Should more businesses be using Skype?

Short answer is Yes, Paul. I've followed Skype from the beginning, and just wrote about this. They've made some great inroads with Skype for Business, and now provide much more than cheap/free Internet calling. Skype has always been great as a complement to existing telephony for businesses of all sizes. It works very well for video as well, and of course IM.

The only way you'll have something to worry about is if you think about Skype as your primary means of communicating and to replace a telephony system. I wouldn't go so far just yet, but they're certainly going down that path. That shouldn't stop you from using Skype as an everyday tool and exploring the full range of possibilities, which will only expand. I could go on with this, but this isn't the forum to do that.

What started as a tool to keep in touch with friends and family has now become an essential business tool. Internally, we use skype to communicate with our internal teams - as consultants sometimes we need answers quickly - and we find this to be invaluable for that ( as well as the cost effective calls). There are dangers of course but generally the benefits outweigh the negative. Nevert tried video conferencing though - anyone with experience of this?

Have you ever run into reliability issues? It seems like that would be a potential bugaboo but it seems like the issue is overblown. The same comments were made initially about cell calls but companies were quite willing to trade off a slight degradation in performance for the potential benefits.

I think Skype is definitely a viable alternative for small to medium businesses.

Provided you have the right bandwidth, there are rarely any call failures. In terms of call quality, for Skype to Skype calls, the quality is outstanding. Skype introduced the SILK codec last year and the improvement in overall sound quality is noticeable, well beyond any PSTN experience.

For Skype to PSTN calls, things get a little trickier. For the most part, this works well provided you have either a Skype device (like a phone, for example) or a headset that works with your computer. Otherwise, I and others I've worked with have experienced echo when using a Mac or PC microphone to make calls over the PSTN.

To contact your business, a Skype online number will work if you plan to assign every member of your business a different number. Skype does not do any type of automated call distribution, auto-attendant or extension handling. This could be done in conjunction with a VoIP solution from Asterisk, which Skype supports, but then this adds complexity to the overall deployment (not to mention cost).

The other consideration is e911 services, which Skype does not provide, so having a primary VoIP or other telephony provider would make sense in this case.

Yes

I want to know why companies do not use it for interviews. it is a good as a face to face to face,is free and can save a waiting time lot of traveling and waiting time if the people are a long way apart.
I have had 2 SKYPE interviews and won both jobs.

I have had very few problems but this was due to the speed of my connection

Please, carefully consider the security implications.....

I think most companies can afford $29 for a SIP account with a real business with real tech support. I tried to run my business on Vonage a few years a go and my clients went nuts. VOIP is only as reliable as your data connection - which isn't as reliable, yet, as a copper pair from the phone company. Having said that, we have a Comcast business connection, which has been very reliable and the bandwidth is great, and digital lines from RingCentral. Voice quality was not great when we had 3mbit DSL - a lot of eching mostly, but with 7mbit cable the quality is superb. RingCentral, as most hosted VOIP solutions, can be configured to route calls to your cell phone if your data connection is down.

Paul,

I work with small businesses. I wish more folks would use it. Only one of my month clients wants to use Skype. However, I use if often to create busienss plans. Clients like it better then the phone as they can be hands free, sit back and answer my questions as I write their plan.

I like that I can send clients what I'm doing through the file sharing.

I have tried to do a class using SKYPE with no luck.

So I'm not seeing it used more often by my ideal clients.

I've used Skype for several years with both free and fee calling. Consistently it has been unreliable with hard wire and wireless connections. I live in the suburbs of Southern California.

Skype is much more accepted by businesses in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In America, it is blocked by many medium and large companies due to security concerns.

In all of North America, a land line is considered the most basic of services businesses of all sizes should have. Mobile phones are increasingly becoming more accepted however if you wish to do business with Fortune 2000, multi-national or government agencies, a land line is a must.

If you're an SME, image is very important and using Skype or other types of VoIP services that cater to home consumers rather than businesses should be given considerable thought.