Function

• Business communications systems enable the exchange of information between a business's employees, customers, partners and vendors. Modern business communications systems perform functions that previously fell to disparate systems such as PBX telephonic systems, inter-office mail and memo distribution systems and paper-based accounts payable and receivable communications sent through postal mail.
  
  

History

• Businesses have used telephonic communication systems such Public Business Exchange (PBX) systems, for more than a century, with the earliest PBX systems dating back to 1879. PBX systems evolved over time, becoming progressively more automated, and switching from analog to digital data transmission in the late 1970s early 1980s. As business networks and personal computers became ubiquitous in the late 1980s and early 1990s, email began to make inroads into inter-office mail systems as well as external communications.
  
  

Types

• Modern business communications systems integrate one or more communication functions into integrated, computer-based, network-enabled communications systems. The most basic business communications systems provide support for email. Similarly, a basic communications tool, such as the telephone, can take advantage of IP telephony, which uses network data transfer rather than dedicated telephone cabling for voice transmissions. More robust types of business communications systems may support video conferencing, using video and audio transmissions sent through internal networks and through the Internet, and may integrate with IP telephony and email systems. Some advanced communications systems may also provide support for emerging business communications formats, such as instant messaging.
  
  

Benefits

• Modern business communications systems integrate systems that were often manual rather than automated. By combining email, telephone communications and other communications into a single, computer-based system, businesses can reduce the number of specialist roles, such as PBX operators and mailroom personnel, which can lower personnel costs.
  
  

Considerations

• Computerized, network-based business communications systems require robust, stable, reliable network infrastructures. Businesses that want to move to integrated systems may first need to review their existing network's capacity.