back to article Microsoft links Skype to Lync

Microsoft has connected its consumer voice over IP tool Skype to its business grade unified communications tool Lync. The upshot of the move is that Skype users can now call anyone with a Lync account, after the usual to-ing and fro-ing with invitations. As most Lync users work inside a businesses big enough to either run a …

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  1. as2003

    They should call it Lyp Sync

  2. Eddy Ito

    the headache

    If every yahoo on Skype can hit me up via Lync then it means that Lync doesn't automatically start when I log in at work. Believe it or not, one reason I have business cards is so that I have a general idea of who is ringing my business line. Sorry MS, I don't have any desire to have every online schmuck who happens on my addy 'ringing' me up the instant I go live at 6 am.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the headache

      I believe your IT would have to configure your Lync server to allow the federation of your internal Lync with external Skype. And if you have a problem with that, then surely that's an issue for you to take up with your management rather than getting antsy at Microsoft for adding a feature that many businesses would appreciate. And this is not really such a new feature anyway - Lync was always able to link to Live Messenger. Now that Live Messenger has been retired, they've simply ported the function over to Skype.

      Honestly, for a tech site, The Register comments must have one of the highest luddite populations of the Interwebs.

    2. BRAINPLAN

      Re: the headache

      You can always decline the contact request that comes up in Lync - OR - create a contact group in lync that you appear 'Offline' to (i.e. by blocking them)

      1. turkey
        Thumb Down

        Re: the headache

        "You can always decline the contact request that comes up in Lync"

        Yes, and you can do this again and again for every yahoo that attempts to cold-contact you. What a headache...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What I don't understand

    Is why people bother with a product like Lync. The alternatives, like asterisk, are much easier to administer through a simple CLI. If one wants, it is very easy to also have people call you for free, by, for example, putting a simple SIP client on your website.

    1. AMB-York Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: What I don't understand

      It integrates very nicely with Exchange Server.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What I don't understand

        "It integrates very nicely with Exchange Server."

        Yes, this is the real problem. By putting even more dependence on Exchange, the Skype/Lync move is putting up a huge barrier to exit for many large companies and organisations (including the one I work at now) where the people making these deployment decisions haven't a clue about what costs they are opening themselves up to in the future, nor how many options they are closing off to themselves and their staff.

        It's a frigging disaster.

        1. BRAINPLAN
          Meh

          Re: What I don't understand

          I think businesses are quite aware of what they are buying in to. There isn't a better UC system out there right now, just a hodge-podge of standards. At least MS have actually taken initiative and invested in unifying their products for the benefit of both corporations, and end users.

          If your backend and frontend is Microsoft based then it is very likely you will stick with it due to the inherent costs of educating / replacing staff that can administer *nix or whatever else.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: What I don't understand

            "If your backend and frontend is Microsoft based then it is very likely you will stick with it due to the inherent costs of educating / replacing staff that can administer *nix or whatever else."

            That's the stupid bit here - the admin is all done by smug bastards who have Linux machines. The rest of us have to put up with Windows.

    2. I_am_Chris

      Re: What I don't understand

      It's because it comes 'free' with office365 installations. Like my work has.

      it's a pile of crap and adding bloat to it with skype is not going to make it better. Why does everything have to be integrated with everything else?

      1. Captain DaFt
        Coat

        Re: What I don't understand

        "Why does everything have to be integrated with everything else?"

        Maybe Microsoft's full of Katamari Damacy fans?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What I don't understand

      Funny, didn't think that Astersik was all that good at multi-party VC's with whiteboards, and remote desktop control.

      Next week, how GIMP is as good as Photoshop.

    4. midcapwarrior
      FAIL

      Re: What I don't understand

      Sorry, simple and CLI should never be in the same sentence.

    5. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: What I don't understand

      "The alternatives, like asterisk, are much easier to administer through a simple CLI"

      Lync is much more powerful and easy to manage in say a 200K user enterprise - and has a much more powerful and object orientated CLI than Asterisk.

      Asterisk might work for an SME, but its nothing like the scalable enterprise grade product that Lync is...

  4. AMB-York Silver badge
    FAIL

    Not going to happen!

    Does anyone really believe that businesses are going to give up all that lovely money they make from 0845 numbers? Until MS come up with a billing model that allows businesses to charge for receiving a call from Skype, it's going to be unused.

    1. Gordon Lawrie

      Re: Not going to happen!

      There has been no revenue sharing on the 0845 range for some time now.

