Skype recently released a flury of new features for businesses, if you have evaluated Skype but decided not to consider their offering, then I highly recommend you reconsider as a lot has changed in the last few months.
Lets take a look at what Skype has been up to the last few months.
Skype buys Sonorit a startup that was focusing voice quality and new transmission techniques. This is bound to lead to help boost Skypes engineering ability plus its likely to help Skype improve voice quality even further.
Skype announces free calls to landlines and mobiles in North America - us Europeans drool over this announcement with envy. Also Skype launches a major update (Version 2.5) to its software bringing a plethora of new features e.g. SMS, SkypeCasting, Conference Calling, Quality management, view Outlook contacts from Skype, and Skype begins certifying hardware products to ensure compatibility.
Also for us Euro’s Skype just made it a lot easier to get Skype credit and hardware by partnering with Sainsbury’s allowing Skype product placement throughout Sainsbury’s UK.
Dell and Packard Bell partner with Skype making calling from their products more convenient for customers. Skype announces the beta launch of new integrated eBay services for its UK subsidiary.
Integration is taken to a whole new level with this months announcement of a new toolbar that works with MS Office 2000, 2003, and XP products. It means simply that if you have a phone number in any Office application e.g Outlook, Word, Excel, Access you can by clicking on the number initiate a call using Skype. Check the press release for details
Exclusive new version (Version 1.5) of Skype is delivered for Mac OS X. This is important because the latest version of OS X from Apple wasn’t supported (from what I have been told).
As well Skype has released officially certified (compatibility assured) WiFi phones. That means you can walk around your home/office and keep you phone with you (assuming you have WiFi setup)
Enterprise/SMEs
What does this mean? What has changed that is so important? Skype as of today delivers Quality management functions (required by business), Conference calling, integration with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Thunderbird, MS Office, compatibility with current Mac OS X, and WiFi phones. This set of services are meet more than the minimum requirements of nearly any Enterprise and excels in areas of mobility and convenience that can’t be matched by any current PBX based calling system.
Some may mention Cisco as a provider of competitive products but they would be wrong. Cisco doesn’t integrate with PC based applications, as well all of Cisco’s products require expensive hardware. Expensive hardware for call management, licenses per user for the hardware, special (expensive) phones, etc. No if you buy Cisco now you probably have very specific needs that Skype can’t provide. But the majority of businesses should think long and hard about at the least beta testing Skype.
Please note the following definitions:
SkypeCasting - You talk an audience can listen and communicate back. Its what is referred to as one to many.
SMS - When you send a text message from your moblie/cell phone to another mobile/cell phone that is a text message but the technology is referred to as SMS. So this means you can now ‘text’ from Skype.
Call Quality Management - is an important feature that business’s needed before Skype could ever be officially used within a business environment. It basically ensures the quality of a Skype call, as its not good customer service if your voice cuts out every 10 seconds.
WiFi - Wireless home/office networks, don’t confuse this technology with your mobile/cell phone wireless technology.
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Business & Office 10.10.07 at 3:47 am
I thought that Skype business model is clear: Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise by Technological Winter was very interesting. I found you searching on Business & Office Tuesday Thanks for the nice post!
Business & Office 10.10.07 at 4:47 am
I thought that Skype business model is clear: Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise by Technological Winter was very interesting. I found you searching on Business & Office Tuesday Thanks for the nice post!