetings and calls to be scheduled at the optimum time.

Geomant can also create bespoke interfaces, also delivered through Microsoft Office Communicator to meet specific business requirements

Presence Based Intelligent Routing

Geomant's Presence Based Intelligent Routing solution allows customised call routing, based on a combination of factors, including caller details and recipient's presence status.This facility significantly extends the Call-Forwarding features of Microsoft Office Communicator.

Routing rules can be defined for each individual in the organisation. In real-time, inbound calls, internal or external, will be routed based on the recipient's presence status and preference. For example, when the user is off-line, personal calls may be routed to a mobile device, customer calls may be routed to a colleague, and other calls to voicemail. Routing can also take account of calendar entries and external systems through integration with Geomant's Presence Aggregation solution

Presence Aggregation

Geomant's Presence Aggregation solution significantly extends the accuracy of a user's presence status by collecting data from multiple sources. That data is then made available to other users (through Presence Viewer) and by business applications – through a real-time XML interface.

Presence Aggregation can be used to set a users' presence status based on collating information from Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, phone systems and other integrated applications.

The standard presence status options (online, offline, away etc.) can be extended to allow a greater level of granularity of information. The addition of Mobile Presence allows presence states to be automatically updated for mobile workers.

Benefits of Presence Aggregation:

• Automated presence status – based on multiple sources, leads to greater accuracy and reliability
• Provides a single, definitive presence status for each individual, alleviating the need to reference multiple systems to determine availability.
• Designed for simple integration – allowing additional sources of information to be added.
• Facilitates collaboration between workers in multiple locations and mobile workers.
• Allows business and telephone systems to access real-time presence information, allowing organisations to optimise work allocation and workflow decisions.

Presence Aggregation Components:

• Presence Aggregator: monitors presence through real-time interface with presence sources: Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, phone systems and other integrated applications. Maintains current and historic Presence states in Presence Repository.
• Presence Publisher: provides real-time, secure access to current and historic Presence information held in Presence Repository to users (via Presence Viewer) and to external systems through an open interface

Mobile Presence Geomant's Mobile Presence solution extends the capabilities of the Geomant Presence Suite to mobile users. A small application on the users' mobile phone monitors the user's location and mobile phone activity, and communicates to the central server to facilitate automated presence status setting. Presence status can be further enhanced by geographic location and mobile availability. In addition, the phone application enables enhanced two-way communication with mobile users, using a combination of Instant Messaging and SMS.