'Virtual Admin' Talks While You Work

In light, early usage in my testing, Toktumi behaved as advertised.

What you don't get

Don't expect complete control over the number you choose, vanity numbers or any sort of coherent set of exchanges for your employees. In the New York area, for example, 212 numbers were not available. The company says that as features grow and it gains more clout, its ability to offer these services will improve.

Also, Toktumi will not win an interface design award. The look and feel is basic. Also, support was email only, as far I could see. And the most important limitation: Toktumi is not a phone. It is a digital service that runs on your phone. So every call changes from the one-step process of picking up the phone and making a call into a multi-step affair of accessing the service and then commencing with your business telephony.

In some configurations, that was as simple as dialing a speed dial, and Toktumi does automatically recognize numbers if you so instruct it. But in less-optimal calling situations -- say, on foreign landlines or in high-volume environments -- the system's complexities could easily overwhelm its utility.

Bottom line

For the small-business newbie, or the operation that has light phone usage and wants to save some cash on business extensions, Toktumi is worth considering. But move slowly. This is your customer, after all, who is getting handed around by what is in effect a virtual dumb waiter.

But considering that $9,000 a year is not that much money for a small-business to spend on phone service, a product that can cut those fees in way more than half is certainly worth considering.