"Enterprises have not always bought into that idea because they don't really trust their service provider to be there always," said Sharwood.

The sandwich artists at a group of 26 Subway sandwich shop franchises in Southern Arizona are already onboard with Cisco's vision for unified communications. Franchisee Les White is deploying Cisco's 970G IP phone in each of his stores, as a way of keeping his staff on task and bringing his own unique brand of motivation and wisdom to his quickly expanding group of restaurants.

White admits he doesn't know much about technology, but he said he does know what helps his business grow.

"I thought RAM was a big sheep," jokes White. "(But) this device ... allows me to communicate on the front lines." Working with White to understand his business needs, Cisco partners IPcelerate of Dallas and Calence of Phoenix implemented Cisco's Unified Communications System for White's Subway shops and designed a series of custom applications that run through the touch screen phones.

Employees use the phones to clock in and out as they start and end their shifts. Before they do, the phone plays a daily inspirational message that White records and stores on the system. Another application can make the phone play instructions at certain times of the day, such as to put bread in the oven.