About

The Site

Starting with articles simply documenting a few tips and tricks I learned while deploying Office Communications Server as a consultant many years, then maturing into deeper discussions of complex concepts in Lync this site is a collection of articles all written entirely by me in whatever spare time I can find these days. As my day job focuses on audio and video capabilities of Microsoft’s conferencing platforms across a vast array of devices then the majority of recent articles on this site are focused on that subject matter.

Another helpful tip is you can view combinations of tags by appending +tagname to the end of the URL. For example, to view articles tagged with both ‘Deployment’ and ‘Edge’ use this URL format: http://blog.schertz.name/tag/deployment+edge

The Author

I’m currently the Principal Microsoft Solutions Architect for global sales architecture at Poly, a worldwide leader in conferencing solutions born from the merging of Polycom and Plantronics.  With over two decades of experience in the IT field I’ve spent nearly half that time focusing on video and audio conferencing solutions on the technical sales side built from an enterprise consulting background with Microsoft directory, messaging, and communication platforms.  Prior to that I held multiple system administration positions for school districts, software developers, consumer product manufacturers and data/voice service providers.

As a continual Microsoft MVP awardee since 2008 contributions include technical community forum participation and moderation, publishing technical blog articles and white papers, as well as presenting on UC topics at events from regional user group meetings to global industry conferences.  Also serve on the board of directors for the national non-profit Teams Users Group (formerly Lync UG, Skype UG) and originally established the Chicago area user group.

I’ve recently relocated to Asheville, North Carolina after growing up and living throughout the Chicago-land area.

Disclaimer
The content posted on this blog is represented as accurate to the best of my abilities and although many best practices may be quoted individual vendors can alter their guidelines without notice. Ultimately the technical accuracy is offered with no warranty. Any and all statements and opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent that of any organization I may be employed by or any organization tied to the products or solutions discussed.

For any questions related to this site feel free to tag or message me on Twitter at @jdscher.