Skype To Provide For The Enterprise

Skype’s not going anywhere. The discussion over the future of VoIP and free phone calls can be had, and we can all make our own predictions over the direction the wind will blow in the future, but along with the technology, the biggest proponents of voice-over-IP are here to stay.

Not only am I sure of it, the folks at world’s largest provider of free VoIP software are betting the same rosy fate as well, and are hard at work planning the expansion of the business according to this sunny projection. We’re talking big time expansion, too.

In a speculation piece published on GigaOM, which was later confirmed by Skype, Paul Kapustka wrote of his detection a proliferating rumor alleging the Luxembourg-based company would be moving into the voice-for-enterprise sector.

Served by, well, many big telecom companies, the enterprise is a very lucrative area in which to invest. It’s a place in which Skype can look to continue its trend upward and ensure a steady revenue stream. If anything is a selling point for Skype, it is the relatively rapid advancement of its software, which is something not frequently seen in the enterprise. Slow and steady has been the mantra exercised by established providers.

Still, it will have even more difficulty gaining a toehold in the enterprise than it has experienced in the consumer market. Risk is something few big businesses practice. Most of the gamblers are seen tossing about white sheets of paper on the world’s trading floors. If one is to look at the dispositions of those running enterprises today, one would see “tried and true,” “be safe,” and “take it slow” as common threads; to replace a contract made with a big business telecommunications provider with a novice requires risk. (And it’s probably a safe guess to assume the friendly, cheerful, consumer-friendly colors associated with Skype’s product won’t be a major selling point – at least not an effective one.)

Therefore, the company will have to put out a genuinely impressive hand when it makes its enterprise debut. To make the effort worthwhile and ensure that it experiences a snowball effect, Skype will need to snag a healthy corporate client base soon after launch day.

Details about the move into the corporate sphere have yet to be doled out to the media and the blogosphere. We’re sure eBay, the auction giant which purchased Skype back in October of ’05 (for reasons still very much in question), will want to make a big splash rather than a little one. Skype has undoubtedly been working hard on developing a product fit for use by businesses of 1,000-or-more employees, which is no small feat. It’ll be interesting to see how they do in selling and providing competitively priced solutions that are good enough to make established providers sit up and take notice.