ShoreTel will serve as Skype's first partner in its Skype for SIP play, which will try to take share in the SMB market. ShoreTel's 11,000 enterprise customers now can sign up for a beta version of the Skype for SIP offering, which allows incoming Skype calls to be routed over a company's PBX and allows outbound calls to be made at normal Skype rates.
Skype is hoping the cost savings from being able to make Skype calls into and out from small businesses will open a new revenue stream in this market, where it has yet to develop significant traction. Since the test program is free of any up-front charges, it is likely to see good trial numbers as small enterprises search for ways to save money during the recession. The companies did not announce what sort of incentive ShoreTel received from Skype to facilitate the arrangement, but access to Skype's more than 400 million customers certainly didn't hurt matters.
For more:
- see the GigaOm article on the announcement here
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