Skype4B Online, which is a component of many Office 365 licenses, is a powerful communications platform, offering presence, instant messaging, voice over IP (VoIP) calling, desktop sharing, and audio and video conferencing… all from a single interface. Skype4B makes it possible to handle just about all of your communications through a single desktop client, with one exception…voice.
Recognizing this limitation as a significant opportunity in the converging IT and telecom industries, a handful of providers have developed a way to voice enable Office 365. The mechanism for supercharging the software suite is Microsoft Skype for Business.
As previously mentioned, Skype for Business Online is already a component of O365. What is missing, though, is voice enablement. By replacing the Skype4B Online component with a voice-enabled Skype4B package, O365 becomes a comprehensive communications solution. So, the user is able to leverage their purchase of O365 and obtain a phone system that is fully integrated into everything else they use on their desktop, including Exchange for email and calendaring, and even Microsoft SharePoint for shared document management. The value to the customer is the ability to replace a legacy phone system that they have outgrown or is reaching its end of life with a complete hosted telephone system.
This unified communications platform behaves just like the telephone systems that today’s businesses have come to rely upon for day-to-day operations, including receptionist switchboard features, call routing to “hunt groups” and full IVR capabilities. Voice-enabled Skype4B can be configured to mirror the functionality of a legacy phone system, even to the point of feeding an office-wide intercom system to announce calls on hold.
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