Skype Announces Skype For Business

conq writes "Skype has launched a new offensive to go after small business dollars. From the BusinessWeek article: 'The company is unveiling Skype for Business, aimed at small companies with fewer than 10 employees, on Mar. 9. Skype for Business will include a new Web site, Skype.biz, as well as a host of features and hardware. While Skype has introduced features appealing to business users one by one for the past six months, the new announcement marks the beginning of a concerted effort.'"

"Sounds" good to me !

[Mr. Funky]

Especially the caller-log-thingie is very interesting.
Here's a link to the biz-section : http://www.skype.com/business/ [skype.com]

skype 2 for MacOS...

[oriol]

When are they ging to port skype 2 for Mac OS.
I'd really like to have visio-conferences from my powerbook...

So when your DSL goes down....

[frinkacheese]

You go to the pub :-) Cus you won't be able ot diddly squat as you'll have skype for telephony, gmail for email, and the new google web office suite for your applications.

Skype for Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

All I want is Skype for Linux for work properly with alsa. Is that too much to ask?

Re:Skype for Linux

[ajs318]

And while we're at it, the source code would be nice.

Failing that, just use a commonly-available hardware SIP phone which will work with the Asterisk software PABX.

Re:Congratulations, Skype!

[Anonymous Coward]

not taking into account the number of ppl in Bizkaia (Biscay, Spain) that have been using it for years...

Re:Non Intel based businesses?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they use Asterisk and a non-proprietary provider.

Re:No More Phones?

[AIX-Hood]

Well that's the real problem right there. How do you call your ISP for network outage support when your phone lines (skype controlled) are down also. Suddenly people start reaching for cell phones.

With VOIP becoming more attarctive by the day..

[mysterious_w]

Will governments (especially those who still have state-run telephone systems) try to figure out a way to tax this somehow? Seems a bit too good to be true.

Re:So what will the big phone companies do now?

[IflyRC]

The news of AT&T buying Bellsouth this week has prompted a lot of new speculation on how the phone companies plan on competing. Most of it has to do with media. With high speed DSL lines, phone companies could offer many of the same services cable providers offer today. Especially view on demand type services.

So, it's possible that we will see great diversification on the telco side with other companies like Skype coming in to fill in the gaps.

Most small businesses though would probably choose to bundle their internet access, landline and mobile phone charges therefore the telcos still win. It would be hard to convince me as a business owner to continue to pay my telco or cable provider for an internet connection in addition to the cost of one of these setups. Just choose a telco bundled service offering and save.

Re:So when your DSL goes down....

[lukewarmfusion]

For some of us, losing your Internet connection is the worst part of that. Unless I'm updating my accounting or writing a proposal that doesn't need any additional research, there's almost nothing I can do. I take advantage of those times to play around in Ruby on Rails or read a book.

Not all businesses are as dependent on Internet as mine (web development)... But many businesses still keep their cell phones around. And with some VoIP providers, you can have your calls forwarded to your cell phone.

Skype vs Vonage vs ...?

[SEWilco]

So why use Skype rather than Vonage? Vonage has fax service, I see. Any other competitors?

Security?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean they'll be encrypting the calls finally? Or is a simple man-in-the-middle attack still enough to get your conversations?

Toronto Wifi Network

[Old Number 7]

With the Toronto downtown core going WIFI we might consider purchasing WIFI VOIP phones for employees. I do not know how the wireless companies plan to compete in this new market.

Skype can be turned into a botnet ...

[tonk]

... is what some smart people demonstrated at BlackHat Europe: Silver Needle in the Skype [secdev.org]

Stiff competition

[grasshoppa]

They have some stiff competition from Asterisk, which is just starting to gain some serious momentum.

Would you rather have;

1) A completely open system, based on commodity hardware

or

2) Locked in system?

Most people I talk with love asterisk BECAUSE it's based on standards. These are business owners I'm talking about. They dislike avaya's and co attempts to lock them in, and appreciate asterisk's openness.

Well, that, and asterisk can do *ANYTHING*.

Add in the fact they setup arbitrary limitations, and I don't think they are taking the business sector seriously.

They're already trying...

[kaniaro]

US government has already tried it [techdirt.com], and the FCC is on our side. For now. But when South Dakota makes abortion virtually illegal [guardian.co.uk], do you really trust our government to do what's in our best interests? They'll do anythign they can to get their paws on it somehow. They (the illusive "man/men for proper conjugation") are trying to get us to pay for email [cbronline.com], for fuck's sake! It's up to us and how much BS we're willing to deal with. Sony's DRM didn't last long, now did it? The market will even itself out, or that's the going theory...