Last fall Phil Wolff at Skype Journal mused on the topic of “Why Collaboration is Strategic for Skype”. His conclusion – collaboration is a competitive edge:

Skype could advance the best collaboration practices and technology. And with Skype’s distribution (one billion accounts by 2013), could easily become the tool of choice for producing results, enjoying your job, and building economic security.

While I am not holding out any hope for the full collaboration amongst Skype, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking platforms that many would like to see, I have long seen the potential for a product that supports Skype voice, chat and video conversations, presence, persistent file transfer and document management along with desktop or screen sharing – all managed from a single client. Of course with any collaboration a degree of enhanced Contact management also helps simplify a worker’s daily activities.

My original exposure to online collaboration goes back to my Quarterdeck days when they had developed VoIP software and whiteboarding services. (The latter later became the foundation technology for Webex.) In the early 2000’s I did some work with a desktop sharing service; more recently, over my four years of covering Skype, I have seen a few collaboration services come and go. Unyte has become integrated into IBM’s LotusLive while a couple of Skype-enabled offerings have gone out of business (not for lack of support from Skype). Citrix “Go To” services (Go To Meeting, Go To Assist) have become popular collaboration services at $49.95 per month per host (in fact, last year Citrix Online acquired HiDef Conferencing to have a consistent audio component for these services).

Yet, business’s appetites for collaboration services continues to grow, probably accelerated by not only the cost of travel but also the security issues surrounding air travel today. And they are certainly looking at cost versus value-add in the feature set as one component of their decision making.

A year ago January InnerPass launched their collaboration offering that integrated Skype with basic business-class hosted document management services targeted at business and work teams. In one sense InnerPass could be considered a persistent version of Skype’s file transfer feature; recipient users do not have to be present when files are added, modified or downloaded. They can readily be accessed at any time by any of the designated participants in a Room. The service provides more value-add through the ability to manage multi-party team calls via Skype and/or the PSTN complemented by the ready availability of the team’s documents during the call.

The recently launched InnerPass 2.1 expanded on these services with:

• a new user interface that improves navigation, especially when it comes to working with document “rooms”, their associated user groups and screen sharing
• contact import integration with Skype, Outlook and 50 other services such as GMail, Hotmail, LinkedIn and MySpace.
• call scheduling and management, incorporating the ability to access a multi-party conference call via Skype or a conference bridge

But the launch of InnerPass 2.0 last fall appears to have accelerated growth of the user base; last week InnerPass passed above the 2 million downloads mark, about one year after launching their service. While initially attracting many downloads via the Skype Extras program, viral adoption as users invite participants into rooms and meetings now has taken over as the leading source of new users.

While there is a free “Personal” service, any serious user will easily pass its 2 room, 5 guests per room limit; this service basically serves as a trial offering. In fact, I purchased a $4.95 per month Professional plan some time ago and quickly ran my usage up to its limits. As result any serious user should expect to quickly get to the $14.95 per month Business plan where business teams have more flexibility for both managing and operating both their dynamic and ongoing collaboration activities.

Bottom line: InnerPass provides a low cost collaboration service for work teams who need to be persistently in contact across team members via shared documents, text chat and voice. Definitely a tool to consider when it comes to increasing team productivity while keeping sharing costs under control.

Click here to download InnerPass for either Windows or Mac.

Since its launch about two years ago, I have blogged several times about iotum’s CalliFlower Conference Calling service. More significantly I have used it for several conference calls of up to 25 people, including a couple that ran for over two hours. While permitting up to several hundred participants into a conference call, Calliflower’s primary unique feature is the “portal” created for each call along with the long term archiving of a call and its associated “portal”. Other features include:

• access via the PSTN in over 100 cities in 30 countries (using phone numbers supplied by Voxbone)
• ability to display (and share) documents supporting the conference call’s agenda
• a common chat window, often used to share URL’s, provide information complementary to the primary discussion or even ensure all participants have correct spellings of key words used in the discussion
• a complete service that supports the entire conference call process from initial invitations to the final archiving of the call
• an iPhone client for setting up and accessing a CalliFlower session
• sessions can be either private requiring invitations or public; the archived content of public sessions is searchable

Today iotum has announced the addition of Skype as a way to access Calliflower conference calls; from the press release:

Previously, participants could only dial into Calliflower conferences through PSTN access numbers, potentially incurring local charges.  In regions or countries where no such access numbers are available, customers would incur long-distance and even international charges, or use up Skype-out minutes calling access numbers overseas.  Now callers can access Calliflower through a Skype ID – CalliflowerSkype – or via a web button in the Calliflower UI, overcoming this disadvantage.

“We’ve had many requests from potential Calliflower customers who had no local access numbers, especially from  parts of Africa, India, China and the Middle East,” said Alec Saunders, iotum CEO. “Now, as long as they have Skype, that doesn’t matter anymore.”

In addition, users gain from the better audio quality they will enjoy through direct Skype access¹, as well as from all the visual information, documents and presentations that are shared through Calliflower’s interactive dashboard. These tools go a long way toward improving understanding on international conference calls.

Available on PC, Mac and iPhone, Calliflower makes organizing and participating in multi-party calls simple and engaging.  It allows participants to see the status of other callers and raise hands to request the floor, while also providing interactive chat, document sharing, intuitive conference controls, call recording, invitations and reminders, integration with calendars, and more.

