Microsoft announced on Tuesday (27th April 2016) that it would roll out the Business version of Skype in Preview mode. Interested IT administrators and individuals can now sign up to test the desktop version of the software. It can be integrated with other Microsoft products like Outlook and others for better co-ordination, it would also allow to calls for up to 250 people instead of 20 people available in free mode. The focus is aimed currently at the IT administrators before it is broadly available to the larger set of people.
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| Image credit: microsoft.com |
Administrators interested in testing this can sign up on
Skype Preview for an invite. After receiving the invitation, administrators can choose to share it internally with the other testers. The new Mac business client would have some handy features like the ability to see meeting schedules pulled in from the exchange-powered outlook calendar into the Skype Business App. Also,users would be able to connect to meetings with a click, share screens and invite others to join.
The final release of the Mac version of Skype for Business is scheduled to happen in the third quarter of this year. Microsoft has planned two additional Beta phases in between, the second beta phase will include instant messaging, presence indicators and access to the user’s contacts. The third beta phase will also include support for telephony and other advanced features. This would be important for Businesses that have already availed the services to place phone calls from the application over a traditional phone line.
Lync has been one of the most widely used communicators used across organizations. Microsoft Office has been undoubtedly the market leader when it comes to the official suite of softwares. With this move, Microsoft would expand the reach of Skype and other products to other platforms including Mac.
Article by Sudhanshu Ghosh
