Skype for Business

Don’t forget – our Skype for Business Competition is drawing to a close in just ten days time.

We’re looking for businesses like yours to share their experiences with us at Skype. We’re looking for creativity and originality – companies which use Skype in innovative ways around the world to save time, save money or stay ahead, and preferably a combination of the three.

If that sounds like your business, then we want to hear from you. Enter now to ensure you don’t miss out.

For the best stories, we’ll be awarding first, second and third prizes in three regions – EMEA, the Americas and Asia-Pacific – details are in the original blog post.

Entries must be received before the 15th June 2009 UK time – we look forward to receiving yours

Our user experience research team needs the help of UK businesses to shape the future of our business products and features.

In their continual drive to improve our products they’d like to visit your premises for half a day and conduct interviews with a selection of Skype users and decision makers, and observe how Skype is used in your business. Data collected will be strictly confidential and not shared or used for any purposes other than improving Skype for Business.

Your feedback has the potential to influence design changes, new features and product offerings. We’ll also offer compensation of €200 of Skype Credit (or equivalent in Pounds Sterling) for your time.

If you’re interested in participating please complete this form.

I spoke earlier at Interop Las Vegas about the future of modern business communications. Read on for an summary of my presentation.

IT is consumerizing – over the last 5 years, we’ve seen

• consumer-grade technologies becoming robust enough
• enterprises shift their stance on acquisition, management and deployment of consumer technologies
• IT responsibilities divided into a centrally controlled (enterprise-owned) model and a market-driven, user-selected model

driven primarily by these factors:

• Economy: 43% percent of knowledge workers in US enterprises with 500 or more employees already use non-company-owned equipment on enterprise networks and systems.
• Connectivity: We live in a world with an increasingly ubiquitous, pervasive and affordable communications infrastructure, which encourages new acquisition and delivery models, especially those using the web.
• New technology: A combination of affordable devices, low-cost communications, widespread ownership means that access to and acceptance of new technologies is growing.
• Employees: Employees bring their experiences and expectations from the ‘real world’ into the work environment – this is particularly relevant when considering an increasing population of digital natives in the workforce.

Skype is a great example – we started out as a consumer product, but now 35% of our users say they use Skype for business purposes. *

The key, however, is that saving money is just the start – you can use Skype to save time, and most importantly, stay ahead.

The Skype for SIP and Skype for Asterisk betas let you make really low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles around the world from your PBX system, and video calling, IM and presence make for richer conversations, enhancing collaboration and improving efficiency. Plus, Skype’s increasing availability on mobile phones and other mobile devices means you can use it while on the go.

And the proof, as they say, is in the pudding:

• 20% of our users make Skype video calls for business purposes †
• 95% say they are saving money *
• 62% say they communicate better with customers using Skype *
• 70% say they are using it while traveling on business *
• 80% say they are seeing increased productivity *

Thousands of companies are already using Skype for Business – how about you?

* Source: Skype user study of 4,000 users in the US, UK and China conducted in March 2008
† Source: Results from a December 2008 online survey of 2452 active Skype users in the US and UK

Watch Stefan Öberg live from Las Vegas at 09:30 Pacific time – and don’t forget to track #interop on Twitter for up-to-the-minute commentary.

Thanks to Jim Courtney at Voice on the Web for his comprehensive coverage of two incredible Skype case studies - featuring a psychiatrist and a plastic surgeon whose practices have been transformed by Skype.

In an ABC news report, Dr Spero Thodorou, a plastic surgeon from New York, and Dr Loren Olson, a psychiatrist from Iowa, shared their views (Dr Olsen on a Skype video call) about how Skype has changed the way they work.

Jim Courtney says:

Psychiatrist Dr Loren Olson had started using Skype for calls to his grandchildren and then realized that he could use it (i) for routine follow up 'med-check' visits with both urban and rural patients and (ii) for clinical consultations with a team of medical providers in a rural area. Amongst his points in the interview:

• The need [for using Skype] in the cities relates to getting the 50% of mentally ill patients who do not have access to medical services to simply interact with a medical professional.
• While his calls do not have the intimacy of an office visit, there's often a question of 'this visit' vs. 'no visit'.
• Patients can become so totally absorbed and relaxed in the discussion such that the technology literally melts away. In one case a patient asked for a glass of water (says something about the realism provided by Skype's High Quality Video).
• One paranoid schizophrenic patient actually preferred using Skype for his doctor calls.

