David Greenfield wrote a piece for CMP's Networking Pipeline called "The Six Gotchas Of Skype For Business" in response to Skype's new small business marketing buzz and their renaming of the Skype for Business Control Panel.

I won't say that Skype is a fully formed enterprise system. It isn't. It's raw, cheap, different, and disruptive. And Skype is merely the first of its kind to take off. If your business doesn't have pilot Skype deployments in place, you're missing out on key learnings. It is so much more conducive to conversation than legacy phones that you'll be discovering new relationships with customers, reinforcement of your informal organization structures, and fewer mistakes due to poor communication. You're asking the wrong question, David. Not "Why?", but "How soon?"

From his column with my comments.

But Skype for Business still comes up short in six areas:

1. Skype for Business still doesn't provide centralized reporting, so business won't be able to monitor how users spend Skype credits. There's no way to monitor or prevent, for example, users from calling 900 numbers and the like.

You can add features to Skype by having other programs talk to it through its published programming specifications. The API knows just about everything the Skype client does, in more granular detail than most phone systems. The data is there for you if you want to get it.

Skype is like your telephone station, a phone and dialer, not a multiphone telephone switch. Expecting multi-user reporting and analysis from a single-user device is like expecting a car to report a fleet's gas mileage.

To my knowledge, you cannot call 900 numbers with Skype; it can't pay extra bills and tariffs. So Mr. Greenfield is factually incorrect now, but may change in the future. In fact, as Conversation 3.0 picks up more transactional power, like exchanging money for talk or money for file exchanges, you may expect people to pay for services and even eBay items from their Skype accounts.

2. Skype for Business doesn't provide hunt groups where multiple extensions ring when a phone is dialed. Skype was expected to deliver that function in this release.

Other companies are meeting this need. Third party solutions integrate Skype with telephone switches (PBXs) and offer hunting, among other features. For example, Zipcom's SkypePBX

3. Call transfers still aren't provided.

Forwarding, yes. Transfers, no.

Not much engineering effort to leap from forwarding to transfer. First, the forwarder needs to leave the call completely, and the other parties just see each other. Second, this must be allowed before accepting a call, when your Skype is ringing, and during a call. Third, it should work for conference calls too. Fourth, by adding forwarding to the programmers' API, you enable distributed, emergent call centers.

I agree this is an important feature for end users and the workplace. Even more, it opens up Skype We'll see when Skype pushes this into the development queue.

Must you wait for call transfer before adopting Skype at all? That's up to you. It's probably not stopping your competition.

4. There's no attendant [software that helps callers find and reach the right extension] or IVR function [interactive voice response, providing menus that interact with business applications like online banking], which would redirect calls to other Skype numbers based on user selection. Many IVR functions can be provided through a Web page, but that won't help users who might be calling in from the PSTN.

Again, confusing Apples for Oranges and missing the point. It's not the phone's job to do those things. Skype has a partner program to help companies build voice applications. The first automated attendant and IVR products shipping today from third parties.

5. Calls are still encrypted, preventing businesses from ensuring that employees aren't passing information that might violate regulatory restrictions.

To the contrary, encryption, where applied, is an asset appreciated by customers. This higher level of security protect clients from third party eavesdropping, more than other VoIP or POTS solutions. If you want to assure information integrity, start right there.

If you're relying on snooping to prevent bad behavior, then you're in trouble. Invasive systems never prevent bad behavior, just catch it. There's a higher ROI from treating staff well, and have great people, processes, training, and morale.

Mr. Greenfield misstates things again. Calls are only encrypted if they are PC-to-PC and Skype-to-Skype. So SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls aren't encrypted. If you want recordings of calls, and it is legal for you to do so, then there is plenty of off the shelf software to let you do that. (Skype Journal's own guide to the Skype Plug-In Architecture will step a programmer how to write their own answering machine in an hour.) If you want a supervisor to listen during a call, use Skype conferencing; it works.

6. Forget about E-911 compliance. There is none.

Skype isn't subject to E-911 regulations, or similar rules in the hundreds of other countries where people use Skype. In the future, Skype may partner with e911 providers so customers may opt-in, the way Vonage customers do right now. But for now, your phone switch should be routing emergency calls through your local phone system to your local emergency response service. (P.S. If you're worried about 911 compliance, try auditing your mobile carriers.)

Without those capabilities, don't expect Skype for Business to replace your telephony system any time soon.

Bottom line: Assess Skype on its own merits and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Can your phone system work from another location an hour after your building burns down? Does it help your workforce signal presence, saving time? Does it offer your partners and colleagues strong encryption against corporate spies and identity thieves? Will your phone system make video and audio conferencing so easy that everyone does it?

Tags: e911, 911, strategy, skype, skypejournal, callcenter, pbx, asterisk