My Cisco 7941 Phone

If you read my Have Laptop, Work Anywhere and I <3 My Desk posts, you know that I’m a somewhat mobile worker.  One of the things that helps me be mobile is telephony…both my cell phone and my desk phone.  The cell phone is pretty obvious, but how exactly does my desk phone make me mobile, you ask?

Conveniently, I have the answer: the Cisco 7941 is an IP phone, which means that it uses VoIP technology (internet connection rather than typical phone lines) – you may have seen similar phones on 24, or my favorite, The Office. All I have to do is unplug it, find a desk with an open LAN connection, plug it back in and I’m good to go.  It’s much better for mobility than our old traditional PSTN phones, which required harassing the IT guys to switch connections somewhere in the telephone room to make sure I had the right phone number. 

It’s also great because everyone at HOK has this phone…and a four-digit extension – so we can call from office to office for “free”!  And we can also look each other up in the directory straight on the phone.  Pretty snazzy technology that helps me “work anywhere” in the office, and also collaborate remotely at the drop of a hat. 

Look for future posts about other telephony options