The OfficeIPLink™ PBX includes a Instant Messenger capability which means that you can provide an Instant Messenger / Chat to all your staff in the knowledge that your communications is secure (as opposed to using an external Messaging facility such as MSN or ICQ).

This Instant Messaging facility is almost identical to what many of your staff are used to (if they use products like MSN or ICQ or Googletalk) except is hosted within your business, allowing you to make the choice whether it is used just internally, or externally as well via a gateway. The reason why you may choose to go via a gateway, is that this may be the means that some of your clients currently communicate with you.

This is not just "chat program", but also a presence tool, allowing you to see whether they are away from their desk (it does this by recognising no keyboard activity), or showing that they are on the phone.

This capability is very well suited to businesses that operate remote offices (where the staff feel isolated), or even larger offices where they cannot visually see if someone is at their desk or on the phone. Just look around your own business, and watch how many times someone gets up from their desk to see if someone is at their desk, or if they are on the phone. The benefit is on the client side as well. Your staff who have taken a call, can immediately tell the client that the staff member they want to talk to is on the phone, or immediately tell them that they have just come off the phone and you are able to put them through.

Another great advantage is the ability to quietly communicate with the staff member that is on the phone, by sending a simple immediate message that pops up on their screen. You might want to announce an urgent call that they have been waiting on, or to tell them of a decision regarding the call that they are on. It is a lot less intrusive than trying to talk to them while they are on the phone, and allows them to respond to you at an appropriate point in the conversation. You also don't have staff member hovering around waiting for the call to finish, disturbing other staff and reducing work throughput. This last example is also a reason why this product doesn't just suit large or multi office businesses, but many of the smaller ones as well.

We have even had one client, who has seen the impact that this has had on his business, and exclaimed that this feature alone was worth what they paid for the OfficeIPLink™ PBX Solution. Naturally we took it as a throw away line, but it did show how some of these tools and integration features of the OfficeIPLink™ PBX can make such a difference to a business.

For the IT or Technically minded person, the server engine included in the OfficeIPLink™ PBX is a Jabber/XMPP compliant server. This means that basically any Jabber/XMPP client or product can be integrated into this system and used in the business.