I’m pleased to announce some valuable new features have been added to the Business Control Panel

In case you are not already aware, the Business Control Panel is a free tool for managing Skype in your business. It is the easy way to purchase and manage Skype Credit and SkypeIn numbers within your company. And now it also makes it easier for you to help set up the rest of your co-workers on Skype.

Based on feedback from our business community we have added the following features:

• Easily invite co-workers (using a company email list).
• Create a members directory so employees know who else belongs to the same company.
• View itemised call reports for your members.
• Purchase up to €1,000 of Skype Credit at once.
• Automatically top-up your Control Panel credit balance

Please read on to find out more about each of these….

> Easily invite co-workers to join Skype.

Previously you could only invite people to join your Control Panel if they already had a Skype Name. Now all you need is their email address and we can do the rest from there.

If you have a company email list with all your employees email addresses, you can copy and paste this directly in to the Control Panel and it will send out emails inviting people to join Skype and guiding them through the process.

You can also include a recommended Skype Name in the invitations. For instance, some companies like to use a consistent name format for all employees.

This new feature makes it much easier for an administrator or manager to get all staff members set up on Skype and added to the company’s Business Control Panel. It’s also easy to keep track of who has completed the process and who needs further prompting.

> Create a members directory

The administrator can now choose to create an online members directory which displays the names and job titles for other members of the same control panel.

This will help employees identify other people who work for the same company and easily add them to their Skype contacts.

> View itemised call reports of your members.

A lot of businesses have requested the ability to view itemised call reports. We have now added this feature to the control panel.

These reports show all calls and SMS made by the individual, they also list any other purchases made using Skype Credit. The reports can be viewed online or exported as a spreadsheet making it easier to keep track of company spending.

Note: Due to data protection rules, the administrator must request permission from the member before they can view their call reports. The member can provide permission by logging in to their account online and clicking the accept button.

> Auto-recharge your credit balance.

This feature is designed to make the administrator’s life easier and ensure you never let your Control Panel run out of Skype Credit. Next time you are purchasing Credit for your control panel you will be asked if you want to automatically top-up in future. This way when the balance drops below an agreed limit it will be automatically topped up. Of course this feature is optional and can be turned off at any time.

> Buy up to €1,000 of credit at once.

Some company’s want to buy large quantities of Skype Credit in one go. Previously it was not possible to purchase more than €250 of Credit at once. We have now increased this to €1,000 (or the equivalent amount in your local currency).

Note: depending on your country and your purchase history with Skype, the availabl payment methods will vary. For instance, it may not be possible to buy this amount of Skype Credit using a credit card, but if you were to select a payment method such as Bank Transfer you will see the maximum increased to €1,000.

What next?

If you are already registered for the Business Control Panel, you can log in now and all the new features are automatically available.

If you are not yet registered, you can Register for free using your existing Skype username and password.

We also have a user guide and Product page for those who want to learn a bit more about the Business Control Panel.

Send us your ideas:

We are continuing to develop the Business Control Panel and would love to hear your feedback and ideas on which other features you would like to see added. Feel free to ‘leave a comment’ here or if you prefer you can send us an email.