August 2009

Have you seen small presence icons while browsing the web lately? If so, then you have probably experienced the Skype name recognition feature in action. With that feature enabled you will be able to see if your friends are online on Skype even when you are not actively using Skype. For example you will see the Skype presence in Facebook as in this video:

We didn't build this feature just for Facebook, though! You will see it on any web-page where people's names appear. Of course it works well in Salesforce (another video) and other online CRM systems, as well as in webmail and other social networking sites. You will only presence next to the names of people who's full name exactly match the full name in Skype. We don't do magic at Skype yet, so we will not be able to match if the name used in Facebook and in Skype are different. We hope you will find this feature useful.

We’re holding small focus group discussions with potential partners and businesses. If you’re intrigued as to how Skype could benefit your business, or interested in helping us refine our offerings for business customers, please get in touch through our marketing research partner Hawkeye.

Groups are this Thursday evening in London. There is limited seating, so please email Janese Evans with your contact information and, a few sentences about the size and focus of your business.

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a few questions and the details. If you qualify for a open position and participate in the discussions, you’ll be paid an honorarium to compensate you for your time.

Ramon Ray is a Technology Evangelist and the Editor of Smallbiztechnology.com.

Sometimes I'm doing something on the computer that makes me so productive.

For example, when I'm receiving input from a large number of people, I don't want the information received in my email box. Instead, I build a Google form and have it nicely archived as a database.

If I want to call an associate in Mexico, instead of using my cell phone or landline, I'll call via Skype. Calling via Skype allows me to save money and see the person I'm calling (thanks to Skype's High Quality video calling).

My use of Twitter ebbs and flows; but I've found that Twitter is an awesome communications tool for broadcasting information, receiving information and polling. Plus, it's fast and free.

What's amazing about technology is that it enables businesses to do more than ever before, at a lower cost. As the cost of technology goes down and the productivity of businesses goes up, there is less and less of an excuse for small businesses to not be doing more, more productively, at a lower cost.

Tools like Box.net and Egnyte enable you to share all sorts of documents and have collaboration (in the case of Box.net) for a fraction of the cost of installing a traditional server with a consultant.

The growth of mobile technology, thanks to iPhone and Blackberry groupies, is simply incredible. Cell phones have been around for a long time, but as mobile devices and applications mature, businesses will continue to use them as much more than simple tools for talking. Real-time inventory updates, full customer profiles, alerts to customer purchases or complaints all become possible from your phone.

There are way too many businesses which are still using the very minimum of technology, such as just Microsoft Office and their web browser. If your business is like this, and still stuck using Excel (for everything) or a Rolodex to hold customer information you are moving too slow and wasting money and time.

What about your day-to-day business operations?

Traditionally, many of us email documents back and forth, in order to do revisions and/or gain approvals. Using a wiki, Google docs or other online collaboration tool, the document can be stored, edited and revised online. There's no need to email documents back and forth.

What about video conferencing and long-distance telephone calls? Corporate video conferencing systems can be quite expensive, as can international telephone calls. What's the alternative? Ensure every mobile employee has a webcam (or order notebooks with the webcam built in - that's what I use) and get everyone a Skype account. Skype-to-Skype voice or video calls are free and calls to landlines and mobile numbers begin at just 2.1 US cents / 1.7 euro cents / 1.2 pence per minute. Hotel surcharges and other fees are bypassed, saving your business money.

What about backup? Instead of worrying and wondering if your computers are backed up, there are several vendors with "hosted" backup solutions that seamlessly and automatically backup your data to an online service.

These are just a few examples of how you can be more productive (in the case of backup - even more secure) through the productive use of technology!

Work with your local technology consultant and encourage your staff to use technology to boost their day-to-day business lives. You might want to specifically appoint someone to look at the top ten activities in your business (e.g., weekly staff meetings with remote offices, monthly budget reports, slow gigabyte file sharing transfers) and see what role technology could play to improve on all of these activities.

Technology is a tool. Use it to grow your business.

Last week, we announced the results of the Skype for Business Competition. We promised to share more details about how the winners (and other entrants) are saving time, saving money and staying ahead by using Skype in their businesses.