Bottom line: With the ongoing debate over rising healthcare costs, can Skype video calling contribute to solutions that not only reduce both patient and practitioner costs but also shrink travel requirements, accelerate remedial procedures and, most importantly, cut the time spent reading six-month-old magazines in the doctor's waiting room?

We'd like to think so

Got a story to share?
Tell us and win prizes for your business

Tens of thousands of businesses around the world use Skype to save time, save money and stay ahead – and yours is probably one of them. We’re celebrating the new look for Skype for Business by offering you the opportunity to share your story with the world and win prizes for your business.

Do you have a Skype story to tell?

We’re looking for businesses like yours to share their experiences with us at Skype. We’re looking for creativity and originality – companies which use Skype in innovative ways around the world to save time, save money or stay ahead, and preferably a combination of the three.

If that sounds like your business, then we want to hear from you.

For the best stories, we’ll be awarding first, second and third prizes in three regions – EMEA, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The prizes are as follows:

• First: Wins a Skype for Business consultancy service with a Skype for Business employee offering a bespoke solution for their business. The package will include a Business Control Panel account and Skype products up to the value of €1000. Products on offer will include Skype Credit to purchase any pay as you go features, online numbers or subscriptions in addition to Skype Certified hardware products.
• Second: A Business Control Panel account with €200 of Skype Credit and up to €300 of Skype Certified hardware products.
• Third: A Business Control Panel account with €100 of Skype Credit and up to €100 of Skype Certified hardware products.

What do I need to do?

Head over to the entry form and fill in your details – our panel of judges will review your submissions and pick three winners from each region.

Despite the demure appearance of the entry form, it’s your opportunity to go wild – add links to photos and videos to bring your story to life, and show us how Skype helps your business save time, save money and stay ahead.

Your entry must be received before the 15th June 2009 UK time, so get creative – and don’t forget that we’re here to answer any questions you might have. Just add a comment below and we’ll do our best to respond as soon as we can.

David Tang is VoSKY’s vice president of global marketing. He has over 14 years of experience in telecoms and marketing, and oversees VoSKY’s product management and strategic business development.

VoSKY’s flagship product is VoSKY Exchange, a family of enterprise-grade VoIP gateways that optimise Skype for the business environment. All VoSKY products are fully Skype certified.

Some of the most revolutionary technologies are first introduced into businesses by individual users rather than IT departments. When others witness the benefits being enjoyed by the pioneers, the technology is quickly adopted company-wide. It happened this way with PC-based fax, email, and instant messaging, and now it’s happening with Skype.

Individuals were the first to embrace Skype as it offers free voice and video calls over the Internet. Now that it’s the world’s most popular and reliable internet communications software, with over 405 million registered users, it’s also an attractive infrastructure for business telephony applications.

What’s more, it complements the communications infrastructure that businesses already have in place, enabling them to make the most of the resources they already use. This is particularly compelling in the current business climate.

Here are five key reasons corporate IT managers should learn to embrace Skype within their organisation and how they can use and manage it effectively. If there’s someone in your organisation who needs to be ‘converted’, this should cover the basics:

It saves – and keeps on saving

Quite simply, Skype saves your business money on all call costs, whether national, international, inter-office or to mobiles.

With Skype managed centrally within your organisation via PBX-to-Skype gateways you can create global numbering plans, enabling employees to use extension dialling between offices. Site-to-site calls are free, and longer-distance calls are paid for using Skype Credit to reduce costs. The gateways also centralise Skype’s provisioning and management, giving IT managers’ full control and eliminating the need to install Skype on each PC. All Skype voice functions are delivered direct to users’ handsets.

The benefits can also extend to mobile users. With Skype installed on any smart mobile phone that can run the lite version of Skype, users’ call preferences can be set up centrally by the IT team, via the PBX gateway, for alternate routing to the mobile user’s Skype account. This is done via mobile broadband under the user’s mobile data plan, giving huge savings compared with even the cheapest international mobile tariffs.

It leverages your existing technology

These PBX-to-Skype application gateways can link any office phone system (whether traditional digital switch, or IP / SIP PBX) to Skype, for a low one-time upgrade cost without having to swap out or replace existing equipment. The gateways add anything from four to 30 Skype lines to the company PBX, so that Skype calls can be made and transferred between extensions as normal. Employees simply dial eight for Skype, or nine for an ordinary line.

None of your investments are made obsolete. You just make your existing assets work harder for your business and start saving money.

