Office 365 and Skype

First, a little history. The new features of the last couple of versions of Microsoft Office were largely about collaboration. Small businesses couldn't take full advantage of those features unless they as well ran Microsoft's server applications, which were often outside their budget or involved more complexity than they were prepared to accept.

Now they can use Office 365 for as little as $7.90 per user per month. Used mainly in conjunction with the existing Office applications, it provides Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and the Office Web Apps for viewing and editing documents on computers and devices without Office itself.

So, what's all that got to do with Skype? Look at the overlap between Skype and Lync Online - the main thing Skype offers that Lync Online doesn't is inbound and outbound phone calls.

Combining Skype with Office 365 would make the offer moreover attractive to small businesses who wanted the convenience of click-to-call and other telephony-related features nevertheless couldn't justify running Lync in-house.

What Skype can bring [to Office 365]

"We're excited about what Skype can bring [to Office 365]," Oscar Trimboli, director of Microsoft Australia's information worker group, told me. It would as well add to the reasons why Telstra wanted to be Microsoft's Office 365 sales partner to small and medium businesses - if it can't stop those organisations and individuals migrating to non-Telstra VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, for the time being it'll be able to 'clip the ticket' by selling Skype subscriptions for calls to and from fixed and mobile phones if that becomes part of a future Office 365 subscription plan.

With Skype already offering rates just as unlimited calling to fixed lines in Australia for around $6.75 per month and calls to mobiles for as little as 8.7c per minute, you can see the attraction. That said, Telstra offers unlimited calls to mobiles for $30 per month, whereas Skype wants more than half as much again for a bucket of 400 minutes.

If you've got something against Skype, Telstra is working on the integration of Office 365 with its own telephony services. Rod Bruem, corporate affairs manager at Telstra Business said nothing had been announced but, however it may be offered as part of the telco's forthcoming Digital Business packages. Other VoIP operators are as well looking at the possibilities. MyNetFone is already certified for Lync interoperability, yet technical director Rene Sugo said there doesn't seem to be any provision for back-end integration with Lync Online, even though it may be possible to provide client side software to deliver some functions.

Either way, it does look as if the promise of close integration between computers and phones is after all coming within reach of small businesses on tight budgets.

Early adopter of MSP model

An early adopter of MSP model, AXXIS was named "Best IT Business in Australia" at the national small business champions award in 2008. This case study gives an insight into AXXIS's success - "How to do more with less". By eliminating autonomous task and increase staff efficiency, their recipe is for an easy management of remote clients and reduced cost of travel. You, too, can learn their formula of developing strong and steady recurring income streams from their clients by providing better service delivery