Another Skype question...
I have also been considering switching to Skype for my business. How many of you who have done so use it as your primary telephone? Also, how many of you use a special "Skype" phone? Have you found it to save money in addition to the other conveniences?
Good Answers (5)
Colin W
Owner First Border Ltd
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I have been using Skype in my business for a couple of years. It fantastic for Skype to Skype and also excellent for land lines. However, calls to mobiles are expensive and you also need to watch the 'free call' numbers and the like as they are not free using Skype... in fact they are expensive to call.
I make most of my land line calls using Skype... the quality is good. Skype's technology is based on distributed processing and the more users on the system the better the quality... that is why over the years the quality is improving.
I use head phones via my computer and that means I can talk and work. The only time quality suffers is if I am talking and then send a large email... sorts of drains the quality.
It does save a lot of money, particularly if you phone overseas a lot. We also find the conferencing ability very good.
Hope that helps
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Pat P
Manager, Professional Services at Hatsize Learning Corporation
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Skype is not anywhere near mission critical enough for business use. Are you thinking about advertising your SkypeIn number for business purposes? Can I suggest that you use a service in front of it and route your calls to another destination in the case that Skype is not accessible? I think you will find that strategy effective as if you have problems with Skype your calls aren't lost in the fray.
Vladimir Pacuraru [
Integration Engineer at LogLogic
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I tend to agree with Pat:Skype might be a great tool, but not for business. And that is for several reasons: so the Skype protocol is peer to peer, right? Which basically means that when carying out a conversation, you never know which node carries it! Also the Skype protocol being a black box, you never know what backdoor are / might be / will be, so for instance someone could plug in and listen to your conversation(s). Let's put the other way around: say you've got your corporate network, with a fully-fledged Internet connexion that represent a certain cost to you; you open it to Skype; automagically, it can determine, based on the computer's characteristics and the available bandwith, if you should become a supernode! So what will this mean? Simply put, you'll carry other people's conversation via the bandwith you pay for. And finally, let's not forget that there is the need for a critical mass in order for the Skype network to work; in 2007, mid-august, because of many Windows computer that had to be rebooted after a patch installation pretty much crashed the Skype network. What would you have done then assuming that you had based your phone conversations on Skype? It is true that they've assured that they fixed this, but this means people had to download and install a new version; how many have done that? And what is the guarantee that it'll never happen again?!? Anyway, I wouldn't recommend using it for business.
My company is a T-1 provider and I have several customers that use Skype for their international calls. Their success or failure depended on 2 factors: the number of calls taking place at once and the available upload bandwidth. Too many calls and too littel bandwidth is a ticket for disaster. All of my customers are using POTs lines or a T-1 for their local dial tone and most use the same for their domestic long distance. I agree with the other comments about Skype not being the best business platform. My general recomendation is that if your are only making calls within your company and not having customer contact, then Skype or VoIP in general might be a good cost effective solution. If used as a customer interface, I think you will be disappointed in the resluts.
Brian C
VP of Sales & Sales Planning; GlobalSpec: Online Publisher and Specialized Search Engine
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I use skype only for communication with our International contractors (China, Japan, Taiwan and Germany). It's cost-effective for them and us; otherwise I use regularly land or cell phones for all other calls. If you have reason and rationale to have frequent contact overseas; having skype makes a ton of sense but I have personally found that using skype when the other doesn't have skype doesn't make a ton of sense.
We've also had connectivity issues in the past; if you go 100% skype - better hope you don't have an internet connection issue - you'll lose your email and phone at the same time; not a fun place to be in....you'll be cell reliant at that point.
Hope this helps; I think people still feel more comfortable "knowing" you have a land line.
More Answers (5)
Tielman N
Supply Chain, Emerging and Frontier Markets
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Skype is great for business, especially when you are talking to client on a global scale.The ROI looks pretty good. It also great for long distance relationships ....
Links:
Alex B suggests this expert on this topic:
He is VP of IS at iBasis, company that provide infrastructure for Skype.
We are using Skype as main tool for international communication and many people use the separate skype phone as well - I can highly recommend
Anthony R
Conferencing Consultant and Technical Specialist. Audio, Video and WebConferencing.
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I have to agree that Skype is a great tool, but not to base your busines on it alone. Too many variables and there is not going to be someone at Skype you can call and talk to if there is ever a problem. you are pretty much on your own with it. I use it myself for those that want to contact me that way as some people like to, but I wouldn't initiate it to contact a customer. It also give a look of "I'm trying to find freebies" type of image to your company. A customer likes to think they are at least worth a normal phone call.
Good luck,
Anthony
Two things you need to be aware of with Skype as opposed to SIP solutions are:
1. with Skype you have no possibility to just change network in case you're not satisfied.
2. SIP protocol provides a direct peer to peer connection (uses the SIP server only to setup the call) and would therefore tend to be slightly more reliable.
