The on-premises and cloud editions of Skype for Business Server and the Cloud PBX are promising and less-expensive alternatives to traditional phone systems, but come in a complex array of options and require integration.
Story by David Strom, Redmond Magazine
Microsoft’s effort to advance its long-desired goal of extending its leadership in e-mail, collaboration and universal communications to include the telephony functions still primarily controlled by traditional PBXes is making inroads, but it’s not the perfect tool for all businesses — at least not yet. Skype for Business, the calling and conferencing software and service that Microsoft previously called Lync, and Office Communications Server (OCS) before that, has gained some promising features along with growing support for third-party software, hardware and services. Skype for Business is also benefitting from the fact that it’s a competitively priced option to the rapidly growing uptake of Office 365 subscriptions, which enterprises are adding to replace or augment Exchange Server deployments and — increasingly — SharePoint and other collaboration functions.
