I've been using Office Communicator for months now, and I must say it's the most useful piece of new technology I've used in a while.

 

At Microsoft, the PBX is wired into Office Communicator, so I can dial the phone using the same app I do IM and app sharing with (Sells has gotten me hooked on app sharing).

 

When my office phone rings, I get a little "toast" telling me who's calling. 

 

I click the toast, and my phone picks up in speaker phone mode.

 

I don't click the toast, and the caller can leave voicemail which is automatically routed to my outlook Inbox.

 

I've gotten to the point where I really hate to dial the phone manually. Pretty much everyone I need to call is either in my personal Outlook contacts or in the MS directory, both of which are integrated with Communicator. I just type part of the person's name, and then click "Call" and I'm done.  I then click "hang up" to terminate the call, all without touching the phone which is behind my monitor.

 

The feature that blew me away was when I was working from home one day recently.

 

My office phone rang.

 

I got the toast on my laptop at home.  That in and of itself was cool, since I wasn't using a VPN at the time.

 

The toast had a "forward" dropdown and I told it to fwd the call to my home # (it knows my home and cell #).

 

Within one ring cycle, my home phone rang and I picked it up.

 

The person on the other side had no idea I was at home.

 

My jaw was indeed on the floor.