LCS 2005: Live Meeting is not Live Communications Server 2005

I received a couple questions originating from my earlier post… so to clarify, the Live Meeting Service, and Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS 2005) products are not the same thing. Specifically, LCS 2005 is not a back-office alternative to the hosted Live Meeting Service.

Live Meeting is a hosted service, provided by Microsoft, which provides easy-to-use conferencing and collaboration tools. Despite some confusion to the contrary, LCS 2005 is not a back-office version of Live Meeting that you can install on a server. LCS 2005 is an enterprise instant messaging solution, which integrates with Office Communicator and/or Windows Messenger 5.1 products. While LCS 2005 does have collaboration tools, and remote-desktop/remote-assistance style desktop sharing, it’s more akin to Netmeeting in terms of features and limitations, than Live Meeting.

Is LCS 2005 useful? You bet – but as an IM platform.

For conferencing, especially conferencing involving multiple people, use Live Meeting.

Live Meeting: Certified Partner discounts on the Live Meeting service

Have you checked out Microsoft’s Live Meeting Service? If you’ve ever worked with PSS, attended any Microsoft web casts, or pretty much been involved in and around the IT field over the past few years, you’re probably somewhat familiar with Live Meeting.

Live Meeting is Microsoft’s hosted service that’s similar to the Webex hosted remote-desktop-like tool. It’s useful for things like remote support when you’ve got firewall’s that you can’t configure between you and your target, or things like conference calls, sales calls, etc… it’s a good tool – think Netmeeting with anyone minus the frustration.

Now, if you’ve been to the site, you’ll notice that there’s a 14-day free demo … with no strings attached, just register and go. The downside, is that its $375 per month for the 5-seat license.

Certified Partners take note, you get a substantial pricing break… at $195 per month with a 1-year commitment. I couldn’t find the partner discount anywhere on the site, but if you give them a call and provide your partner number they’ll give you the lower rate.