It's funny that some of the most revolutionary technologies are first brought into businesses by individual users, rather than IT departments. Then, when others see the benefits those pioneering users are getting, the technology is quickly adopted company-wide. It happened this way with PC-based fax, then email, and with instant messaging. And it's happening with Skype.

And that's really no surprise. Individuals first embraced Skype because it offered free voice and video calls over the Internet. The adoption rate skyrocketed due to Skype's ease of use and superior voice quality over the public Internet. But now that it operates the world's largest and most reliable Internet communications community, with over 405M registered users, it's also a very attractive infrastructure for business telephony applications. According to Skype, 30% of its users are using Skype for business.

What's more, it complements the communications infrastructure that you already have in place, enabling you to do more with the resources you already have, which is particularly compelling in the current business climate.

So here are five key reasons why corporate IT managers have embraced Skype in their organizations—and how they can deploy and centrally manage it effectively.

It saves—and keeps on saving
Skype isn't just about cost savings—but it's a great benefit nonetheless. It saves your business money on all call costs: national, international, mobile, inter-office, to any user, and it keeps on delivering savings.

With Skype centrally managed in your organisation via PBX-to-Skype gateways you can create global numbering plans, enabling employees to use extension dialling between offices. Site-to-site calls are free, and long-distance calls are handled using SkypeOut to reduce costs. The gateways also centralise Skype provisioning and management, giving IT managers full control and eliminating the need to install Skype on each PC. All Skype voice functions are delivered to users' handsets.

The benefits can also extend to mobile users. With Skype installed on any smart mobile phone that can run the lite version of Skype, the user's call preferences can be set up centrally by the IT team, via the PBX gateway, for alternate routing to the mobile user's Skype account. This is done via mobile broadband under the user's mobile data plan, giving huge savings compared with even the cheapest international mobile tariffs.

It leverages your existing technology
These PBX-to-Skype application gateways can link any office phone system (whether traditional digital switch, or IP / SIP PBX) to Skype, for a low one-time upgrade cost without having to swap out or replace existing equipment. The gateways add anything from 4 to 30 Skype lines to the company PBX, so that Skype calls can be made and transferred between extensions as normal. Employees simply dial 8 for Skype, or 9 for an ordinary line.

None of your investments are made obsolete. You just make your existing assets work harder for your business—and start saving money.

It's easy to manage
The gateways can be installed, and Skype provisioned, in less than half a day, with zero changes to existing PBX equipment, phones, or PCs. The gateway ties the Skype Online number to the business to enable Skype DID. It also simplifies configuration, management and support, putting Skype under the IT manager's full control.

There's no need to install Skype on each PC—Skype usage can be monitored by the business just like ordinary calls, and number schemes easily managed. You set it up and it's under centralised control right away.

Skype is completely free of malware, adware and spyware
So it does not add another potential security threat, or attack vector to your network. How many other corporate networks can say the same?

Skype is encrypted
When Skype users connect, it's over an AES-encrypted session, whether it's via instant message, voice, video, or the sending of files. So Skype communications are secure—giving an advantage over conventional VoIP or voice VPNs.

And of course, with a gateway at each office, you get secure voice VPN working over Skype without paying for expensive leased lines, or having to deploy IP PBXs from the same vendor at every office. That's in addition to the benefits outlined earlier.

So with the cost savings and functionality benefits available to you through Skype usage, what's not to love about it?