On your initial access to a CalliFlower call you will need to add CalliFlowerSkype as a Skype Contact. But then recall that Skype allows you the option of using your Skype Online number or a designated mobile phone number as your caller ID for SkypeOut calls. When accessing a CalliFlower conference call on Skype, CalliFlower will look at your callerID in place of entering a PIN number to provide authentication for your access. iotum is looking at adding the ability to use your SkypeID as a participant identifier.

As with access in over 30 countries via the PSTN, Skype Access in CalliFlower is included in the monthly Premium service with a monthly charge of $50 for the first two moderators or organizers within a company and $25 per additional organizer.

Bottom line: Skype Access opens up lower cost access for participation in a CalliFlower conference call in every country where Skype is available. Incorporation of Skype access also fits into Skype’s “Skype Everywhere” goal. In this case calls can be accessed not only via Skype on a PC but also from any Skype offering on a mobile platform. This is enhanced for iPhone users where they will also find an iPhone client for setting up and managing a CalliFlower conference call.

¹I asked iotum CEO Alec Saunders to clarify the statement re improved auido quality; his response:

1. Better quality hardware. Skype users tend to be using better quality equipment than POTS callers.  In particular most PC headsets have a better microphone than the cheap microphones in telephone handsets.
2. 2. Fewer transcoding losses. Internally, Calliflower is VoIP.  When a user calls Calliflower from the PSTN, those calls transit a media gateway where the media is transcoded and presented as G.711.  Prior to the direct connection we’ve initiated, media coming from Skype would be transcoded at least twice – from Skype to the PSTN, and then PSTN to G.711.  The result was a noticeable degradation in quality.  Now Skype presents the media to us directly as G.711.

Other posts:

Check out Tom Keating’s post over at his VoIP and Gadgets blog on TMCNet where he interviews iotum CEO Alec Saunders about how CalliFlower implemented its Skype access via Skype for SIP, involving Skype for SIP’s addition of IP address authentication.

Full disclosure: the author has followed the evolution of CalliFlower over its three year development process, and was a frequent participant in iotum’s SquawkBox calls where not only did we discuss technology news of the day but also contributed ideas and suggestions for improvements and enhancements to the CalliFlower service. You can access the archive of the SquawkBox call discussing the FREETALK Everyman headset at the time of its launch here.

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Legion are the stories of small and medium businesses who are using Skype for their worldwide communications operations.

• Skype is the cornerstone for keeping Toronto-based  b5media’s worldwide staff of bloggers, editors, developers and executives in touch via both informal and formal conversations.
• SeeWorthy gets an assist from Skype when communicating with their Taiwanese supplier (via an Alberta-based translator), North American and Caribbean agents, and prospective European distributors as well as their customers.
• A Canadian-headquartered resource company is using Skype voice and IM for communications with their operations in Asia; their biggest challenge involves time-zone issues. Skype chat’s inherent asynchronous nature helps to address that issue.

Skype itself claims that about 30% of all its user activity is business related. I often encounter small businesses who have a wealth of stories about how Skype contributes to their business success.

But during a recent conversation with OnState CEO Pat Kelly I learned about how Skype is stealthing its way into medium to large enterprises. Pat discussed two examples (who will remain generic until case studies are available):

• OnState received an enquiry from a major North American parts distributor whose operations involve agents, resellers and business customers spread out across North America. While this company has an internal IT team, the CFO was focused on significant cost reductions for their call center operations. He has now contracted OnState to provide voice, chat and other customer relationship communications activities that do not simply save money but provide additional communications processes such as IM with its inherent presence and chat features. Once the contract was signed, the CFO mentioned he would guide his IT personnel with their role in the implementation.
• A European country manager for a worldwide, US-headquartered business found that he was getting charge-backs for “corporate” communications services that did not meet his particular needs. He had enough autonomy that he investigated OnState’s services, went through not only the technical specifications but also the legal reviews and business process requirements. He is now meeting the communications needs of his business ecosystem using Skype and OnState’s other auxiliary services for call center and virtual PBX requirements. Subsequently other European subsidiaries of the same company are implementing OnState’s services. Yet this is a situation where the U.S. head office has yet to be contacted about what additional opportunities for Skype and OnState may exist within their business.

Pat’s key point is that, in today’s economically stressed environments, there’s a trend where CFO’s and business unit managers are making the key communications services decisions in larger enterprises in order to meet their financial goals. IT personnel are playing little or no role in the decision making although they may be involved to a limited degree in the implementation. What are Pat’s key observations?

• The consumer experience with Skype is stealthing its way into business implementations, not only with prosumers and small businesses but also at the business unit level within larger enterprises.
• Why? Skype just plain works. There are no firewall issues; OnState’s SaaS model eliminates capital investment for PBX’s and related infrastructure.
• It’s relatively easy to implement.
• Economic pressures are driving adoption.
• Where a business partner or customer has Skype also, HD Voice, incorporating SILK, provide for more productive voice conversations.
• It’s not simply about using a technical mashup across multiple services (Skype, Google, and Voxbone, for example) involved in OnState implementations; it’s a “business mashup” involving business processes and employee acceptance.

