Skype for Business
Skype for Business
When it comes to online communications, Skype is the de facto method because the service makes it so easy to call other users and video chat. Despite its advantages, however, Skype is very much a consumer service and not a business one, as it doesn’t support conference calls or screen sharing. With Skype for Business (starting at $2 per user per month, with additional fees), Microsoft is closing the gap. The company combined Lync (formerly Microsoft Office Communicator), its enterprise communications platform, with Skype’s familiar interface to create software that’s easy to use and has features businesses need. But it falls short of a full-fledged enterprise VoIPplatform. Even so, Skype for Business hits that sweet spot for small businesses that need more than Skype’s personal VoIP service but may not be interested in an enterprise VoIP system such as Editor’s ChoiceRingCentral or Nextiva. Skype for Business also comes with solid video conferencing capabilities. It’s worth a second look, even if you are happy with your existing VoIP service.
Skype for consumers has grown up a bit over the past few years, as it now lets you hold video chats with up to 10 participants and offers some remote desktop features. And associated mobile apps make it easy to use Skype from devices other than your computer. There are also cool features such as Skype Translator and Web-based Skype, and these features are present in Skype for Business, too.
At one of my past jobs, there were no company-issued phones. We used Skype on our computers with decent headsets. We loaded up Skype credits to get a Skype-assigned phone number so that people could call us and we could make outbound calls to phone numbers. We usedCitrix GoToMeeting for meetings and Jive Chime for group instant messaging. And when all of that got too pesky, as it inevitably did, we fell back to using our personal cell phones. During the course of this review, I kept thinking Skype for Business would have been perfect for that scenario. That doesn’t mean, however, that it would be perfect for every business, as I’ll explain.
Skype for Business Plans
Skype for Business is easy to use once you figure out how to navigate the maze of pricing and plan features. You have a choice of purchasing a standalone Skype for Business plan with an annual fee or signing up with one of the business-grade Microsoft Office 365 plans that include Office, Exchange, and SharePoint. The standalone entry-level plan, Online Plan 1 ($2.00 per user per month), offers only group instant messaging and audio and HD video calling to other users. It’s very limited. The Online Plan 2 ($5.50 per user per month) is a little bit more useful, also supporting group HD video calls, desktop and application sharing, and audio/video recording. This plan also lets you schedule meetings via Outlook, join meetings from the Web browser, remotely control attendee desktops, and keep attendees in a lobby area prior to starting a meeting. Compared with other VoIP providers such as RingCentral and Nextiva, Skype for Business is dirt cheap. But the low price means that you have to be sure the plan you are signing up for has the features you need.
Skype for Business Server 2015 is the full-fledged VoIP platform, with dial-in audio conferencing and other enterprise VoIP features, such as E911 and call forwarding. You install the software on your own servers and get SIP and gateway interoperability with PBX systems. You work with a Microsoft partner to get the pricing, the software, and support. In this sense, Skype for Business Server 2015 is similar to Kerio and CudaTel from Barracuda Networks, since you are responsible for maintaining your own hardware.
If you want to integrate your phone system with Exchange and SharePoint, optimize the network connection, and access Quality of Service tools to make sure you have enough bandwidth, you should consider having a dedicated Skype for Business Server. If you are already using Lync Server 2013, you should look into upgrading the software on your server.
As I mentioned earlier, Skype for Business also comes as an integrated feature for Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium. Skype for Business comes with Office 365 Enterprise but not Office 365 Business or any of the Home versions. Other than the subscription cost associated with Office 365, there’s no additional cost. You won’t have access to persistent chat or archiving features through Office 365 or use Skype for Business and Exchange Online to get enterprise features such as call answering and auto-attendant services. For that, you need Skype for Business Server 2015 or a different VoIP provider such as Jive Hosted VoIP or Broadvoice.
Getting Started With Skype for Business
Since Office 365 offers a 30-day free trial, I signed up with Office 365 Business Premium to test Skype for Business. Once the Office 365 signup was complete, I saw Skype for Business listed under available applications and was able to install the client software.
After installation, Skype opens up a product tour with tips for using Skype for Business, or you log in to the service with your organization’s sign-in address. In my case, Microsoft meant my Office 365 password, since I was using the service as part of my Office 365 service. If you have a stand-alone plan, you would use the account you associated with Skype for Business. And if you have Skype for Business Server, you will use your standard corporate credentials after configuring the software to work with your organization’s domain.
Familiar Interface
Microsoft inverted its Skype color palette for Skype for Business; blue on white, rather than the opposite. The interface is clean and professional-looking, but still familiar, with the username on top along with presence status, and a place to set my status and location. The person icon shows all the contacts, the clock icon displays all conversations, the dial pad shows voicemail, and the calendar icon lists scheduled meetings. The gear icon shows the menu options for recording calls and configuring devices.
This is where Skype for Business feels less like a phone system and more like a conferencing tool. Instead of thinking in terms of dialing a phone number, you are inviting a user to a meeting. The Meet Now option lets you set up a meeting that starts right away, without having to go through Outlook or the Web Scheduler to create it. The software with either call your phone directly, or launch a Skype for Business session on your computer or mobile device. You click on the Invite Users icon to invite people to the meeting by name or phone number. Up to 250 participants can be in the meeting at the same time. That total includes attendees using the client software, Web apps, and phones, as well as those taking part anonymously via the Web.
This makes it really easy to have a conference call—no fiddling with buttons on your phone to try to get multiple people on the same call. I can’t count the number of times I’ve inadvertently hung up on people trying to call someone else into an existing conversation.
