The Six Gotchas Of Skype For Business

The alternative telephony provider -- Skype -- has revamped its business offering. The proposition: you don't need to pay $50+ per business line when you can simply run calls through broadband-connected PCs. But Networking Pipeline calls out some major limitations associated with the use of Skype. Among them:

1) Lack of a centralized reporting and filtering capability
2) Lack of hunt groups (ringing multiple lines for a given extension)
3) Lack of call transfers
4) Lack of unattended mode or -- better yet -- an IVR that works through PSTN
5) Encryption of calls prevents call logging, which is often required in businesses for compliance reasons
6) Lack of support for e-911

That said, there's really nothing preventing Skype from continuing to improve the offering to address these issues. And, as for the telcos, one is only left to wonder why they've never pursued innovative IP telephony applications like Skype. And we'll still be wondering about this when the last residential landline is disconnected.

Networking Pipeline: The Six Gotchas of Skype