GPT Communications Systems Ltd, the joint Siemens-GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd company, is to bring together its voice, data and videoconferencing services under the umbrella title of the Flexible Office. The company will combine its digital Hicom 300 telephone system with its computer and video conferencing applications. By the third quarter the company says customers will have access to a voice processing system integrated with Lotus Notes and cc.Mail. Emad Salib, business manager for GPT’s customer applications group said the Flexible Office will provide the first fully integrated portfolio of applications. Customers will have the choice to work from a laptop computer and mobile telephone, in a virtual organization or somewhere mid-way between the two. If you have yet to make it to multi-national status don’t expect a knock at the door. GPT will only be targeting large corporations. It estimates this sector already operates with around 20% of its staff using some type of flexible working patterns, whether working from home, hot desking or working out in the field. The idea behind the Flexible Office is to simplify the whole process of communications both within and outside the normal working environment. One personal telephone and facsimile number will automatically re-route to your car, a workstation, mobile or even your home telephone. A Realtis DX PABX will handle the voice, video and data communications across local and wide area networks to the desktop. An Ethernet connection enables the PABX to link into a local area network to support computer- integrated telephony, enabling rapid changes to be made to the system software. The exchange can support from 16 to thousands of lines and offers communications via Integrated Services Digital Network, call logging automatic call distribution and cordless working – and this is where the system differs from other services of a similar ilk. Both Novell Inc’s NetWare Directory Services (CI No 2,762), and British Telecommunications Plc’s latest venture with Lotus Development Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co (CI No 2,843) use the Internet as the communication link. ISDN has been in the public domain longer than the Internet, but has never managed to win the same level of acclaim as its counterpart. Marketing manager Chris Ellis said GPT was certainly looking at the Internet but felt that it couldn’t provide the same level of security that is available from ISDN. IBM has been testing the Flexible Office network during the past 12 months. It liked it so much it placed an order worth millions of pounds. Similarly, SmithKline Beecham Plc, a firm known for its innovative use of videoconferencing technology, is one of GPT’s first customers to sign on the dotted line. The Flexible Office, according to Ellis, has been designed to be future-proof, supporting new developments such as linking personal computers directly with a telephone using simple point and click techniques.
