No. 1 Story

Telstra adds one million mobile services, but Sensis plummets

Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.

read more

More From

Skype teams with Polycom to ramp up business offerings

IT Industry - Strategy

See also: Skype enhances services for small businesses

Teleconferencing system developer, Polycom, has teamed up with Skype to launch a USB speakerphone for use with Skype as the first in what the two say will be a range of "integrated, high-quality communications solutions for businesses who use Skype".

While many enterprises block Skype, Skype estimates that business customers make up 30 percent of its more than 100 million registered users.

The first joint product from the alliance is the Polycom Communicator, a Skype certified, co-branded USB speakerphone that incorporates Polycom's Acoustic Clarity technology to provide hands-free, two-way voice communication for Skype voice and video conversations, it is claimed without echoes or feedback.

The Polycom Communicator is designed for use with the recently-launched Skype for Business offering. In addition to the core speakerphone capabilities, the Polycom Communicator also offers high-quality audio output for playing music, games, etc from a laptop or desktop PC.

Skype for Business includes the Skype for Business Web site (www.skype.biz) a resource dedicated to business support, and the Skype for Business Control Panel (formerly named Skype Groups) to simplify management of grouped users and prepaid services. Skype for Business is claimed to be especially effective for companies with fewer than 10 employees, a market represented by more than 50 percent of businesses already using Skype.

The Polycom Communicator will be available worldwide within 60 days through Polycom certified channel partners and through the online Skype store at www.skype.com/store for  $US129 in North America.

Loading comments ...

- sponsored feature -

The Death of Traditional BI: What’s Next?

How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business IP PABX BUYING GUIDE

Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more