Skype teams up with Avaya to broaden corporate exposure

Skype SA, the Luxembourg-based VoIP provider that popularized free calls over the Internet for consumers around the world, is getting an injection of corporate seriousness.

The company

The company, whose service allows users to make free local and international voice and video calls from their computers, has struck a partnership with New Jersey-based Avaya Inc., a well-known provider of business communications systems.

The deal will allow the two companies to integrate Skype Connect, a recently launched service for businesses, with Avaya’s systems for its large base of U.S. customers.

“Our customers were using Skype in various ways,” said Lawrence Byrd, Avaya’s director of unified communications architecture. “They want it more integrated with their enterprise solution, and they have customers, partners, suppliers, scattered around the world who are using Skype.”

The move announced Wednesday reflects the rapid changes washing over the business communications market, as two-way video and teleconferencing technologies become more affordable, in part via tablet computers (such as Research In Motion Ltd.’s new PlayBook).

Skype has been trying to shake two negative perceptions about its product. The first was addressed earlier this year when it filed for an initial public offering to counter the image that it isn’t a money-making enterprise (because most people use the voice-over-Internet service for free). The partnership with Avaya should help dispel the second perception – that it isn’t reliable enough for corporate customers, for whom dropped calls and service outages are unacceptable.

Skype is also reported to be in talks with the 500-million-strong social network site Facebook Inc. about integrating the two services more closely together; Skype refused to comment on that issue Wednesday. If true, such a deal could serve to counter Google Inc.’s push into both social networking and VoIP calling through its e-mail service, Gmail.

Smaller, more nimble businesses are the most likely to sign up for flexible, cheaper telecom solutions such as Skype. But the shifts in the business communication landscape may eventually put pressure on traditional telecom providers, whose corporate clients are lucrative and stable sources of revenue.

Mr. Byrd stressed that Avaya continues its relationships with traditional telcos, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. “We’re just providing the choices [for our customers],” he said of the Skype deal. “Whether Skype is disruptive, and how it will all fit together, it’s kind of beyond our capabilities to understand.”

Telecom consultant Iain Grant, of the SeaBoard Group, said the partnership is as much about differentiating Avaya from its rival Cisco Systems Inc. as it is about giving Skype a credibility boost in the business sector.