Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series Now Supports Skype

Despite mounting legal issues and the recent sale, Skype is moving ahead with plans to increase revenue. One area where it wants to generate more income is from business services and the company has just announced that its Skype for SIP offering is now supported by Cisco’s Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business. This allows businesses using Cisco hardware to redirect their communications through Skype and also to receive calls from Skype users.

“In today’s tough economy, executives of smart small and medium-sized companies realize that effective communications with customers, partners and employees are a key to helping them grow their business,” Stefan Oberg, VP and general manager of Skype for Business, said. “By certifying Skype for SIP as interoperable with the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series, we are providing a single offering that will help many SMBs around the globe save money, save time and stay ahead of the competition.”

Skype for SIP was launched in March this year to a less than favorable reception. Still, the company plans to expand further in the area saying there is plenty of interest from customers in this market. Furthermore, Skype plans to launch enterprise services and licensing at some point in the future but the project is just in the development phase for now.

With the Cisco interoperability, users should be able to see some significant cost savings in their communications by using Skype to handle the calls to mobile phones and landlines. This could provide for some cost savings especially for international calls. By using the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series businesses can also receive calls from the huge number of Skype users worldwide, which is at around 480 million according to Skype. Companies can also choose to buy an online Skype number, which can then be associated with the Cisco solution making it possible to receive calls from any traditional mobile phone or landline.