It’s a repeat of a trend that drove personal computers into larger enterprises twenty-five years ago. I recall one story where a Canadian bank Vice President found an employee with a PC that had a modem attached (with, at best, a 1200 kbps speed). The modem was ordered disconnected! Bank security was going to be upheld despite technology progress. Four years later that same bank ordered over 10,000 PC cards from my employer of the day for inclusion in their new, at the time, teller terminal system.

Bottom Line: Even if it’s not totally free it’s the raw cost savings that are driving Skype adoption, sometimes in co-operation with their business software partners. It’s about not only lower calling costs but also the elimination of capital asset costs. For some business markets Skype is stealthing its way into business communications infrastructure.

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Yesterday’s announcement of the Skype for SIP beta created lots of commentary in the blogosphere; it remained the leading topic on Techmeme for several hours.

• Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal, in “Skype For SIP: Big Money, Skypeless, Brand Destroyer”, outlines some of the positioning with respect to Skype for Asterisk, channel schism issues and worries that it abandons Skype’s central tenants and could undermine the brand.
• Alec Saunders, in “Skype embraces SIP; announces beta service for business users”, talks about the impact on businesses using legacy PBX’s, the increased pressure on international long distance markets and a reminder that about 1/3 of all current Skype traffic is business related.
• Jason Goecke at Ahearsion, a Skype for Asterisk beta developer, worries about the impact on the market for Skype for Asterisk in “Skype for SIP = Skype for Asterisk DOA?”

But most interesting was the Voice On The Web Public Chat session that ensued. Being on a vacation I was away from my laptop for about seven hours (yes, it was a great day to be golfing) but when I returned I found a session that not only provided the flavor of the vibrant debate going on but also many answers. The key – Chris Moore, Skype’s Senior Product Manager responsible for Skype for SIP joined into the discussion to make several points:

• Most importantly – this is Skype for SIP beta; his team is looking for feedback from a range of beta testers, not only third party developers but also the IP PBX vendors themselves. To quote Chris:
  

  Yep, whole idea is to get feedback, see what people want/don’t want to help prioritize development of new features. Our group, Skype For Business, is getting a lot of focus and its a key strategic focal point for Skype now. We’ll never get it completely right at the start, but a start is still a start

• To qualify as a beta tester you need to have some experience with configuring IP PBX’s that are currently in the market. For instance, “you must have, and be able to configure, your own SIP Enabled PBX that supports G.729 codec.”
• Beta testers will need to create a temporary Skype name to use in the beta program; the issue of a separate SkypeID and how it was handled was hotly debated.
  One point to clarify:

  Skype for SIP actually can allow multiple Skype IDs to be mapped through to a single SIP identity. However, during the beta period, we are only supporting a 1 to 1 mapping due to the fact that Skype’s advanced Business Control Panel (BCP) configuration portal is not yet available at this time. If a company wishes to configure multiple Skype ID’s mapped to a SIP identity, we can accommodate this for a subset of the beta trial participants.

• The key connections made by Skype for SIP are:
  

  - PBX –> SkypeOut (PSTN)
  - SkypeIn/Online numbers (PSTN) –> PBX
  - Skype Clients –> PBX

• The business model, including pricing, has yet to be worked out. It will require Skype to determine a means to separate out business users from “consumer” users on both Skype for SIP and Skype for Asterisk. The principle here is that business benefits from the various features of these offerings; where such significant value-add exists there is a market for the services. But any pricing for either offering is yet to be determined, keeping in mind that both offerings’ desire to make significant market penetration will be a key moderator on pricing. Again quoting Chris:
  

  no new road is easy and enhancing our focus so Skype can support business users as a distinct group differently from consumers takes some work

• Differentiation from Skype for Asterisk will be an ongoing challenge. Initially Skype for Asterisk, which will be an Asterisk channel, includes handling SIP—>Skype calls, Skype-to-Skype calls and will incorporate presence information. (My comments on an ignored aspect differentiating these are below.)
• While SFS may incorporate some “Skype trunking” capability, SFS also offers the handling of inbound calling from Skype Online numbers.
• As for the current status of SFS, Chris says the focus at the moment is on getting voice connections right as this is the feature most demanded in the market:
  

  and this is baby steps for Skype, there are many more UC services to come, voice for SIP is the biggest ask from customers. Video/presence etc only make  sense when codecs are common between skype clients and SIP endpoints.Some work left there!

• Codecs are an issue. The initially supported G.729 codec requires licensing. The Skype for Business team is working on incorporation of G.711 within a few weeks but eventually hopes to assist with the adoption of the SILK codec across the industry by supporting SILK. But this also requires SILK support at the end points. Bottom line: codecs have both a technology and business issues to be resolved.
• Security is an issue that will probably provide one of the major challenges as Skype opens up access to its cloud from both Skype for Business offerings.

