The evolution of the Communication Engine

It was arguably the single most versatile, pervasive and effective business tool of the 20th century. For the last forty years or more, the corporate telephone system, locked away in a dedicated room, has been the principal medium of business communication, defining virtually every transaction, process and operation carried out.

But times have changed and, with the dawn of a new millennium, business practice and the methods by which society communicates have moved on. The rapid development of technology in corporate communications will dramatically change as users’ requirements for integrated communications become more demanding. Leading technology analysts have already forecast that it will not only be the TDM-based PBXs, but also hybrid solutions such as hardware-based IP PBXs that will be obsolete by the end of this decade.

This paper will discuss how these new trends will impact business communications and explain why leading companies looking for competitive advantage are now deploying a ‘people-centric’ centrally managed ‘Communication Engine’ architecture that delivers both premises-based and on-demand services to the desktop.