It’s easy to get started and to manage

The gateways can be installed, and Skype provisioned, in less than half a day, without the need for any changes to existing PBX equipment, phones, or PCs. The gateway ties the Skype online number to the business to enable Skype DID. It also simplifies configuration, management and support, putting Skype under the IT manager’s full control.

There’s no need to install Skype on each PC. Skype usage can be monitored by the business just like ordinary calls, and number schemes easily managed. You set it up and it’s under centralised management right away.

Skype is completely free of malware, adware and spyware

So it does not add another potential security threat, or attack vector to your network. How many other corporate networks can say the same?

Skype is encrypted

When Skype users connect, it’s over an AES-encrypted session, whether it’s via instant message, voice, video, or file transfer. Skype communications are secure providing Skype a significant advantage over conventional VoIP or voice VPNs.

With a gateway at each office, you get secure voice VPN working over Skype without paying for expensive leased lines, or having to deploy IP PBXs from the same vendor at every office. That’s in addition to the benefits outlined earlier.

With the cost savings and functionality benefits available to you through Skype usage, what’s not to love about it?

Today, Skype takes another step towards greater interoperability with the launch of the beta of Skype For SIP.

SIP is the leading voice over Internet protocol used in businesses telephony networks – there are millions of installations across the globe. According to IDC^†, 438,000 IP PBXes were shipped worldwide in 2008, so this represents a significant opportunity for Skype, and for small, medium and large businesses around the world.

What Skype For SIP can do for your business

With Skype For SIP, your business can:

• Receive and manage inbound calls from the 405 million Skype users worldwide on SIP-enabled PBX systems, connecting the company website to the PBX system using Skype click-to-call buttons
• Place calls via Skype to landlines and mobile phones worldwide from any connected SIP-enabled PBX, saving your business money with Skype’s low rates
• Purchase Skype online numbers to receive calls to the corporate PBX from landlines or mobile phones
• Manage Skype calls using your existing hardware and system applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus, voicemail and call recording and logging – no additional downloads or training are required

Skype For SIP is the perfect way to integrate Skype with your existing PBX, allowing the communications from your PBX to be complemented by Skype functionality.

The beta programme

The beta programme will allow Skype to test Skype For SIP in real-world environments and secure critical feedback from business users like you.

Registration for the Skype For SIP beta programme is now open. To participate in the beta program, your business will need to have an installed SIP based IP-PBX system as well as the technical competency to configure you own SIP-enabled PBX. The number of beta testers will be limited so that we can provide you with the appropriate level of support during the trial.

During the beta period, the Skype for Business team will be on hand to provide support and gather feedback, and we hope to be able to launch the full version of Skype For SIP later in 2009. During the beta programme, we’ll be able to provide support in English only, but we’ll announce our plans for other languages when Skype For SIP launches fully.

^† Source: IDC, Worldwide IP PBX and Desktop Hardware IP Phone Market Forecast, 2008-2012: Using the PBX as the Foundation of Unified Communications, Doc #210695, February 2008.

At IBM Lotusphere 2009, we’re previewing a new tie-up between Skype and IBM. Over the coming months, we’ll be integrating Skype into IBM’s new cloud services, LotusLive, making it quicker and easier for LotusLive users to collaborate online.

If you’re a LotusLive user, you’ll be able to use Skype to make voice and video calls to your contacts by clicking their Skype names or phone numbers in LotusLive. Possible future features include the ability to import your Skype contacts into LotusLive to make getting in touch even easier.

This click-to-call functionality won’t just make life easier – it’ll help you save money. Don’t forget that all Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls are free, and calls to landlines and mobiles are at Skype’s low rates. You can buy and manage Skype Credit for your business using the Skype for Business Control Panel.

If you’re not already a LotusLive user, you can join the LotusLive Engage Beta on the LotusLive site – and for more about Lousphere 2009, check out Andy Donaldson’s excellent blog post.

Get a feel for how Mark McKinney, Vice President of LuraTech makes the world smaller using Skype in his business environment by listening to his podcast interview on Takes On Tech.

He enlightens us on the following subjects:

• Avoid jetlag using conferencing on Skype
• If he does have to travel, he can keep in touch with his girlfriend via video calling
• He likes to hold interviews via Skype. If the applicant needs to download Skype and has trouble, that's got to be a sure sign they're not right for the job
• Multi-task in meetings via IM
• Board meetings across the globe, with file transfer to help get the point across

He offers some great examples of the range of Skype features on offer - it's well worth a listen.