My own observations, not having been around for the discussion:

• Skype for SIP and Skype for Asterisk: the discussion yesterday centered on technical issues but totally ignored the market channel issues.
• Skype for SIP requires working with the various IP PBX vendors who have their own distribution channels; Skype for Asterisk is a partnering project with Digium who has its own unique distribution channels. These channels are both looking for innovation that keeps them in business. Yes, the common issue is that SFS and SFA both threaten the long distance market, but the VAR’s and System Integrators in these channels will need new offerings that meet this challenge.
• A significant challenge for both SFA and SFS will be the User Interface. How much will either of these products make the installation,  configuration and operational aspects so user friendly that outside support requirements are minimized or eliminated. This is a huge challenge in the SMB market as many small business owners will simply not want to be involved with such issues; they have their own business specialty to focus on. The value-add of VAR’s and SI’s serving any business market comes in making business communications low cost, seamless to the business operation and five 9’s uptime for their customers.
• There is not one solution that will meet the complete world of business needs. Currently in this SMB space we have several vendors: Cisco, Microsoft Response Point, Avaya, Siemens, etc. The world would be up in arms if there were only one offering for providing the disruptive innovation for which Skype can provide support to these channels.
• The issue of addressing consumer users vs business issues recalls the PC market twenty years ago when PC hardware vendors, initially Compaq, finally figured out how to differentiate and address these markets. This was a major issue I had to deal with in setting up a PC reseller network at the time. Today we see Dell addressing these various markets as soon as you launch into their website.

The Skype-enabled world is only healthy if there are alternative offerings and channels. Recall the theme of Skype President Josh Silverman’s reminder to the analysts last week: “Skype is a software company but we plan to be everywhere”. The Skype for Business group is focusing on making the software required to support these offerings; this software will leverage the IP PBX vendors and Digium distribution channels to drive adoption through into the various regional business market channels worldwide.

Update: While Om’s post, Skype Now Means Business, Friends the SIP World, demonstrates that he has not been following very closely the strategy being laid out by Skype’s new executive team over the past few months, the comment stream it triggered  is well worth reading. For instance, check out SFA developer Tim Panton’s comment about the opportunity for innovation he has found in SFA:

That aside, I’m a huge fan of S4A and our experience to date has been positive. We leverage the improved identity management (vs PSTN or SIP) and low costs of Skype to do some very cool integration with business processes and web applications by routing Skype calls through the extensible and scriptable platform of Asterisk. [author’s bold]

Next Post: Why Skype needs to get Skype Public Chat back into the latest release of Skype for Windows 4.0. The discussion referenced above demonstrates that this is the major failing of this version.

Update: Andy Abramson at VoIP Watch: Skype and SIP Equals A Takeaway of Toll Free

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Amidst all the macro economic turmoil of 2008, there are businesses that have stuck to their knitting and had a quite successful year. Pioneer Skype Partner PamConsult recently reported on their 2008 achievements where they have both built out their product line and provided consulting services that have resulted in a stronger development team and enhanced product offerings.

PamConsult comprises two business divisions: Scendix for software product offerings, such as their widely accepted Pamela utility for Skype (the first Skype Extra going back to 2005) and PamFax, and PamConsult for development consulting where, for instance, they developed Skype for Salesforce.com under a contract with Skype. Some highlights:

• A major accomplishment has been the ongoing growth of PamFax. During the year they built out the infrastructure to provide the robustness and scalability such that PamFax now supports over 130,000 registered users. They have announced plans for a fax-in service as well as Mac support in 2009.
• Pamela has now had over 5 million downloads; early in 2009 they expect to release version 4.5; mcePhone, their Skype integration tool for Windows Media Center, will soon see version 3.
• Finally, PamConsult continues to provide eBay offerings, including the eBay Skype tabs licensed to eBay Germany, eBay France and eBay UK. At last year’s eBay Live event, PamConsult won an eBay Star Developer award for their Jaast for Wii, which brings eBay to your TV via Nintendo’s Wii console.

It will be interesting to see how PamConsult’s Skype partnership evolves in 2009 as the new executive team introduces a comprehensive technology roadmap and revamped partnering programs.

Other posts:

• Radio Free Asia: A Skype Facilitated Broadcasting Service
• PamFax: Adding Click-to-Fax

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Send faxes via PamFax for €0.14 (a 17% reduction) or, if on a PamFax Professional or PrePaid Pack plan, as low as €0.09.

Since last summer Skype Journal has been reporting on the evolution of PamFax, which allows Skype users to send faxes anywhere worldwide from your laptop in as few as five mouse clicks. Source documents can be locally scanned hard copy or electronic documents in any of 100 file formats, including Office and PDF documents. PamFax can also act as a Windows printer. This weekend last summer’s Skype Mashup Contest winner has added several new features:

• An interface for both Facebook and Salesforce.com. The Facebook interface provides your PamFax history and has a link to launch PamFax to send another fax. If you have activated a “still-in-beta” version of the Skype Toolbar for Firefox, the PamFax “Click-to-Fax” icon becomes activated. If you’re a Facebook member, you can add the Facebook interface here.

In Salesforce.com, the integration goes much further: You not only have the fax history embedded in Salesforce, but you also have the ability to start a fax from any Contact, Account, User or Lead! So no more copy&paste to send a fax to one of your contacts, as PamFax starts with name and fax number prefilled and you only have to select what you want to fax and then send the fax.

