Can IM and presence be used with physical phones?

[matthew.sreeves]

We need to IM and presence enable Finesse, by creating appropriate gadgets. Some users will use Finesse in conjunction with the Jabber softphone, whereas others will use it with a physical IP phone.

Is it possible for the physical phone users to have IM and presence functionality? If so, how does this work? Do they need a Jabber ID created for them, so that they can "log in"? Does the CUP server detect when the physical phone is busy in a conversation, etc?

Thanks

[matthew.sreeves]

Does anyone have the answer to this?

I think the answer is probably Yes, but just need to be sure, and to understand how it works.

Thanks.

[npetrele]

You need a more definitive answer than I can give, but my guess is "no".  IM and Presence works by sending XML stanzas according to the XMPP protocol, and as far as I know, physical phones aren't programmed to do that.  You could possibly program a more advanced phone (like one based on Android) to be XMPP-enabled.  You could also write an application that monitors the phones and acts like a Jabber middle-man, reporting on the presence of the phones.  But, out of the box, I'm guessing "no". 

[matthew.sreeves]

Thanks for the reply. That could well be a problem then :-)

Do you know if there's a way I could find out? Who would be able to give me a definitive answer?

If we're going to need to develop extra middleware, we'll need to factor this in.

Thanks

[npetrele]

Looks like you're in luck!  Thanks to David Staudt for answering below. 

[dstaudt · Accepted solution]

The Cisco IM & Presence server (CUP) can be configured to monitor phone status (including all types of devices, i.e. desk phones) and use this in calculating user presence.  (CUP uses SIP SIMPLE subscription to UCM over a SIP trunk to get these notifications, which can then be collected from CUP by XMPP aware apps.)

This doc/link may be a place to start: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/im_presence/configAdminGuide/10_5_1/CUP0_BK_CE43108E_00_config-admin-guide-imp-105/CUP0_BK_CE43108E_00_config-admin-guide-imp-105_chapter_0111.html#d55275e741a1635

[matthew.sreeves]

That's great news! Thanks very much for confirming.