One of the increasingly demanded pieces of a unified communication system is instant messaging functionality. In the Windows world, perhaps the most well known corporate instant messaging server is Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS). OCS started with instant messaging as its foundation and is constantly adding PBX features, while other traditional PBX products start with phone features and then add instant messaging as a feature.
Note
As 3CX is a Windows product and Microsoft makes an instant message server, why not walk-through integrating 3CX and Microsoft OCS? As noted earlier in this book, 3CX has made a decision not to support this integration because OCS appears to be heading in the direction of direct competition with products such as 3CX. While Openfire is not officially supported either, it is not on 3CX's "we will not support" list and is considered a workaround until instant message capabilities find their way into 3CX.
At this point...