Phonomania and Future Talk

Electronic wizardry, lower costs and lots of bugs

The familiar ring is giving way to the bleep, the buzz and the flash. All are part of the sound-and-light show emanating from the versatile new computer phones that are fast becoming an integral part of the increasingly automated, modern office landscape. The bookkeepers are happy because the new phones save money, but desperate cries of anguish are rising from office workers unable to cope with all that electronic wizardry. Their complaints: being disconnected in midsentence, having a third party break in on a conversation or, worse, not being able to get through at all. Their solution: make a futile attempt at retrieving the call and slam down the receiver.

The new systems are called Personal

Business Exchanges (PBXs) or Computerized Business Exchanges (CBXs). Though the computer phones look much like their pushbutton predecessors, matchbook-size integrated circuits have now replaced the mechanical moving parts, including bells, springs and gears, that made the old ones so heavy.

Once mastered, the computer phones can perform a variety of functions at the touch of a button or two. These jobs include: transferring a call to another extension, automatically placing a call at a set time, notifying the user when a previously dialed busy line becomes free, intercepting calls going to another extension, programming the phone so that frequently called numbers can be stored and then activated by using a three-digit number, and automatically redialing a previous call to the outside.

This may sound like touch-tone utopia, but in reality Murphy's Law prevails. Computer breakdowns and mistakes in programming commonly cause problems. The software bugs that may linger for many months can invoke a state of perplexed ennui in even the most sanguine of computer phone users. Danray, a Texas-based communications firm that was acquired last year by Canada's Northern Telecom, installed a PBX system two months ago at AMF headquarters in White Plains, N. Y. Reports one AMF employee: "The new system has its problems. We have trouble with connections, and quite often calls don't get through. I often can't get my husband on the phone, and he works just across the street!"

An A T & T system installed last May at the Manhattan headquarters of the Girl Scouts of America has officials earning their merit badges just figuring out how the computer phones work. Says Mary Burke, business operations director of the Girl Scouts: "You've got to play with the phones for about two weeks to get the hang of them. Some of the lines don't always work as effectively as they should in the beginning."

Even when operating smoothly, the phones' increased capabilities can create headaches. One Manhattan office worker who had called his wife at home later tried to get through to a secretary in his office. Accidentally pressing the code that redials the previously called outside number, he was again connected with his wife. Not realizing whom he was talking to, he called her by the secretary's name. Before he became aware of the situation, his wife recognized his voice. A rather strained round of apologies and explanations followed.

Despite complaints, the new systems are selling well. A T & T has sold 10,000 PBX systems to such corporations as General Electric and Eastern Air Lines since 1975. Though Ma Bell's prices are 10% to 20% higher than most of its competitors, it dominates the PBX market. Contends Dan Hutchings, Bell's PBX marketing supervisor: "We provide more maintenance support for our system, and people will pay a higher price for that sort of quality." The competition has made some inroads, particularly with hotels, hospitals and other institutions that put a higher premium on saving costs than having easy availability to A T & T's extensive maintenance and service market.

A number of competitors--Rolm Corp., ITT, GTE and Nippon Electric --are trying to increase their market shares not only by keeping prices low but also by quickly incorporating expanding technology. Danray, though a distant second to AT&T in volume, is generally considered to have the most advanced systems. The company has installed 800 of them (at an average $1,000 per phone) since 1975 and last year had sales of more than $75 million, almost wholly from PBX.

Because customers buy the systems outright rather than leasing them, simple functions like moving phones and changing numbers can be performed easily by company employees at minimal cost. The systems also save money by automatically routing long-distance calls through the most cost-efficient trunk lines. Citicorp's 1,500-phone Danray system is expected to save $10 million over the next decade. Another major multinational firm installed a 2,500-phone system for $3 million and expects the savings to balance that cost in three years.

Economies like these easily outweigh temporary technical glitches. Wall Street communications analysts, like Winston Himsworth of Salomon Brothers, see a huge market for the new phones. Himsworth envisions the day when PBX systems will transmit programmed information to put through a wake-up call to an employee in the morning, electronically turn on the lights and air conditioner a few minutes before he arrives at work, and lock the office door when he leaves at day's end. Electronic word-processing machines may be hooked onto the phone system, Himsworth figures, allowing an employee to punch out a letter at his desk and have it automatically transmitted to one or 1,000 receiving devices attached to phones throughout the system. IBM, the world's largest producer of electric typewriters for offices, already makes and markets a PBX system in Europe, and rumors are swirling around Wall Street that it is considering a big move into the U.S. market.

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