Formerly known as Lync, Skype for Business is a Microsoft collaboration software solution originally developed as instant messaging for the corporate environment. By bringing in Skype to the mix, the software also includes Voice Over IP (VoIP) and video-conferencing features.

The real advantage comes with the integration that is possible with other Microsoft products, such as drawing on contacts based on Microsoft Outlook, the ability to know if other users are working on the same Microsoft Office document, greater security because messages don’t need to leave the company’s intranet as they are processed through a Microsoft Lync Server (which is not the case with Windows Live Messenger). For native Windows OS clients, the “Persistent Group Chat” feature becomes available, whereby multi-party chats can take place with the preservation of content between sessions. Real-time collaboration is possible via Whiteboard documents, PowerPoint documents, instant polling, desktop sharing, and other Windows applications sharing. Collaboration is achieved through “conferences” wherein additional people can be invited and participants can be changed by conference organizers at will from presenters to attendees.

Pros

At first glance it’s easy to dismiss this product as merely another instant messenger, but users quickly realize just how powerful and enterprise-level solution it really is, and they agree that it’s true power lies in how well it integrates with other Microsoft products as mentioned in the description above. The ease and quickness of screen-sharing has been highlighted as one of the best and most powerful features when you need to walk someone through something quickly without trying to explain it on the phone. This in itself is a huge time-saver when you’re on the go.

Cons

Having all the functionality that Skype for Business offers is one thing, but being able to easily make use of it is another. This is where the user interface becomes critical, and it’s a bit deficient in this software solution. Users say it’s decently attractive and not cluttered at all, but as soon as you want to do something other than a basic task, you’ll quickly find yourself hunting through icons and menus that seem inconsistent with each other and not logically organized. Call quality can be quite low, and video sessions sometimes crash, which is possibly an indication that the software is very resource-intensive. Also note that if you’re planning on using its integration with SharePoint as an availability indicator, realize that people can set how long it takes for them to show up as “inactive,” which essentially defeats the purpose of using it as any kind of accurate indicator of availability. Also note that depending on how users engage the software for online meetings makes a difference. You’ll be asked if you want to download it locally or access it through the web app, but the web app version is extremely limited, which can cause problems.

It’s clear that if you’re organization is deep into Microsoft products such as Outlook and Office, then using Skype for Business as a collaboration software solution just makes good common sense given the high level of integration across MS applications.