In a keynote address at Enterprise Connect 2011 in Orlando, Skype announced a partnering agreement with Citrix and their Go-To meeting capability for enterprise customers. By integrating the GoToMeeting into their enterprise collaboration solution, Skype will compete against larger corporate collaboration tools like Cisco, HP, Microsoft, and IBM. For Skype, it’s clear that they want to move beyond being a casual VoIP service into becoming a robust enterprise solution provider. This service is expected to be introduced by the end of 2011- no pricing was mentioned. The intent is for Skype business users to quickly set up online audio conferencing meetings that users can join via Skype (VoIP) or through the public switched telephone network (PSTN). As both Skype and Citrix currently offer audio conferencing, when asked which audio capability will be implemented, Skype’s David Gurlé, VP Skype Enterprise, said it will embed Skype’s SILK audio codec. (As a sidebar, this is rather interesting as Citrix gets high marks for their clarity conferencing). The partnership will enable interactive screen sharing whereby meeting hosts can easily walk through, annotate and highlight whatever they would like to show on their computer screen, such as a presentations or demonstrations.
