DEMO: Toktumi Launches PC-centric Office Phone System

The DEMO conference hasn't even really started yet, and already some interesting new products are being announced.

One comes from a new company called Toktumi (pronounced talk-to-me), whose product (also called Toktumi) provides small businesses with a full-functioned PC-based office phone system. It's a hosted PBX (private branch exchange) service that requires no equipment other than your PC and a small adapter used to hook up regular phones to the computer.

The service provides all the stuff you expect from a PBX, including auto attendant, voicemail, forwarding, etc., but most of that functionality is hosted at Toktumi's servers in San Francisco, not on the PCs of the small business.

None of this functionality is really new, but the way Toktumi puts the PC at the center of the office phone system is unique. And there's something else I hadn't heard of: Toktumi offers something called Search Dialing, which taps address books and online search engines to allow users to call any number by entering a name or keyword describing the person, company, product or service they're looking for.

The new product is getting press in part because its CEO and founder, Peter Sisson, has had a bit of luck selling VOIP solutions in the past. His old company, Teleo, a Skype-like consumer VOIP service, was bought up by Microsoft for an undisclosed amount in the summer of 2005.

Initially, the Toktumi service will be available in beta form and by invitation only, and will become generally available in the spring of 2008, the company says.

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