Business

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 – head over to the Business blog to find out more about the Beta programme.

^† 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.

Update: Skype for Asterisk is out of beta

Stefan Öberg is vice president and general manager for Skype Telecom and Skype for Business

I’m speaking today at AstriCon in Glenndale, Arizona, and I’m excited to announce the beta version of Skype For Asterisk, which will allow small and mid-sized businesses to integrate Skype functionality into Digium’s Asterisk software. If you’re an Asterisk user, you’ll be able to make, receive and transfer Skype calls from your Asterisk phone.

Specifically, the beta version of Skype For Asterisk is an add-on channel driver module that integrates Skype calling with Asterisk-based telephony products. Skype For Asterisk also complements small and mid-sized business users’ existing services by providing low rates for calling landline and mobile phones around the world.

Continue reading "Skype for Asterisk Beta" »

"These Digital Times" blogger John Welsh gives Skype kudos and talks about how he spread the word on Skype Video calling during a recent business trip to the US.

Welsh, who works for an international B2B (business-to-business) exhibition and magazine company has been encouraging new contacts to sign up for Skype.

He notes: "I have always loved Skype. It is free! It is video! It is like being in StarTrek! What more could you want?"

He wants his colleagues to call each other face-to-face rather than send e-mails or make audio conference calls.

But now he ponders what the proper approach is to alert people when you'd like to make a Video call.

He asks: "What is the etiquette, however, for these B2B calls? In family-to family or friend-to-friend, you almost always need to make a quick phone call to alert the other person. 'Get on Skype' is the command to open up the laptop and get talking. But the office is different.

"People often have their laptop/computer booted up all day. Unless the user remembers to click on the various Skye icons indicating the readiness of the person to speak, you can easily interrupt a meeting at a desk or a train of thought."

Welsh suggests a quick e-mail to set up an appointment with the same preparation one takes for a conference call.

Here's another approach: I often use Chat to check in B2B or F2F before making even an audio call--even if someone signals they are on SkypeMe status or otherwise available.

Any other suggestions for making B2B or F2F calls in "These Digital Times"?

Scott Durchslag joined Skype last week (June 30) as chief operating officer, reporting to President, Josh Silverman. I caught up with him Monday while he was in Luxembourg for a meeting of Skype's leadership.

I first met Scott a few years ago when he was an executive at Motorola, the mobile phone pioneer based in suburban Chicago, and I was a tech columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times.

He made a name at Moto, having led a turnaround of the company's South Asia business, where his team doubled revenues to $1billion. As Chief Strategy officer who architected the successful 2002 turnaround strategy, the RAZR phone was launched which became the best-selling mobile phone in history, helping double Moto's market share to 24 percent. Scott was also the force behind Motorola's shift away from proprietary software and toward consumer experience-based designs.

The self-described "consumer product guy" was involved in major deals with such partners as Kodak, Microsoft and Google.

The 42-year-old Chicago area native, who has an MBA from Harvard, left Motorola about a year ago, soon after the company lost Mobile Devices President Ron Garriques to Dell.

He laughed when I asked him whether war-torn Yugoslavia, where he was a freelance journalist, or Schaumburg (Motorola's headquarters) was more dangerous. He wisely kept his counsel.

He has been busy in the past year with some private equity deals and the birth of his second child.

He shared some thoughts about the Skype opportunity and where it's headed.

Continue reading "Skype's new COO Scott Durchslag speaks out " »

30 percent of Skype's users are businesses, and the Business Control Panel is a handy way for them to manage Skype credit and SkypeIn numbers. The trusty panel now knows some new tricks:

-- Easily invite co-workers (using a company email list)

-- Create a members directory so employees know who else belongs to the same company

-- View itemized call reports for your members

-- Purchase up to €1,000 of Skype credit at once

-- Automatically top-up your Control Panel credit balance

Read Scott Davison's fresh post on the Skype Business blog for details on these new features.

Continue reading "TLC for business users" »

The weekend is nigh and you're probably cherishing the thought of sleeping in on Saturday. Then again, you could be a selfless and dutiful Eastern European male who knows about International Women's Day and will wake up early to get your significant female other some flowers and cook her a proper breakfast.

In any case, I wanted to draw your attention to a nice piece by our UK blogger Peter. Inspired by a this week's Wall Street Journal article on businesses that banish useful and cool technologies, he's linked the issue to a Guardian story on the experimental spark that has led a couple of big firms to attempt morphing the monster known as corporate IT policy into a cute little puppy.