So Skype recently introduced their Small Business Pack and I can’t help but wondering if anyone’s really waiting for that. Even though I am not a big fan of Skype, I’ll be the first to admit that Skype is great in the residential end-user space. People who want to call at significantly lower price (or even for free) greatly benefit from products such as Skype.

Businesses on the other hand, have entirely different communication objectives. The most important ones are: being available for your customers, having a reliable telephony system at all time and not having to make concessions when it comes to sound quality. Most business owners won’t even think about this, because they have become so used to it with their traditional analog PBX that it is considered normal.

And it should be considered normal but, as I explained before, internet telephony is an entirely different thing. And Skype, as much as other internet telephony services, just can’t guarantee the same reliability you have become used to from your traditional PBX connected to the PSTN.

Anyway, taking into account all that. Let’s see what you’re getting in the small business pack. Basically it comes down to Skype Business Edition, 50 Euro call credit and 10 5-month subscriptions to Skype Pro. For those who don’t know, Skype Pro allows you to call for free within your country and offers free voicemail. Skype Business Edition, apparently means Skype with a Windows installer.

Unfortunately Skype really fails in the business department. You’re only getting more of the same: cheaper calls and free calls. I have yet to see a compelling feature for businesses tempted to make the switch. Until then, I’m afraid Skype for business is nothing more than regular Skype.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 09:43 CEST and is filed under Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.