Participants have the option to see the meeting as Gallery View, which shows all the participants’ pictures or videos; Speaker View, which shows only the presenter; Presentation View, which shows the meeting content, such as a presentation or demonstration; and Compact View, which shows only the titles of the participants. When you are on an audio call, you see the participants’ pictures. Presenters are meeting attendees who have control of the screen and in-call tools. Skype for Business allows all 250 participants to be elevated to presenter status, if needed.
As in the consumer version of Skype, chat is available during the call, and you can invite multiple users to the chat. You can also see all the people in the call by clicking on the Participant icon. The Participant Actions button opens up even more options you wouldn’t see in consumer Skype, such as the ability to mute everyone’s microphones and turn off video, disable chat during the meeting, hide the participant list from everyone else, make everyone an attendee (taking away presenter privileges), and send invitations to the meeting via email. The phone settings icon at the bottom opens up a dialer, in case you need to enter any keys. Most people are used to this interface from Skype and Google Hangouts, and Microsoft left this user experience intact.
If you navigate out of the call window, because you need to reference a different application, for example, Skype for Business shows a smaller icon in the top corner, with the microphone and hang-up icons as the visual indicator that your meeting is still in progress.
If you don’t really want to rely on your computer for making calls but are intimidated by the smorgasbord of options from RingCentral, consider Ooma Office. The initial up-front costs are high, but it provides you with a quality VoIP system with basic features and the ability to use practically any phone.
Video Conferencing Capabilities
Microsoft offers high-definition (1,920-by-1,080) video for peer-to-peer calls among users running Skype for Business. Toggling between voice and video calls is simple; just click on the video icon during the call or meeting. Initiate a video call with a specific user by clicking on the user’s icon in the contact list.
There don’t appear to be limits on how many people can have video switched on, which is a little surprising. Most video conference tools have specific limits. I was able to test with up to six different users, and my local network struggled to support it, but the application itself didn’t choke. The video screens are displayed in gallery view, which makes it easy to see all the participants at once. On video calls with more than five people, the application displays the icons for the five most active speakers on the top with a row of smaller icons with the less vocal attendees on the bottom. You can always tell who is currently speaking.
Video Conferencing Features
While it’s obviously based on Skype itself, the business version’s feature set is more in line with Lync’s. Calls and meetings can be recorded. Desktop sharing is very robust, letting presenters broadcast any visuals, applications, webpages, documents, software, or part of their desktops. You can share the entire screen or only a portion of it, as needed. Meeting participants can take control of the keyboard and mouse, or let them share their screens during the call, if you allow it. If you are using PowerPoint, you get access to presentation features, such as animations, transitions, and embedded video through Skype for Business.
Like WebEx and other Web conferencing tools, Skype for Business has a whiteboard that meeting participants can mark up during the course of the meeting. The polling feature is a simple survey tool to collect anonymous feedback during the course of the meeting. The Lobby feature is where participants can wait in a separate virtual area before being allowed to attend the meeting. This is a good security feature if you have a large meeting planned, since you can check who is coming in.
Microsoft made a good decision to not restrict use to Skype for Business users only. You can invite standard Skype users to your meetings and add them to the Contact list or send a Skype for Business meeting invitation to someone outside your organization and have them attend by signing in with a Guest account over the Web. You create meetings directly from Outlook, or you can use the Web Scheduler site. You provide the name and time of the meeting along with the list of attendees to create the meeting. You have to cut and paste the resulting meeting invitation and email it yourself, but that’s not so different from GoToMeeting, WebEx, and any number of other video conferencing platforms.
The recording feature is easy to enable and includes meeting participants, all audio and video, chat conversations, screen sharing, whiteboards, and presentations. Even if you use Office 365, all the recordings are made and stored on the presenter’s machine. To get server-side recording, you will need the Server 2015 version. You can choose 480p, 720p HD, or 1080p Full HD as the preferred resolution for the final recording. Even though this is a video conferencing feature, audio calls can be recorded too. Remember that, for many VoIP providers, call recording is considered an advanced feature and not available to everyone. It’s nice that it’s built-in with Skype for Business, much as it is for RingCentral.
Phone Compatibility and Third-Party Integration
Skype for Business is designed primarily to work with computers and mobile devices, so it supports Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. No love for BlackBerry, alas. If you are using Skype for Business Server and the associated enterprise VoIP features, you can connect to a wide variety of SIP-compatible handsets and devices.
If you want to have a dial-in number assigned to your specific meeting, you will need to provide your own, or integrate with a third-party audio conferencing provider. If you are already integrating with an existing PBX or have the enterprise features enabled via Server 2015, you will be able to create a phone number—but that isn’t available through Office 365.
Microsoft doesn’t skimp on the help and troubleshooting tools. I was able to figure out most of my issues based on existing documentation.
Not Enterprise-Level VoIP, but Still Useful
Skype for Business is not quite enterprise VoIP in that you don’t get a lot of services such as call hunt, call groups, or an auto-attendant unless you set up Skype for Business Server 2015. If you are looking for an enterprise VoIP system, our Editor’s Choice for VoIP, RingCentral, will give you all the VoIP features without having to run your own server. However, most small businesses would still like Skype for Business as a conferencing tool to set up video and audio meetings, share screens, and collaborate directly. The fact that you can call phone numbers, set up meetings, or have one-on-one conversations, and record it all, easily makes Skype for Business a solid Web conferencing tool on top of all the things that made Skype popular in the first place.
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