• Improved startup and performance speeds. PamConsult has invested heavily in infrastructure that accelerates the startup time (probably the major feedback complaint) and also makes the entire faxing process much more responsive. To take advantage of this feature you will need to upgrade to PamFax 1.0.0.34 client, either manually from the PamFax Home page or, after next weekend once Skype has released a new version of the Skype Extras Gallery, an automatic upgrade when you launch PamFax.
• The most significant announcement this weekend is a price reduction for Pay-As-You-Go users and Premium Packs for frequent or high volume users. Highlights:
  • Pay-As-You-Go: has been reduced from €0.17 to €0.14 (~US$0.22¹) for Zone 1 faxes with reductions to other destination zones as well.
  • PamFax Professional Plan: €2.95 (~US$4.70) per month provides a 35% discount of standard page pricing, starting at €0.09 for Zone 1.
  • Prepaid Packs: buy a pack and get a “per fax” discount. Starts at 10% for a €30 Pack to 40% for a €1000 Pack.

Having grown from 25,000 registered users back in April to over 52,000 users today, primarily in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Italy, Germany, Russia and France, PamFax is definitely filling a user need, especially for both the road warrior who needs to send a fax from any Internet connection and situations where hard copy needs to be exchanged instantly in a trackable manner. About 40% of users are paying via Skype credits while others are paying via PayPal or Amazon Payments.

Previous PamFax Posts:

• PamFax Receives Skype Certification, Grows Usage
• PamFax to the Rescue
• Mashup Champion PamFax Becomes a Full Fax Sending Solution
• PamFax: Sending Faxes via Skype

¹US$ conversions based on current rates (€1.00 = US$1.585) and are subject to currency market changes.

Tags: PamFax, PamConsult, Skype, PayPal, Amazon Payment, Fax Service, Fax

Single click access to PamConsult’s PamFax to be integrated into Skype’s Toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I have previously blogged about Skype’s Toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer. At this point, these toolbars create a click-to-call from any number identified on a web page; they are optional with an installation of the Skype for Windows client. I use them quite often in my daily activities; simply click on the created Skype button, confirm that you are making a SkypeOut call and launch the call.

I have also previously blogged about PamFax, which effectively creates a Windows printer for sending documents (whether scanned in or in one of several Windows document formats) to any fax machine worldwide. Five or six clicks to send a fax.

Today I learned that PamConsult and the Skype Toolbar team have been working together to develop a click-to-fax extension to the Skype browser toolbars. While still in beta, you can download either of them here. For Firefox it becomes another plug-in that is an extension of the Skype Toolbar for Firefox.

Simply click on the link and, if you have previously installed PamFax, it launches with the fax number “pre-inserted”. You can then scan in, or select, a document for faxing to the destination fax machine. Eventually this feature will be an option during installation of the Skype for Windows client. If you have not previously installed PamFax you will be taken to the PamFax download site.

PamConsult has also performed some service upgrades and announced a new referral-to-a-friend incentive program as outlined on this PamNews blog post.

Tags: PamFax, Skype, Skype Toolbar for Firefox, Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Skype for Windows

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Becomes an Extra Premium; implements major server upgrade.

While email and VoIP technology have changed our communications patterns, it seems that faxing still has its place as a communications mode. The growth of PamFax as a worldwide fax service using Skype’s underlying Skype Extras infrastructure is demonstrable proof.

A key advantage of PamFax is that it works from a Windows-based PC on any Internet connection worldwide and can readily send a fax to any fax terminal worldwide in about five or six simple steps. Amongst its features PamFax can serve as a Windows printer. It can accept input directly from an Office document or scanner. It’s available to use any time that you may need it; there are no upfront payments, subscriptions or registration required.

Since its launch last summer (with a major feature upgrade in late December) this winner of last summer’s Skype Mashup competition has steadily increased its usage to a point that proves that sending faxes is still a robust, widely acceptable, widely used communications tool. In January I had occasion to use it to recover tickets forgotten for an event. Dick Schiferli, CEO at PamFax publisher PamConsult, has provided some interesting numbers that demonstrate the ongoing viability of fax services:

• almost 25,000 users have installed PamFax with over 1,000 new installations per week
• average fax is 1.57 pages
• 58% of users who take advantage of the initial free page offer come back to send at least one more revenue generating fax
• paid faxes are averaging 6.5 pages
• for progress notification, 88% of all faxes use Skype chat while 25% use email (both options can be selected)

Christoph Buenger, CTO at PamConsult and lead developer of PamFax, reports recently in their blog that PamFax has received the “Skype Certified” designation. “:

Now you can be sure that this add-on for Skype does what we promise and is of high quality. The certification-team at Skype did some very intense tests of PamFax and also helped us improving the add-on.

And over the past few days, PamConsult has upgraded the PamFax infrastructure and architecture such that:

• A much larger number of formats (>100) are supported
• Independent clusters are running in both Europe and North America
• Fax processing speed and server availability are improved (the 2-page PamFax referenced in the chat session above was sent out at about 8:35 a.m.)

In a PamNews.com blog post Dick states:

We are coming up to 25.000 PamFax users now and have made some decisions how to further improve the platform. In the past 9 months we have seen some issues we don’t like and which impact performance and/or system flexibility. Users have also been providing excellent and valuable feedback.

In sending the fax referenced in the chat session above to ensure the new setup is working I noticed that PamFax needs to add a time stamp to the date information associated with the fax. This would be necessary for any use by the legal profession or anyone involved in time sensitive transactions.

Much like Skype provides real time communications worldwide agnostic to service providers, HiDef Conferencing from VAPPS provides high quality audio conferencing capabilities worldwide agnostic to service providers, PamFax is growing in its provision of fax services worldwide agnostic to service providers.