  5. Raumkraut
    Meh

    Interact with technology how and when Microsoft will let you

    > interact with technology how and when they want

    I want to interact with technology using freely-implementable open standards.

    1. I_am_Chris

      Re: Interact with technology how and when Microsoft will let you

      Heh.

      You're speaking a foreign language there!

    2. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: Interact with technology how and when Microsoft will let you

      Lync will integrate with standards based SIP solutions.

  6. swampdog

    Headless wandermonkey

    Lync, hmm lets see: make already existing telephone infrastructure redundant, increase network capacity to cope.. for what? Ah, that's it - so I can sit there with a telephone on my head oblivious to any DR situation!

  7. g e
    FAIL

    My sole experience of Lync

    You phone only works if your PC is turned on.

    Fail. A good match for Skype, then.

    I think Cisco have a point though, even if it does sound like a very whiny one.

    1. turnip handler

      Re: My sole experience of Lync

      Your phone only works if your phone is on...most office workers have their computer on all day and you can get a Lync / Skype clients for your smartphone too.

    2. thesykes
      Thumb Up

      Re: My sole experience of Lync

      "You phone only works if your PC is turned on."

      One of the best features of it. I finish work, turn off the PC, and those pesky users can't get hold of me. Perfect.

    3. AGuyInEngland

      Re: My sole experience of Lync

      If my computer's off, my mobile rings instead... unified comms, innit.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Puzzled. What's wrong with Live Chat....?

    ...."Web marketing types....have long lamented the fact that when shoppers go online they often abandon a purchase for lack of information about a product. A technique called “click to call” has been advanced as a fix to that issue, as it allows users to click a button on a web page to start a conversation with a customer service operative."

    What's wrong with simple Live Chat....? It doesn't require an extra app, or flash, or java, just JavaScript in the browser. Its anonymous too if you enter rubbish for email address and name. I use the Live-Chat Contact-Us option anywhere its provided as a support option, as you can get near real-time answers to questions. Its fast and simple. But maybe I'm messing something here...

    1. thesykes

      Re: Puzzled. What's wrong with Live Chat....?

      What's wrong with Live Chat....?

      Generally the level of intelligence of the person on the other end of the conversation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Puzzled. What's wrong with Live Chat....?

        "Generally the level of intelligence of the person on the other end of the conversation."

        And a Skype business call to a call center in India will be better...? By all means enjoy!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Puzzled. What's wrong with Live Chat....?

      Why would a "click to call" button be less convenient than live chat? There's no need for extensions to make a VOIP call. Javascript can actually register on a SIP-server and the webrtc, now supported in most major browsers (except IE17, or whichever version is out now) can thus make calls without any need for additional plugins.

  9. Velv
    Boffin

    Vision

    "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?"

    Don't any of the commentards have any vision? Much of the backbone of the telephone network is IP. There are various proprietary IP services out there. There are a multitude of other channels of communication.

    UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS starts with bringing things together one by one. So Skype now works for Microsoft users. Cisco are working on other business integration offerings. Telephony vendors see the benefits. Slowly the interconnects will join up and we end up all being able to communicate from anywhere (how you as a business manage that is up to you). The underlying stuff will be come irrelevant. Just because the user happens to be on Skype won't mean you need to be.

    1. Sammy Smalls
      Unhappy

      Re: Vision

      'Slowly the interconnects will join up and we end up all being able to communicate from anywhere'

      Nice theory, except they wont. Sure, it all runs over IP, but the interop Vision is just that. There's a reason Google dropped XMPP. They want you on their platform, not someone elses that 'plays nicely' with Google+. Sure, this may be shortsighted, but hey, these decisions arent made for our benefit. Until someone can come up with a fully IM/presence aware PSTN like service, you will always have to choose the lesser evil.

      The one good thing is that this will force other vendors like Cisco or Avaya to become more open, because they become the lesser evil. m2c.

  10. Danny 5
    Facepalm

    ok

    So first they kill off MSN in favor of Skype and now they're integrating skype into lync? lync being little more then the old MSN client? Surely there must've been an easier way to do this?

  11. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Not the whole story

    The integration only works if you have a Microsoft account and use the awful new Skype clients. AFAIK users with pre-Microsoft accounts still use the classic Skype infrastructure, which Microsoft is obviously keen to drop.

    I have Lync for one of my customers and it's not a patch on my > 10 year old Skype client for ease of use. VoIP doesn't work even on the same network, though this probably an issue with the VPN not being able to handle audio packets very well - video seems to be fine.

