Introducing Skype for Business

Ever drifted off in a meeting? These guys certainly did! https://vimeo.com/173629586 Thanks the lord for SfB Recording!

lixo de programa

MSFT dreams well, now just start to work

Does anyone know how to put this on a phone?

1:00 hitting a women

Honestly seems like a joke. Skype always has been--shoddy performance, no IM features. MSN was and still is better, and now Business users get to feel the Skype pain! Woo! Yay for ruining productivity everywhere.

And the new virusware was born

This could work. If the somewhat-brilliant-but-unloved Lync becomes Skype for Business, then that may not be a bad thing; especially if the plan is to later integrate it into a single "Skype" product with multiple account access. Marketing a single communication brand/solution instead of two different-but-almost-the-same brands/solutions, is surely a no-brainer. And who didn't see this coming? Microsoft purchased Skype for more than a consumer customer-base. Hopefully the plan is to do a OneDrive with these services, and eventually roll them into a single solution that can be used for work AND play.

On OnDrive, here's how that went: Microsoft purchased Groove, which was a great "sync" tool for SharePoint - basically an "Offline Files for SharePoint" type product. Unfortunately, it wasn't that well-received as a separate paid product, so it was included in various other products (i.e. as a component of Office 2010 and onwards). The technology was later overhauled, renamed, and reshaped, into a product called SkyDrive for Business (later renamed to OneDrive for Business) and included in Office 365 subscriptions. Now, and despite OneDrive for Business using completely different technologies to the consumer OneDrive (being that it's still a sync tool for SharePoint content, etc.), OneDrive for Business is being integrated with popular OneDrive service (and apps) to create one experience, from one development team, under one brand/solution. This is a great idea; despite me personally not loving the OneDrive name or data sovereignty issues the consumer side could bring to the app.

So yeah, if we end up with a "Skype" that can take both personal and corporate user accounts, and offer connectivity to both services at the same time, then I won't complain.

Feeling strangely schizofrenic about this announcement.  My experience is that Lync, as a service, has been coming into its own, becoming the brand to watch in the UC space.  Now, with the personal-use Skype moniker, initial confusion may hamper acceptance among the business user.  Time will tell if this decision is a wise one or not.  Ultimately, the success of the platform will be determined based on its ease of use and reliability, regardless of what Microsoft chooses to call it.

Satya Nadella  ! You will save this company !

about time

I found this great TV service for my business (866)861-2526  They saved me $$$

let us hope it's more Skype-Like than Lync-like. Remember skype?

call it Skype Plus

I hope to see Lync (Skype for Business) client more like Skype and less like Lync.

Not surprised, they've been working toward this since the purchase of Skype.  It's a chance to combine a successful business and consumer product and hopefully gain market share in both areas.  And each product has big benefits from a technical side, just another bonus.

What are you guys thinking??? This is a horrible idea! I am a Microsoft Partner. I always have to assure our customers Lync is different than Skype and that's the only way they will buy it. This will confuse customers. I only found this thanks to a customer directing me here as a rebuttal. Please reconsider!

Hmm they showed android instead of Windows phone. Well done Microsoft

Please stop publishing applications under the names ''Skype'' or ''Skype Technologies S.A.'' just use the regular old ''Microsoft Corporation'', seriously Skype should stop acting like ''an independent company'', just because it has a different culture from the rest of Microsoft...

What an odd coincidence, yesterday I just suggested Microsoft to rename Microsoft Lync to ''Skype for Business'', reckon that I have some of the same ideas as the new Skype/Lync team. ;-)