Buried in the Yahoo assets that Microsoft covets is recently acquired Zimbra, “a leader in Open Source, next generation messaging and collaboration software”. Amongst Zimbra’s product line, the initial offering of Zimbra’s Unified Messaging is based on a partnership with Asterisk, the open source VoIP provider. Zimbra has an extensive list of service provider, business and education customers; Comcast has teamed up with Zimbra to offer Comcast’s Unified Messaging portal. And I have personally heard positive comments about Zimbra from a couple of third parties.

Yesterday, OnState Communications, provider of the OnState Call Center for Skype announced an expansion of their product line to add OnState Unified Messaging for Skype – a mashup of OnState, Skype and Zimbra. Basically this is a hosted service that involves, for the user, a web client along with an agent that captures Skype chat sessions, on-demand voice recording and voice mail, allows tagging of these conversations and integration with email, a calendar and an address book such as to provide one point access to all your messaging activities. An integrated and advanced search engine with a simple WYSIWYG feature allows for rapid recovery of relevant communications in any mode. From the press release:

Managed Communications
OnState Unified Messaging for Skype routes, manages, stores and archives a range of business communications to expedite business processes and drive improved customer-contact management. Features include:

• Web 2.0 Ajax client
• integrated Skype voicemail
• dynamic call recording
• online business chat logging
• enterprise-class email and calendaring
• push-mail for mobile devices
• support for Outlook™, Thunderbird and other mail clients
• cross-mailbox search and compliance features

“With this latest offering, OnState advances its charter to deliver Web-based, enterprise-class, customer-contact management solutions at an industry-redefining price point,” noted [Pat] Kelly, [CEO of OnState].

OnState is already configuring its Unified Messaging for current OnState Call Center customers. Some of the above features, such as “push-mail for mobile devices”, will come with an upgrade incorporating Zimbra 5.0 in about a month. I am in the course of evaluating OnState’s Unified Messaging and hope to provide a full review once the upgraded edition is released.

In closing it is important to note the value of a service provider’s reliance on an Open Source application when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. Being Open Source, Zimbra’s source code is readily available to any third party. Zimbra is a classic example of building infrastructure and enhanced services around an open source application that can survive any consequences of a merger or acquisition.

Tags: Skype, OnState, Zimbra, OnState Unified Messaging, OnState Call Center, Yaho

… adds scanning and print driver features for sending faxes worldwide.

Back in August PamConsult, publishers of the Pamela universal Skype utility with call recording, conversation archiving, message personalization and audio emoticons, entered the Skype Mashup competition with their beta release of PamFax. At the time PamFax would allow you to select a (Word or PDF) document and fax it to any destination. At the Prague developer event in September PamFax was announced as the worldwide winner of the (first?) Skype Mashup Competition. Dick Schiferli at PamConsult reports that PamFax has been quite busy delivering faxes for Skype users since the September launch.

Today PamConsult has released a gold edition of PamFax which adds two important new features:

• the ability to scan a document from any Windows-compatible scanner for faxing, and
• a PamFax print driver which allows you to select PamFax as a printer and turns every fax machine worldwide into a potential printer for your Windows print operation.

I have been beta testing the new edition of PamFax with three scanners: a 5-year-old HP4470C, a 7-year old HP OfficeJet T45 and a one-year old Lexmark 8350 over the past few weeks. It is safe to report that, after several iterations, PamFax now works flawlessly with these scanners or multi-function devices. PamConsult has also been running beta tests with several other parties to obtain feedback on a wide range of scanners. (I think the HP4470C and its siblings presented the biggest challenge but now they work fine.)

PamFax installs as a Skype Extra. Initially you will have to download it from the PamFax website; the released gold version (1.0.0.29) should appear in the Skype Extras within a few weeks. My only caveat: after installing PamFax reboot your PC to ensure that all the “appropriate association” between PamFax, the scanner(s) and Skype are properly established. You can then launch PamFax from the Skype Extras menus, a desktop icon or as a Printer for any Windows application.

To quickly review PamFax:

• is a web-based program accessed via a Skype Extras client
• has three document source modes: Wiindows document, scanner and printer driver
• allows optional selection of cover page
• uses Skype Credits, via the Skype Extras transaction engine, for payments
  • there is now an alternative for USA-based suers to use Amazon payments
• delivers fax status notification via Skype chat, e-mail and/or SMS
• provides a user portal for tracking fax activities
• has SSL security
• is totally ad hoc: no upfront payments, no subscriptions, no registration
• is added to the Windows Explorer “Send To” menu as “PamFax Recipient”

While, for cost reasons, I will probably continue to use my home office fax machine for sending scanned documents within North America I can see using PamFax for faxing documents:

• to destinations outside North America
• from remote “road warrior” locations: hotels, customer offices, coffee shops, airports, or any available WiFi access point
  • locations that have been charging $1.00 per page or more.

PamFax has become another disruptive communications application that, like Skype itself, transcends specific carriers and eliminates geographical restrictions and physical barriers to sending faxes. And, as one who has never mastered the complexities of WinFax, PamFax provides a much easier, more user friendly “faxing from anywhere” solution.