    As the future of Skype classic is in doubt I'm still looking for a replacement. Google's chat has the better interface (because less cluttered) on my tablet. For IM I'm hoping that Wickr will at some point actually make it to other platforms.

  12. John Sanders
    Holmes

    Eventually Skype will replace lync

    All I care about is that Skype is an encrypted/non open protocol, MS will use its leverage on Exchange to get into the VOIP PBX business.

    That's why they killed the Skype plugin for Asterisk.

    MS will launch a very expensive voice server at some point.

    1. RonWheeler
      Windows

      Re: Eventually Skype will replace lync

      Maybe, but it'll still be shedloads cheaper than Cisco kit, better integrated and much easier to use.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Eventually Skype will replace lync

      If you base your whole IT/Comms on Microsoft then you need your head feeling, monoculture is a dangerous thing.

      One worm and bang ! Your business is blind, deaf and dumb.

      1. TheVogon
        Mushroom

        Re: Eventually Skype will replace lync

        "monoculture is a dangerous thing."

        But the point is that it is UNIFIED Comms. i.e. an integrated stack. And no one does that better than Microsoft...

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: Eventually Skype will replace lync

      "MS will use its leverage on Exchange to get into the VOIP PBX business"

      Erm, but MS has been in the VOIP PBX business for a number of years now....

      "MS will launch a very expensive voice server at some point."

      It's called Lync - and it's almost always the lowest TCO solution.....

      Unless you mean Voicemail server - in which case the Exchange Unified Messaging Server role did that for years too.....

  13. Winkypop Silver badge
    Meh

    Is that what Lync is?

    I got it with Office 2013 Pro but Ive never bothered to run it.

    Probably never will now.

    1. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: Is that what Lync is?

      "I got it with Office 2013 Pro but I've never bothered to run it."

      Lync wont do anything without the required server infrastructure, so you are not missing much by not launching it...

  14. Wardy01
    Mushroom

    You lot are stuck in the dark ages

    Lets face it the concept of a traditional land line for calling is basically a dead end now.

    The internet has grown to a point where people expect integration and quality and a call made through a telephony based line gives neither.

    Businesses want to have call center applications that automatically show them the contact / account details of a caller on receiving the call.

    They also want to see more technology that puts them in control of cost not the likes of BT.

    It's a choice of the business / infrastructural managers on weather to do any of this not a requirement, microsoft simply state that you can.

    I believe microsoft want to make all calling effectively free so all you need is an internet connection and can get in touch with anyone in the world.

    And to all those dumb shits out there that think this only works if your pc is on ... ever heard of a voip phone?

    You can plug the dam thing directly in to an ethernet port requiring no PC at all!

    Oh and if someone calls you at 6am do what you do at the moment with your mobile ... DON'T PICK UP!

    It's not difficult, skype / lync is basically a 21st century replacement for telephony.

    Sad that you are so blinded by rage from a rep Microsoft got like 20 years ago and haven't moved on!

    I bet if Microsoft invented something like an unlimited free power source you dumbasses would still troll places like this just to get your kicks complaining about how the oil industry will crash or some other crap like that.

    Retards, its progress - DEAL WITH IT!

    Begin down voting if you are a retard and up voting if you have even a tiny bit of common sense.

  15. James 36
    FAIL

    bleurgh

    “we think it’s important to re-humanize technology so that consumers, professionals and decision-makers can interact with technology how and when they want – from the living room to the boardroom.”

    has to win most vomit inducing marketing bo***cks so far this year, I mean what a terrible way to say "we let people make IP calls to one another"

    the person who came up with that statement should be put down , or locked in a dark room with only themselves for company

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Click to call

    Click to call already works with ordinary phones.

    IMHO. old landlines usually have better call quality than new-fangled VOIP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Click to call

      "IMHO. old landlines usually have better call quality than new-fangled VOIP"

      Only if you have a Cisco type solution. Lync uses wideband codecs that exceed analogue line call quality and audio bandwidth...at a lower network bandwidth and better resistance to network latency and jitter than most other codecs - Google 'RT Audio' if you want to see the details....

  17. Daniel B.

    Validating the complaint

    The one where Cisco is asking for the EU to unmarry MS/Skype.

    They're right.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Validating the complaint

      "They're right."

      They're right that Microsoft has a better product suite. That's what it boils down to - Cisco can't compete on price or functionality so they have gone crying to the EU....

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