Here's a detailed case study about RareJob, the second place winner in Asia-Pacific:

RareJob was established in Tokyo in 2007 based on the idea of using Skype to create unique job opportunities linking Japan with other countries around the world. The inaugural project the company took on was teaching English as a second language, or ESL, employing tutors from the Philippines.

ESL instruction is a major industry in Japan, valued at ¥316.6 billion (about US$316 million) in 2007 according to Yano Research Institute Ltd. This is also a highly competitive market dominated until recently by several large nationwide chains of privately operated schools.

RareJob entered the fray armed with Skype. Gaku Nakamura, Chief Technology Officer, knew Skype well before he started the company with partner and CEO Tomohisa Kato.

"Before starting RareJob, I was involved in software development using the peer-to-peer technology at the heart of Skype. I used Skype at work everyday, so I knew its potential as a low-cost, high-quality communications tool," said Nakamura.

Great tutors without exorbitant costs
Skype enabled RareJob to build a strong base of highly qualified tutors in the Philippines, and at the same time sprint ahead of the competition by keeping operating costs down.

"All of our tutors are students or graduates of the University of the Philippines. We select tutors who have the highest English capability and most natural accents. We then help them get set up on Skype if they do not yet have an account, and train them in using Skype as an educational medium."

Unlike most of the major players in the Japanese ESL field, RareJob avoids the cost of maintaining schools in high-rent districts around train and subway stations. These areas have traditionally been the most convenient locations for busy commuters. And while the company pays competitive salaries to its Philippine tutors, labor costs are noticeably less than in Japan, and the tutors do not have to travel to Japan to do their jobs.

All this means savings to students without sacrificing profitability for RareJob.

"We use Skype for all our internal communications with tutors, as well as with our office in Manila. This lets us provide online lessons to Japanese students at ¥5,000 (US$50) per month. If a student does a 25-minute lesson everyday, that's ¥129 per lesson, about 40 times less than what the same student would pay for one-on-one lessons in a classroom."

The home advantage
What can be more convenient than studying in the comfort of your own home? RareJob users reserve time slots in advance over the web. When the reserved time arrives, one of the company's tutors calls the user, and the lesson begins. It's that easy, and another key reason for RareJob's popularity. In the economic climate since late 2008, more Japanese are going straight home from work, dining in rather than spending money outside. RareJob provides the cost-conscious Japanese with an easy, interactive means toward gaining a new skill, and perhaps contributing to future career development.

With an average of more than 2,000 ESL lessons per day and 700 registered tutors, RareJob is Japan's largest independent provider of online ESL instruction. Registered students have steadily risen, from about 1,000 in April 2008 to more than 13,000 in August 2009, and if anything the economic crisis is driving new growth.

"Other online service providers use different technologies, such as dedicated videophones the students have to lease or buy. This makes them less expensive than the classroom-style schools, but still a lot more than RareJob."

RareJob's students can also take advantage of Skype features not available with other online technologies, such as very high-quality audio and fast file sharing.

The future is video?
RareJob is only a year and a half old, but it has quickly emerged as a promising entrant in Japan's ESL market and a company with a bright future. Nakamura sees his brand of ESL instruction as continuing to evolve with Skype.

"Most of our students use voice calls for their lessons. The Philippine broadband infrastructure is not as far along as Japan's, so video calls are often impractical. But as we see Skype improving both audio and video quality while reducing the bandwidth needed, the potential of video instruction will grow. Video adds the dimension of visual aids like pictures. And students can observe the gestures that go along with different phrases and ways of speaking, leading to more natural conversation."

RareJob's mission is also only partially completed. ESL instruction is a success, but Nakamura and Kato are constantly working on new ideas for "rare jobs." Whatever the result, Skype will be there as the company's core utility.

So - this is it. Our panels of judges around the world have scrutinised your entries, reviewed them, ordered them and reordered them to arrive at our list of winners (and we thank them for their time and effort). Now, we're delighted to be able to announce the results of the Skype for Business Competition.

Continue reading "Winners announced: Skype for Business Competition" »