Tags: Skype, PamFax, Skype Extras, PamConsult, Pamela, Dick Schiferli

Two weeks ago, it was announced that PamFax, with its ability not only to fax a document but also work through the Skype Extras Publishing Platform to collect revenues, was the winner of the European Mashup competition as well as the worldwide winner.

Thursday afternoon at a Skype Developer Event in San Jose, a mashup that I had been using during my trip to locate WiFi hotspots in the south Bay Area, JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype, was the recipient of the North American Mashup Cup. After receiving the cup JiWire COO Nidhad Hafiz (right) gave a brief demonstration and I had an opportunity to discuss its development with Nihad and CEO Kevin McKenzie (left). Not only does the JiWire Hotspot Finder locate nearby locations with WiFi access but it also provides local information of interest to the road warrior such as driving directions, weather, road conditions and several catagories of nearby retail, lodging and services locations. From the Skype Press Release:

The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype allows users to search for and to find WiFi hotspots anywhere in the world through Skype. It allows one to view surrounding access points and then connect to them in just one click. The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype includes easy keyword search capability; just type in “café” or “hotel” or the name of a specific location to find a nearby hotspot. You can also get local weather or traffic reports, news and directions by simply clicking on the map.

The download of the JiWire Hotspot Finder adds a contact to your Skype Contacts; typing “?” provides a complete set of instructions for using its Natural Language search engine. But not only does entering “restaurants in Sunnyvale, CA” into the chat window bring up a list of five “closest” WiFi-enabled restaurants (with a “next” command to bring up additional restaurants), it also brings up the JiWire WiFi companion that provides the meat of this mashup.

Initially the map will show interactive buttons indicating the locations of the hotspots found in the search; running your cursor over individual hotspots provides more details about the location.. The Location Tools tab includes five left sidebar buttons starting with a “Find Near By” button from which you can ask for, say, any Starbucks or Marriott Hotels, located within the map. Need the local weather forecast for the next five days? Click on Weather. Driving Directions and Local Traffic Conditions are also available via their interactive map. A local newswire runs across the bottom of the window. Run your cursor over identified locations for any of the services and a detail window pops up with more information, such as phone number, for the particular retailer or service or traffic condition.

The WiFi Tools tab provides details about your current WiFi connection and access to a tool which will check the security of your WiFi connection. Note that JiWire considers WEP keys as insecure whereas it defines WPA keys as secure. You also have the ability to register new Hotspots; JiWire will find the technical information; you only need to load the address and name for the location. It does also promote JiWire’s Hotspot Helper (which I had subscribed to at some point prior to availability of the JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype). The JiWire WiFi Hotspot Helper does enhanced the security of your WiFi connection, if necessary (for instance changes WEP to WPA) and also provides a “SMTP” facility to send out your email, should the WiFi connection be blocked from your regular email SMTP server.

For the technical details: JiWire is written in C# and of course uses the Skype API’s along with API’s from Microsoft Virtual Earth, Microsoft Live Search, Weather Channel, Yahoo (Directions, Traffic, News) and additional geocoding information from MapQuest, Yahoo and Google. Nihad mentioned also that the Windows API itself along with .Net framework were also key elements in making this product happen. While the full utility runs under Windows, adding it to your Skype Contacts on a Mac or Linux platform will only bring up the search results but there is no WiFi companion window available at this time.

In my discussion with Nihad he not only mentioned how easily he had developed this application using the Skype API’s but he also drew particular attention to how the Skype API documentation provided sufficient information to execute the development project much more effectively and efficiently.

Speaking with Kevin he mentioned that, while there is no business model associated with JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype, he does see it as providing awareness generation for their services that may lead to both purchase of their WiFi security tool and to use of their ad-supported desktop services. Kevin also mentioned that Nihad had developed the JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype as a “work of passion” outside his normal responsibilities at JiWire. And that passion certainly came through in my discussion with Nihad.

WiFi access is a key infrastructure requirement for road warriors using Skype. Over the past week I found WiFi access to be of varying reliability with the easiest ease-of-access to be a friend’s (secured) home WiFi networks. I found this tool useful in locating WiFi hotspots; however, the biggest issue is for the WiFi service providers and Internet security software publishers to make a determined effort to make connecting to these WiFi hotspots a simple process. (I could not even get the registration web browser to come up at Starbucks on the T-Mobile service yet it worked beautifully at one hotel location over lunch.)

Congratulations again to Nihad, Kevin and the JiWire developer team.

Tags: Skype, Skype Mashup Competition, JiWire, JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype, Skype Developer Program, Skype API, PamFax, Nihad Hafiz, Kevin McKenzie

A post a few days ago, The Dawn of the Mashup World: Part Ia: What is a Mashup, generated a heated discussion on the Skype Mashup Group Chat. Also a few comments. Glad to get some feedback onto Skype Journal; thanks Don and Thomas. (And congratulations to Don Kennedy for having MyToGo selected by ProgrammableWeb.com as August’s Best New Mashup.)

Having monitored the discussion and been involved as a judge in the Skype Mashup competition, my criteria for a mashup are:

1. An solution to a user or business problem that
2. Marries two or more otherwise independent technology platforms or technology services and
3. Makes use of both the technology craftsperson’s unique toolkit mix and his/her experience
4. To satisfy an otherwise unfulfilled user or business process need.

