Enterprises Are At Communications Crossroads

A new generation of digital communications and collaboration solutions that take advantage of voice over IP (VOIP), video over IP and presence is eliminating the boundaries between people and the communications devices they use every day. At work, these unified communications solutions are streamlining

Microsoft Corp. bought its PBX in 1994 and put a phone on every worker's desk. In 1994 the standard PC was a 486/33-MHz and the Internet had not "happened." In the last 12 years, the PC has grown and the Internet has changed the way we work, but the phone has not learned a new trick. In fact, even if we replaced the desktop phone with the most current IP phone, little would change. We still can't make three-party calls easily or put a person on hold to call somebody else; and when we do place a call, we are still more likely to reach voice mail than we are the person whom actually we want to contact.