Many businesses are looking to reduce costs these days. One commonly discussed way of doing this is by reducing your phone costs by using Skype (a partially free VOIP solution). Skype has positioned itself as a free service and it is indeed free to use when one Skype user calls another Skype user. In general the quality of these Skype calls is good.

However, there are other things to consider when you are thinking about using Skype in a business. For a start it is not free to call non-Skype numbers and there are other additional costs such as charges for voicemail and for having a fixed number that other people can call you on.

I have put together some pro’s and con’s for using Skype in a business.

Pros:

• Skype to skype calls are free (but there may be broadband or internet charges e.g. in hotels)
• Cheaper (but not free) Skype to fixed line and mobile charges in comparison to traditional carriers.
• Potential to connect an IP PBX to a Skype PBX gateway and onto the internet. This way existing internal company phones have the option of using skype for dialling out. e.g. dial 8 to use skype
• Potential to use Skype over a mobile phone but requires a very good 3G network which is not widespread

Cons:

• File transfer & messaging via Skype cannot be audited or controlled by your IT department. There is a major risk of Intellectual Property loss because Skypes traffic is not auditable. This problem should be taken very seriously and many businesses do not allow its employees to use Skype as a result.
• Skype is a “Peer-to-Peer” technology which means a company machine can be used as a node to relay skype traffic from unknown external users. This can severely impact the performance of your company network.
• It is likely that a full roll out of Skype to your company employees will require additional network bandwidth at your office.
• Quality of call\video is dependent on bandwidth in hotels, airports, customer premises all of which are not guaranteed.
• Video calls require a lot of bandwidth.
• 3+ way video calls do not work well (in my experience).
• Employees will require headsets e.g. €10-20 per bluetooth headset.
• Employees will require webcams to carry out video calls.
• There are additional costs, for example
  • €50 per employee, per year to have a skype number that other non-skype people can call you on
  • €15 per employee, per year to have voicemail
• Business Subscription model available at €8.95 per employee, per month to cover most of skype services
• Under the Business Subscription model a “Fair Usage Policy” exists that limits each user to total of 6 hours calls per day and no more that 50 distinct numbers per day. If these limits are reached then additional rates and connection fees apply e.g. 3c connection fee plus 16c per minute to call an Irish Mobile, 20c per minute to call UK mobile

There may be more aspects that I have not touched on but there should be enough there as a starting point. Please leave a comment if you think there are other points that should go on the lists.