Skype Gaining Business Users

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Skype, the Internet-based telephony company which eBay plans to spin off in 2010, claims it’s gaining a new audience — business users.

Chaim Haas, a spokesman for the company, told me that the proportion of business users as a percent of the total customer base grew from 30 percent to 35 percent from 2007 to 2008. And in case you’re wondering, that’s not because its user numbers have been tailing off. According to the latest figures reported by eBay, Skype added 37.9 million new registered users in the last quarter, up from 35 million in the previous quarter, and now has 443.2 million users.

Haas said this trend is being pushed along thanks to virtualization, of all things. His reasoning? Virtualization, which creates a layer of separation between physical equipment and software, helps corporate IT departments better isolate and protect critical assets. “Organizations can let users define what they’re using because they know they can secure corporate applications and deliver them securely,” he told me.

The idea that employees bring tools originally intended for consumers into the workplace isn’t new — it’s a phenomenon often referred to as the “consumerization of IT” — but is usually associated with gadgets like the instant messenger clients employees started downloading to their office PCs in the early 2000s, or the iPhone, which users have forced IT administrators to adapt for corporate use.

But Skype? I find it hard to believe that people would fight for their right to Skype. After all, they’ve already won the battle for IM and the iPhone, and probably have access to Facebook or any other social network of their choice; few companies are strict about phone usage these days, and organizations watching their telephony dollars are probably considering alternative voice-over-IP (VoIP) systems from enterprise-focused vendors like Cisco, Avaya and ShoreTel.

But Haas insisted that Skype is steadily gaining business customers, mainly thanks executives on the road who discover Skype for personal use and then realize it could help their companies save money. Let me know if that rings a bell for you.

Tags: Skype Technologies S.A., VOIP, Telecom & Utilities, Telecommunications, Instant Messaging, Networking, Internet, Online Communications, Michael Hickins

Michael Hickins is a professional writer and journalist with a passion for ferreting out the intersections between technology and culture.

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1

slavana

05/20/09 | Report as spam

RE: Skype Gaining Business Users

I'm surprised that you find it hard to believe individuals want
to bring Sykpe into the workplace. As you cite, it is very
common for tools that are intended for consumers to wind up
in the workplace. As the divide between work and personal
life blurs, tools that increase productivity and allow
virtualization become more ubiquitous, regardless of their
original intent.

As for Skype, the great part about using it for business is
that it allows workers to function as if they're in the office,
regardless of where they are geographically. A company like
OnState (http://www.on-state.com) takes Skype's
virtualization a step further and lets you know exactly what
an employee is doing by monitoring his/her business presence,
so that you can find the right person for a customer to talk
to no matter where the person currently resides. As
companies look for more ways to reduce CAPEX and
encourage virtualization, expect to see Skype and companies
like OnState become commonplace in the business world.
2

ErikSherman

05/20/09 | Report as spam

RE: Skype Gaining Business Users

Count me as another skeptic. Skype interests people largely because they can talk for free or for cheap. If you're at a corporation office, that's not an issue because the phone call cost isn't coming out of your pocket. And for corporate managers, they can already use IP telephony to cut costs and have the advantage of business-oriented management and administrative tools.
3

Michael Hickins

05/26/09 | Report as spam

RE: Skype Gaining Business Users

Skype hopes to make its way into the enterprise in the same way Salesforce.com did, through departmental purchases, but I very much doubt this will get much traction.
4

kuvalda99

10/24/09 | Report as spam

RE: Skype Gaining Business Users

There are many benefits to using Skype besides the cost savings, such as, improved productivity and better collaboration. Business executives who use Skype on the road do realize the value that Skype brings, however, are reluctant to take advantage of Skype in their businesses mainly due to IT security concerns.

Businesses don't want to be managing Skype installations on their employee desktops and laptops, and instead, they are looking for ways to integrate Skype communication with their existing telephony infrastructure from vendors such as Nortel, Cisco, Avaya, etc.

IndustryDynamics is an international manufacturer of Skype gateways for business, offering an award winning VoiceGear Connect platform, which allows businesses of all sizes to take advantage of Skype. VoiceGear Connect gateways can be integrated with any Analog, Digital or VoIP PBX system. The integration is seamless and doesn't require any changes to the existing telephony infrastructure.

VoiceGear gateways allow SMB and Enterprise businesses to take full advantage of Skype while keeping their existing phone systems unchanged.