Skype offers business owners a “Skype business account” called
“Skype Manager”. This is different to a personal Skype account you
may already use today.
Skype Manager allows businesses to define their users and control
each account under one interface. If an employee leaves it is now
easier to terminate that account. Setting up a Skype Manager account
is a prerequisite to this solution.
Under the Skype Manager a company can subscribe to a service called
Skype Connect. This provides for a SIP trunk to be
enabled allowing the CloudPBX to be connected to the Skype
communicty thus enabled incoming (only) calls to be received from a
Skype user without the Skype user having to use Skype Out, e.g. the
call is free and technically between Skype users even though the
call is being received by a PBX and not the Skype software you may
currently use.
A business would purchase as many SIP Connect trunks as required,
each trunk represents a single concurrent call. Most businesses
would find one enough however if you are a heavy Skype user, 3-4
Skype Connect accounts can be subscribed to. The price is around
USD$7-8 per month, per trunk. No charge for any calls being placed
between Skype and the PBX.
This can be a very powerful feature to enable as all incoming voice
communications to your business can now be managed by a single
system, e.g. the CloudPBX. Incoming Skype calls can be placed on
hold, transferred, recorded and sent to voicemail in the exact same
manner as someone contacting your business from a mobile or landline
telephone.
Incoming Skype calls can display on your phone the name of the
calling Skype user.
Multiple business Skype names can be defined within Skype Manager
such as Sales, Support, or Customer Service. The Skype name may look
like
sales.your-business-skype-name. This will ensure
incoming calls can be directed or mapped to the right people within
your organisation. You can of course also create Skype names for
individual staff such as
stephen.your-business-skype-name.
This would allow Skype users to connect to Stephen directly. Or a
conference room, conference.your-business-skype-name, this would be
mapped to a CloudPBX conference room.
Skype “Click-to-Dial” links can be placed on your website or at the
footer of your email to allow customers to directly speak with the
sender via Skype, however the business user would answer the
incoming call on their normal desk phone, not a Skype client.
Skype Connect is online and available 24x7. There is no need for the
business user to run Skype on their desktop or have it enabled on
any device as the CloudPBX is the Skype client and is also online
24x7. Your business Skype name (e.g. sales.your-business-skype-name)
would therefore always show “available or online” to the calling
Skype user. If the call cannot be answered it will simply be sent to
voicemail.
For your own staff who travel, they can also use their personal
Skype account to connect, for free, back to the office. This allows
calls to be placed from a mobile smart phone or a laptop. This would
be an alternative to using a SIP enabled client on the user’s mobile
device. The only downside of using the Skype client is you cannot
receive incoming calls
Skype Manager
Within Skype Manager, there is a need to associate a “number” with
each Skype Name created. When Skype Connect communicates with the
CloudPBX it passes the number (not the name) to the PBX so the call
routing can be understood by the CloudPBX as a PBX can only
understand numbers. The above diagram illustrates how this mapping
is defined in the Skype Manager and associates a number with a Skype
name. When a Skype user clicks on a “Click to Call” web link or
simply initiates a Skype call from their Window’s client, the call
map will send the number to the PBX and based on the inbound call
routing defined, a staff’s phone will ring.