Communications for the Growing Business

Effective communication is vital for the success of any organization. That's why, organizations today need to move beyond their basic PBXs and email servers and check out the wide variety of communication products available today. Today, there's a communication software available for organizations of every size, and at various budget points, right from free and Open Source software to commercial offerings.

In the Open Source world for instance, there are lots of Open Source IP PBXs available, with capabilities that go far beyond what you could have ever imagined from your traditional PBX. There are

email clients for instance, that are adding more communication options besides email, like blogs, instant messaging, VoIP, video conferencing, etc. Even the usual slew of features like calendaring, task management, RSS, etc can be customized to your liking because they're all available as add-ons. So add them at your own pace and requirement.

The complete scenario of the communications world is changing, and perhaps the biggest catalyst behind this is TCP/IP. It has brought together the three separate worlds of voice, data, and video. Add wireless capabilities on top of that, with technologies like WiFi, GSM, CDMA, etc, and you can do just about any kind of communication, from anywhere. In fact, elsewhere in this issue, we've talked about a product called Nano-Ganesh, which let's farmers control their generator pumps remotely from their mobile phones. Similarly, there's a plethora of technologies in the offing, which are completely changing the communication landscape in corporate India.

All the new products and technologies would be a complete waste if they're not backed with a strong communication backbone. This is where you need a good broadband service provider, who can provide you with both the right quality and bandwidth for broadband connectivity, at the right price and with the right level of support.

So presented here are these three important facets of any communications solution—products, technologies, and broadband connectivity. We've covered some interesting communications products and even carried them on this month's DVD for you to try out. We've also talked about the top communication trends that are making waves.

Finally, we've done a survey of medium to large enterprises to understand where they stand on broadband connectivity.

Happy Communicating!