The IPS DM (Distributed Module) was introduced in 2003 to solve two problems with the NEC architecture at the time. NEC wanted to add a chassis to their portfolio which brought down the price to invest in an NEC 2000 IPS so as to make it attractive to the SME (Small to Medium Enterprise). It didn't really work, because there wasn't the marketing energy behind the excercise, however it did get a few more systems out there, and allowed organisations who love the Zeacom applications a cheaper entry into the club.

Secondly, the IPS DM had a second name - the DMR (Distributed Module Remote). This was aimed as a way of distributing the NEC telephone system over completely different geographic locations and then connecting them together as a single unified PBX (each DMR became a 'Remote Site'). This provided traditional and VoIP telephone services across tens of sites, all converged and managed from one location. It also meant you only needed one Zeacom server, to run voicemail, CTI and call centre at all locations. Finally it provided redundent failovers to the remote sites, in the form of local breakout and backup programming.