by: Kate Tee
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The past ten years have seen an increase in businesses, ranging from smaller office-based companies to hospital trusts with thousands of employees, updating their internal communication systems. As businesses have grown resulting in offices and buildings having greater distance between them, companies and establishments have found the need to make their communication network more comprehensive, as well as being more integrated into their current IT networks.

A term that has become synonymous with company communication and particularly business telephone systems is ‘VoIP'. Voice over Internet Protocol is technology that allows users to speak to one another via the internet or other types of networks. VoIP has proved very successful for companies who want to communicate cheaply (calls are typically made for free) and simply over great distances; and even between different countries. Additionally, VoIP doesn't only have cost benefits, but systems have also been praised for the flexibility and maintenance ease when it comes to such aspects as video conferencing and automatic fault alarms.

In a speech at the Intellect Annual Regent Conference 2009, vice-president of SAP, David Keene, explained how ‘when it comes to improving and updating systems such as business broadband, companies will consider how consumers make the most of current technology and what that means they should be doing to keep up with expectations.' As it has done in the past, with VoIP, the future of business communication is likely to still be very much informed by ass communications on a consumer level.

Evidence of the relationship between the two is not only evident with VoIP however. In 2004, the UK-based Plymouth Hospital NHS Trust underwent a gradual upgrade of their communications system with the aim that by 2014 all 80 of their individual sites will be connected by an IP telephony system. The next step planned is to issue each doctor and nurse with a mobile-like handset that will have SMS capabilities too, meaning that should a patient require assistance and press their bedside button, the relevant nurse will be alerted via text.

So, in light of current trends in consumer IT technology, what does the future hold for business communication. Namely, the biggest thing online is the rise of Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that allows users to communicate immediately via advancements in RSS and instant messaging. Will, information be transferred in a similar way between hospitals and surgeries, or is that a step too far? Feeds from heart-rate machines and drips, to desktops, and on to doctors? I suppose time will tell.

About the Author

If you would like to find out more about telecoms equipment and communication then please visit http://www.maintel.co.uk

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