Futuristic Workplace

Memphis, Tenn., may be best known as the home of Elvis Presley and Sun Studios. But in recent years, the Bluff City has been producing a lot more than rock 'n' roll. Today, it's home to one of the most advanced workplaces in the world: the FedEx Institute of Technology.

The institute's new facility at the University of Memphis--launched last fall as the result a $23 million public-private partnership between the university and logistics and package-delivery company FedEx Corp.--is home to scientists studying topics from artificial intelligence to biotechnology to supply-chain management. But this site doesn't just play host to great thinking. It endeavors to become the "workplace of the future," where directors also study how the building itself can help promote collaboration and discovery.

The facility has all the bells and whistles of a modern tech campus: ubiquitous Wi-Fi access, spacious labs, and even Ethernet in the cafeteria. Earlier this spring, the institute deployed a Nortel Networks Ltd. Multimedia Communications Server, or MCS 5100, which lets the facility provide voice over IP to all its staff. That lets researchers fire up their laptops and answer their phones from any office, lab, or hotel in the world, says James Phillips, former CEO, who left the institute last week and is now chairman and CEO of Luminet Ventures.

The MCS 5100 is an IP PBX and applications platform, a combination of hardware and software that combines various communications capabilities into a single system. Users can easily set up applications including voice over IP, videoconferencing, instant messaging, white boarding, and file exchange. The system costs around $300 per user.

But sometimes collaboration needs to be done in person, and the building is also designed to foster face-to-face communication. The building includes a 190-seat theater with a 17-foot rear-projection screen behind the podium. Each seat has its own Bosch DCN Concentus unit, a combination of a microphone, a speaker, and an LCD screen that allows an audience to cast votes and provide feedback.

It all goes to show that whether you're talking fiber-optic cabling or advanced wireless applications, one of the most important roles of technology is to help people work together. "Collaboration is going to be the key in the future," Phillips says. "File sharing, conferencing, instant messaging--all of that is really important for researchers."