Remote access, emulation, and control of office equipment

Abstract

A business has a main office () which has a controller (), a plurality of telephones, a plurality of computers, a PBX and/or an ACD (), and a plurality of corporate resources () such as servers, hosts, applications, databases, routers, gateways, switches, a voicemail system, an e-mail system, and facsimile servers. A user at the main office () has access to the various corporate resources and also has a portable communications device (), such as a laptop computer, with which to place a call to the controller via a communications link () such as the Internet, to send user commands to and receive the resultant status, information, or operation, from, the controller, to access any of the corporate resources and data, and to make calls to and receive communications from outside parties (). In addition, the user may create a personal profile which causes the controller to forward selected communications to him, via the Internet, wherever the user may be. The laptop computer allows the user to operate in the same manner as if the user was actually in his office, including placing, receiving, forwarding, and conferencing telephone calls. As a result, regardless of where the user is located, and regardless of what equipment is actually available at the current location of the user, the user can conduct business using the same devices and features that are available at the user's office.