For anyone who has juggled lots of mobile and desk phone numbers for themselves and the people they contact all the time, the idea of a single number for both devices ought to sound pretty appealing. It’s just one small aspect of wireless-wireline integration, but it comes with its own built-in advantages.

Simplicity is one of them. Not only do you not have to remember and/or record both numbers for the people you work with, but you don’t have to wonder which number you should call first. Is he in the office today? Is she on the road? Doesn’t matter. Just call the one number.

Don’t even get me started on the advantages of a single, unified voice mailbox, which naturally goes along with the single-number strategy. Why not cut your voice mail-checking time in half, if you can? And how many people leave you voice messages in both mailboxes, just to be sure? Then you have to figure out whether it’s the same message twice, or which one came first, and whether you need to call them back again.

The single number and the single mailbox are little things. They save a bit of time here and a bit of time there. But that time adds up, and in a world where your success may depend on being as productive as you can all the time, you will be grateful for every one of those minutes that integration gives back to you.