Microsoft Previews Skype for Business Features, Including Cloud PBX

Microsoft has changed the name of its Lync collaboration software to Skype for Business and with a new name comes some new features, including a virtual PBX, according to CIO Today.

The company demoed some new additions to the collaboration program that will appeal to the enterprise customers that are Microsoft’s bread and butter under a preview program. Demand has been so great that Microsoft has said that it can’t fulfill all of the requests to join the preview before the new Skype for Business formally launches this summer.

One of the biggest new features of Skype for Business is Skype Meeting Broadcast, which allows users to broadcast messages at up to 10,000 users at a time.

Microsoft is famous for “dogfooding,” or using products it’s developing internally before unleashing them on the public. With Microsoft’s large workforce, it’s clear that the ability to address thousands of employees at once is something the company needed. The feature is useful for webinars or other “town hall”-style meetings.

The company is also introducing the ability for people to join meetings by dialing in from phone connections. This is useful for people who might find themselves without Internet access but still need to attend a meeting. As useful as smartphones are, coverage is still frustratingly spotty.

Microsoft is also making a cloud PBX available to its customers. While connecting to landlines has long been supported on the consumer version of Skype, it’s the first time Microsoft has offered a virtual PBX system.

The virtual PBX builds on existing Lync and Skype for Business technology. Microsoft will launch the service in the fall of this year. It will encroach on the cottage industry of cloud PBX providers that has sprung up around Lync, and some people will buy anything that has Microsoft’s name on it the way they used to do with IBM.

Preview programs like the one Microsoft is offering with Skype and the upcoming Windows 10 let administrators and Microsoft see how products will perform under real-world use and iron out any last-minute bugs.

Edited by Maurice Nagle