special report Skype -- the Voice over IP software--is known for offering a way to make free calls anywhere in the world. Its friendly user interface, which you can personalize with pictures just like instant messaging applications, screams "consumer" and one would imagine customers include university students and home users.
Yet Skype CEO Niklas Zennström plans to make the software an accepted part of corporate communications--both on the desktop and on smart phones.
Already a third of Skype users use the software for business, Zennström told silicon.com during a recent interview at the company's London offices. This user base consists largely of small firms with geographically dispersed workers or departments within larger businesses.
The idea is to create a package similar to the free Skype but with extra features--such as videoconferencing, user groupings and company directories--that business customers would be willing to pay for. The offering, Skype for Business, is due out next year.
"It's not about getting rid of your PBX," Zennström points out. Rather, it's meant to be a service that's complementary to the existing phone service.
But will companies buy it?
Security is sure to be at the top of the list of concerns.
All Skype communications are encrypted to ensure they can't be intercepted and read while passing through the ether. But a bigger issue for IT directors in this age of worms and viruses is the risk any application could provide to their network.
To this Zennström said: "Skype does not present any more risks than any other software connecting to the Internet."
But Irwin Lazar, senior analyst at the Burton Group, thinks Skype might have trouble winning over businesses. "[For IT directors], bringing in an application you don't know and can't test could be a problem. What if someone writes a virus for Skype?"
Zennström said the company has always been mindful of security but is careful not to promise anything. "We go through rigorous testing and make sure our software is as secure as possible," he said. "So far we haven't had any security issues. But that doesn't mean there's a guarantee there will never be one... but no one can make that guarantee with any software."
IT departments may also be turned off by claims that Skype contains spyware or adware.
Zennström is adamant Skype does not, though he understands people probably got the idea because the upstart file-sharing network Kazaa--a previous entrepreneurial project of his--did allow adware.
It's a different situation for Skype, though, Zennström said. Kazaa relied on advertising for revenues whereas Skype plans to make money charging for features such as voicemail and SkypeOut, a service which allows Skype users to call standard telephones.
Plus, Skype relies on viral marketing--satisfied users recommending Skype to others--to drive downloads, a strategy that's gotten Skype over 14 million users since the public beta launch 15 months ago.
"If we had adware in Skype, it would kind of be counterproductive to our business model," Zennström said.
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