snom 821 UC Edition (Lync) Firmware 8.8.1.11 “Apollo” Officially Released and Approved By Microsoft ~ SBAMakingSmall

snom has been working on their “Apollo” Lync UC Edition firmware and it is has been released out of Beta and approved by Microsoft.

New Features in the latest firmware 8.8.1.11:

Here are some more articles to bring you up to date on snom UC Edition latest features:

Why does snom add value to Lync Voice Deployment? See this set of videos!
My blog summarizing some new “Apollo” firmware features: in this blog article
snom Brings Presence to Physical DeskPhone Buttons!: Click Here for detailed explanation

Some of my testing notes for FW 8.8.1.11

on snom821 a mere 1.5-2 second delay, (compared to LPE 6sec?)
on snom370 a 3.5 second delay. This is almost unusable because its too long and there is no tone to let answering person know when they can talk.

Park context sensitive soft button is very handy (only on snom 821)
web UI (https) is now faster and reasonably responsive (on snom 821 at least)
- if snom 370 is too slow, just turn off https
Contact List retrieval is much faster than the Beta version
Safe transfer is now useable

Things that don’t work as expected/Bugs?

No way to Safe Transfer using a Contact Button (Using a Contact Assigned to a Key). (For example Transfer, Contact-AssignedTo-Button/BLF Button, Safe Transfer)
on snom 370 model, when a user tries to pickup a parked call by dialing #500 (for example) the # changes to a period randomly? (see: http://forum.snom.com/index.php?showtopic=10295)
~~On snom 821, the Button Labels/Descriptions disappear?~~ this works fine, just make sure you reset phone before upgrading firmware.
snom 821, Press a Button Assigned to a contact (that is only in a distro group), then decide not to dial and press X. Instead of going back to Home screen you are dropped into the Distribution List? No way to exit but lift handset and hangup again?

Things that need enhancement

Ability to change the music on hold from the Web GUI or provision MOH file from Lync Client or Lync Server
The Response Group answer is enough delay (for sure on 3xx devices) there should be some kind of indication to user when they talk. Lync Phone Edition beepbeeps till user can start talking.
Ability to change the myriad of phone settings (which its GREAT we have these settings, but a little bit of a management quandry if quantity of phones) from Lync Server Control Panel/Some way centrally would make the device settings much more manageable. (but frankly, LPE can’t do this either.)

SBAMakingSmall