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Business communications has received a facelift over the past 20 years. Innovation in communication has offered mobility, interoperability and collaboration like never before. But, one traditional function of business communications remains in forefront for the enterprise: voicemail.

A recent study from AccessDirect indicates that small businesses are ditching their desk phones but still rely on voicemail. Access Direct surveyed 100 small businesses with 10 employees or less in North America, and the results are quite interesting. Forty-two percent of respondents stated they use their mobile phone as their primary phone, slightly less than the 48 percent claiming the desk phone to be their primary business phone.

Age is playing a role in this shift, as 61 percent of respondents in the 45-50 year-old bracket desire a desk phone. On the flip side, only 38 percent of 30-44 year-olds surveyed want a desk phone.

When it comes to voicemail, 56 percent of respondents still find value, and 24 percent stated it is integral for their daily communications. John Kinskey, President and Founder of AccessDirect predicts, "the desk phone faces extinction with upcoming generations, but voice messaging will remain a staple in small business communications."

A somewhat startling point illustrated by the survey is the low adoption of hosted PBX (News - Alert) in small businesses. Forty percent of respondents still use legacy phones, and only a 5 percent adoption of hosted PBX. Why is this startling you say? Because hosted PBX provides the flexibility for mobile integration—I would expect this to provide impetus for more SMBs to move in this direction.

Another point from the survey that sticks out for me is 58 percent of those surveyed stated that when choosing a phone system cost takes priority over function. A hosted PBX offers more freedom, no on-site storage and is simply more cost effective.

The more the face of business communications changes, the more it stays the same. Voicemail is a staple that won’t be going anywhere, the deskphone on the other may be a dead man walking thanks to the younger, more mobile generation soon to take over.

Kinskey stated, "Fortune 500 funded reports on the future of telephony focus on mega trends and large enterprise needs, they don't reveal much about the day-day needs of small business, so we designed a survey that would speak to the future of telecommunications for small businesses like the ones we serve."