Skype Me on Salesforce.com?
They call it Skype for Salesforce.com, but you might as well call it a
way to hop on the VoIP
platform.
The VoIP provider is teaming up with SaaS leader Salesforce.com in an attempt to tease customers into deploying Skype with
their Salesforce Web-based applications. The companies said the latest
version of Skype, which enables PC-to-PC calls as well as VoIP in general,
is now available with AppExchange, Salesforce.com's on-demand platform.
It's one more way that Salesforce is looking at not just building a
platform for software-as-a-service applications, but, in the Microsoft
tradition, is also seeding an tool-building ecoysystem.
The eBay-owned Skype said the “Skype for Salesforce” software provides
“seamless Skype integration into Salesforce on-demand CRM applications and
aims to improve workforce productivity and to streamline customer and
partner communication.”
And it's cheap, too. The companies said the usual low-prices for VoIP
apply: Calls from one Skype user to another are free; SkypeOut calls, which
go from a PC to wireless or landline phone numbers, are billed at per-minute
rates, such as .021 per minute according to some plans. Plus, there are
premium Internet packages for unlimited domestic SkypeOut calling – Skype
Pro in Europe and Asia or the Skype Unlimited Calling plan in the U.S. and
Canada.
What's not to love? Other than the usual voice quality issues that still
bite at Skype's ankles, the offering is designed to fit in with the
salesforce mantra: “enable com customers in the small and mid-sized business
sector to build stronger relationships and improve the way they manage their
contact with colleagues, customers and prospects.”
