I had a chat with Ian Robins from VoSKY Technologies this week, and he explained a little bit more about what businesses can get out of using his company's Vosky Exchange PBX-to-Skype gateways.

My immediate thoughts were naturally centred around the cost-savings that rolling out Skype in a controlled way to all of your employees can bring. However, as Ian explains, the benefits run far further than this including opening up a whole new audience of millions of customers, as well as enabling a totally new way of interacting with those customers. Full text of the interview after the break...

1) In a nutshell, what does the Vosky Exchange let me do?

The Skype VoSKY Exchange allows you to make, receieve and transfer Skype calls from any phone attached to your office phone system (PBX). By adding 4 or 8 Skype lines to your pbx we bring all the benefits of Skype to any phone without needing Skype to be loaded on each PC.

Obviously small businesses want to keep a tight hand on the purse strings. how does the Vosky Exchange help them do this?

In two ways,
i) All your staff can make a Skype call from anywhere in the building, Skype to Skype calls are still completely free and SkypeOut calls are extremely cost effective.
ii) Customers, remote staff and regional offices can all use Skype to call in to your office for free. By utilising Skype Buttons and SkypeIn numbers a business can have a remote presence in another country for as little at £30. By using an Exchange all this incoming call traffic will be handled on your regular phone system.

How scary is it to install?

Anyone that has knowledge of Skype and their own PBX is capable of installing an Exchange. However, the PBX is normally maintained by a third party so they will usually need to be involved in the process. Installation takes between 1 & 3 hours and there is no downtime for the staff while the set up is taking place.

Do I need an engineer to fit it?

It depends on your knowledge of your own phone system. If you need an engineer we have regional partners that can help in this regard. I would suggest that you go to www.vosky.com/skype and give us a call, we will be able to answer your questions and tell if you need an engineer or not.

How many phones can I route through one Vosky Exchange?

There is no limit on the number of phones that can be attached to a VoSKY Exchange. The limitation is the number of simultaneous Skype calls that you want to make. The current devices are 4 or 8 port versions, so you can make up to 4 or 8 simultaneous Skype calls. If you want to go beyond that you will need a second unit, but there is no limit on the number of Exchanges that can be added to your phone system. As long as you have free extension or trunk ports to connect to the Exchange can add Skype ports.

How about mobile. I understand I can route my mobiles via Skype using this as well. How does that work?

This is correct. A by product of having Skype extensions on your PBX is that you can make an international call whilst paying for a domestic one!!! From your mobile phone you can dial into your regular office number, hopefully utilising the free minutes from your call plan, then you will be able to speedial or SkypeOut to any of your companies Skype contacts. Alternatively you can set up the Exchange to forward any calls to a certain extension straight to a single Skype or SkypeOut contact. So by asking the receptionist to put you through to extension 112 you could be forwarded by the Skype VoSKY Exchange directly to your Australian office or Skype user.

Are there features to allow me to control access and monitor calls?

The VoSKY Exchange software comes with all the call tracking, monitoring and reporting functionality you would expect from a high end telephone system.

How easy is it and what can I track?

The administrator can get data on call duration, time, contact & Skype credit usage. He/She can also set up public and private phone books so users can still call their personal Skype contacts without making them available to other staff. The use of Skype credit and dialling certain numbers can also be restricted by time of day, duration or user, and the administrator can use the Skype Control Panel to stay on top of his Skype credit.

What's the difference between the 9040 and the 9140 VoSky Exchange?

The 9040 adds 4 Skype ports to the trunk side of your PBX and the 9140 adds 4 ports to the extension side. These are just different ways of attaching to a phone system. Both solutions are comfortable in regular and IP based PBX environments. Goto www.vosky.com/skype for more information or to find a local specialist.

What regions is it available in?

The VoSKY Exchange is available worldwide but the Skype branded Exchange has been launched in the UK to start with plans to expand to Europe and beyond as demand dictates

Apart from the cost savings, what other benefits do you think Skype offers for companies?

In our opinion cost savings although important, are secondary to the concept of opening your business to the worldwide Skype community . The prospect of 200 million potential new customers being able to call your phone system for free and for that incoming call to be held, transfered and forwarded like a regular call is enough to justify upgrading your PBX to SKype. However the immediate savings that customers see from remote staff and sub office communications costs are staggering.

For more information on the VoSky Exchange products, check out their website at http://www.vosky.com/skype.