Location-Based Normalization Rules

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Location-based normalization rules are available for Enterprise Voice and PBX Coexistence topologies.

Office Communicator 2007 uses location-based normalization rules for Enterprise Voice, PBX, and Office Communications Server co-existence topologies, instead of the Address Book Service (ABS) normalization rules. ABS normalization rules still apply to RCC users. With previous versions of Communicator, normalized phone numbers were often routed to the wrong destination. Now normalization rules can be applied to calls based on the location of the user. For example:

• An organization with a location in the United States has a 10 digit rule that appends +1 to the beginning of the phone number when a user in a U.S. location dials the number. The same organization's Switzerland branch has a rule that appends +44 to the beginning of a 10 digit number for users in the same pool. This provides users in U.S. and Switzerland with a region-specific dialing experience that allows them to reach the right destination when a 10 digit number is dialed in these locales.

Office Communicator applies location-specific dialing rules to achieve this. The admin has to configure appropriate rules per location and assign appropriate locations to users. During the user sign-in process, Communicator retrieves the user's location from the Group Policy Objects or in-band provisioning data. Using the location that is specified, Communicator makes a request to the server to fetch the normalization rules that are specific to the location. These are the same rules that are available to you in the RouteHelper tool where you can verify the result of applying the phone rules to a number.