Baker employees are able to take advantage of desktop features -- including click to call, instant messaging and telephony presence -- that are integrated into Microsoft applications, Drummond said.

With telephony presence, Drummond said he can tell where every employee in the company is and whether they are on the phone. The convergence of Nortel and Microsoft makes it possible to use telephony presence across multiple platforms and multiple databases and buildings, he said.

An advantage of having Microsoft applications in the system is that so many customers already use Microsoft, he said. For Baker's largest customers, the system will help tie together Outlook with a phone system, he said.

Another benefit is that while the Nortel switch is IP-based, the convergence will work with traditional analog and digital phones that are not IP-based, he said.

On a personal level, Drummond said he can take advantage of Converged Office while on the road to forward a call from a customer to his office in Des Moines to his cell phone with a simple mouse click on an icon on a laptop.