March 2008

We’ve just [published the results](http://about.skype.com/2008/03/more_than_half_of_european_sme.html) of research commissioned by Skype, which looks at the behaviour and attitudes of European SME’s with regards to conference calling and video conferencing.

We have always felt that [video calls](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/allfeatures/videocall/) and [conference calls](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/allfeatures/conferencecall/) are great features for business users, but it was pleasing to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth. The businesses surveyed felt that the main benefits of these technologies include minimising travel, facilitating communication, improving communication and reducing costs. With video calling, the addition of non-verbal communication such as body language is also an important factor.

Many of the businesses surveyed who were not current users of video conferencing said they would be more likely to use it if it was better quality and not expensive. Again this was good to hear as Skype has been putting a lot of effort in to developing [High Quality Video](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/allfeatures/videocall/#high-quality-video) which launched earlier this year and apart from the cost of a webcam and a broadband internet connection, Skype video calls are free.

I just read this article on [The Hollywood Reporter](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i0e7d8449d58e7ec1002a7dd65e971bc4), about CNN using a Skype Video call to conduct an interview with an analyst who was on holidays in Maui at the time.

This is a great example of Skype video calling in action. In this case all they needed was a laptop computer and a borrowed webcam to set up a live video link from his hotel in Maui. You can [read the whole article here](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i0e7d8449d58e7ec1002a7dd65e971bc4)

We are always interested in hearing interesting stories about businesses using Skype in creative ways. For instance, [see this story about Rip Curl](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/casestudies/ripcurl/), the global surf and snowboard brand, whose staff use Skype Video calls to collaborate on designs from opposite sides of the globe.

If you have an interesting story about a business using [Skype video calls](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/features/video/), or any other [Skype features](http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/features/), please get in touch via this blog, we would love to hear your story.