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Skype targets business market

November 10, 2005 01:53 PM

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The signs are Skype is targeting the Small to Medium Business/Enterprise (SMB). Niklas Z. doesn’t say so in words, but his actions certainly point in that direction.

The first big SMB flag waving pointed out by the mad muppet on the Skype Forum was a job posting on the Skype web site here:

Product Manager Skype for Business Ref: PMSB-SO Lead the development of Skype for SMB and enterprise

But many other flags have been waving in the past 12 months:

A Network Administrators Guide

The announcement of Skype Groups

The Security white paper

The ability to disable the API and File Transfer

Other flags can be seen flying inside events. Robert Hernandez, International Alliance Manager for Columbus CRM is who attended Skype Day in Japan earlier this week told me,

“the conference was attended by about 1,000 participants, almost all business people in dark blue suits. Niklas gave a well prepared talk about Skype in Asia and also directed mostly at Skype used in business. He mentioned Salesforce.com and Columbus/SuperOffice integration during his talk. I could say the whole theme was about business usage of Skype, with the exception of highlights on the PCHome and Livedoor community.”


The opening of the business market will likely change the Skype Developer Ecosystem dramatically for the better. This market segment will pay money for solutions while the consumer segment wants it all for free.

Skype to PBX solutions will emerge in the coming weeks. Watch for the review in these pages.

Skype in the business market will likely attract some real players with some real money. Exciting times ahead.

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Comments

Posted by: Rick at November 10, 2005 4:18 PM

This is very exciting, indeed. They will have to ensure security concerns are met. That's the only road block. I still say Skype should begin using servers for businesses and avoid the security holes.

Posted by: MadMuppet at November 11, 2005 7:21 AM

Posted by: Bill Campbell at November 12, 2005 7:37 PM

Hey Rick!

So do you not think the Skype Security white paper settled some of the concerns?

If Skype sold private authentication servers to Forture 500 companies would that just transfer security issues to "local" from "global"? Assumming there are security issues.

So what's your idea?

Regards, Bill

Posted by: MuppetMaster at November 13, 2005 12:57 AM

Indeed, the whitepaper released by Skype undermined their position... Anyone with half a brain cell may see that:

http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=39355

Posted by: Rick at November 13, 2005 2:24 PM

Hey Bill, we saw the public rampage just last week from some consulting firm (or something) issuing a ban on Skype in the enterprise. I obviously don't know the merits of their statement, but nonetheless, Skype will have to counter such claims well enough to insure businesses remain safe. Whether that's a PR topic or security topic, I'm not sure.

My main call for servers is keep the supernodes from appearing on individual PC's within companies. That is my main concern. I don't think businesses will tolerate random CPU's supporting Skype supernodes. Will this also solve the "security hole" problems that have been posed on Skype? That's beyond my knowledge. The white paper may have addressed this.

Posted by: Mike at November 14, 2005 2:30 AM

We'd be using it now for our small business, except for one issue - billing. We can work around everything else but without the ability to fund several SkypeOut accounts from one central account, it's a non-starter.

Posted by: Phil Wolff at November 14, 2005 6:20 AM

Mike, Skype Groups was does exactly that: let a group admin buy SkypeOut minutes or SkypeIn subscriptions for members of that group.

Posted by: Jimmy at November 15, 2005 9:24 PM

It seems a new phase of battlefield in SoHo and SMB Market.

Apart from leading suppliers such like LinksysOne and D-Link xStack IP telephony, some smaller players GotVMail and pbxnsip PBX also are competing in this huge potential market segment.

Posted by: Bill Campbell at November 16, 2005 8:18 AM

Hey Jimmy!

Thanks for dropping by. There will be nothing but opportunity in the coming months. You will hear cash registers ring in Skypeland.

Regards, Bill

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