I need to send out Instant Messages to a Lync/OCS server from Linux programmatically as an alerting mechanism.
I've looked into using python dbus and pidgin-sipe with finch or pidgin, but they aren't really good for sending one-off instant messages  (finch and pidgin need to be running all the time).
Ideally, I'd have a python script or java class that could spit out Instant Messages to users when needed.
Well, if you are on Lync 2013, you can have a look at UCWA ucwa.lync.com. It's a web service that allows to log in to Lync and use IM, presence, etc.
You can use then any language you want. I played with it using Node on Mac OS X, for example.
Sending out IMs to Lync/OCS programmatically