In the course of this exercise I took the opportunity to ask a few developers what they used for delivering their solution. For instance, the iotum team combined the Facebook API’s, Ruby on Rails, the Active MQ framework and an interface to the conference bridge to create their Free Conference Call mashup for Facebook.

In judging the Skype mashup contest I also learned a lot about the wide experience range of mashup developers. Many have excellent experience and development process skills while others forgot some basics such as testing their install and registration procedures and/or their software in a user environment. Some looked at the business or user need while others failed to realize that the world does not need another social networking platform. Ideally mashups are an opportunity to leverage the large user base of a Skype, eBay or Facebook! in meeting an unfulfilled niche user need.

The PamConsult team created PamFax to solve the problem of providing a very simple process (especially relative to the somewhat cumbersome WinFax) of using the Internet to easily fax an MS Office document anywhere worldwide. The primary Skype feature here has nothing to do with voice; they used the Skype Extras publishing platform not only to install the application but also as a transaction processor for collecting revenues for the service using Skype credits. Skype Chat is used to send notifications re a fax’s delivery. In addition they developed a web-based portal to manage and archive your use of the service. The application can be launched from the Skype Extras menu or from within MS Excel or MS Word. A link to Google Maps will also show roughly where the fax is being sent (to within an Area Code).

PamConsult married the Google Maps API’s, Microsoft Office COM objects and a backend fax API with their long term experience using the Skype API’s. They started a year ago this summer with development of specifications; coding commenced in January with an initial version available in May. After a beta testing program in July, PamFax was released as a Skype Extra in the second week of August.

In the course of this process their CTO attended the Skype Developer Conference in Boston in June where there were several sessions on the Skype Extras program, including one on the Skype Extras publishing platform. And it was developed during a period when PamConsult was also developing and releasing new versions of Pamela, Skype for Salesforce.com and some eBay utilities.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect to me was the simplicity of the process. For years I fought with WinFax to have a means to send faxes from a PC (although many new Internet technologies have in the interim reduced the need for faxing). As an initial test I sent myself a fax via PamFax and was somewhat surprised that (i) I had completed the process in so few steps and (ii) I did not need the overhead of installing a printer driver to make it work. Find or create the document, insert the fax number, select a cover page and enter any cover page message, arrange payment and the fax is delivered. Serves a niche need within a small mashup application marrying multiple technology platforms. From the PamFax website:

Simple to use:

• Fully integrated with Skype
• User friendly wizard makes sending a fax a breeze
• Send faxes from Word/Excel 2003/2007
• Easy payment with your Skype Credit
• No upfront payments, no subscriptions, no additional cost, no registration

That last line is one example of why mashups can be so readily accepted; it’s there when you need it but you have no ongoing commitment to use it with any regularity.

Well, last night at the Skype Developer Evening in Prague, Czech Republic, PamFax received the award as the best European Skype mashup. In a Skype chat interview this morning with Dick Schiferli, Founder and CEO of PamConsult, he stated:

“We are very excited to be the winner with PamFax. Using PamFax to fax with Skype is a great solution because you can pay with your Skype credit. And its very easy to use. We enjoy working with Skype and plan to further expand our solution suite.”

You can download PamFax via the Skype Extras [Tools | Do More | Get Extras | Business], the Skype Extras website and also at the PamFax website. Give it a try; the first fax sent is on Pamela.

Tags: Skype, PamFax, PamConsult, Skype Extras, Pamela, Skype for Salesforce.com, PamBot, Skype Developer Program, iotum, mashups, Skype Mashup Competition, Dick Schiferli

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One aspect of the telephony domain that has been absent from the Skype ecosystem has been the ability to fax documents via Skype. Fundamentally, sending a fax is an asynchronous one-way activity that has “ridden” the phone network to transmit a document to a device that is able to decode the fax signal back into a readable paper document.. Skype itself has traditionally allowed document exchange via the file transfer feature; however, it does not address the issue of sending a document to a destination without Skype access or sending “executed” documents in legal transactions. Even for those who have a fax machine in their home office, sending a fax while traveling can be a challenging (and usually somewhat expensive) experience.

PamConsult, publishers of the pioneering Skype Extra, Pamela, this week launched a beta version of their forthcoming fax utility, PamFax which will be available as a Skype Extra. PamFax makes faxing a document from any broadband-connected PC a relatively straight forward experience:

• Designate the document to be sent
• Enter the recipient information (multiple recipients allowed)
• Select a cover page
• Enter the cover page message
• Select notification methods: Skype Chat, SMS and/or email
• Pay for the fax
  • Option: Preview the fax

The fax is then sent, followed by receipt of the selected notifications in, say, a Skype Chat window, an email message and/or an SMS message.

During the process:

• PamFax will only open if you have Skype running on your PC
• You may designate the document to be sent in multiple ways
  • Browse for the document from the PamFax client
  • Select PamFax as a “SendTo” destination in the Windows Explorer right click menu
  • Select the PamFax button inserted into the MS Word or MS Excel toolbar
• On the recipient information screen there is an option to view the destination location on Google Maps. Not terribly granular but it provides the location to within, say, a North American area code.
• Payment is executed via deductions from your Skype Credts
• When you select the “Pay and Send” button on the “Pay for the Fax” screen, you are sent to the Skype payment page in your web browser where, as would happen with any other e-commerce site, you are presented with an invoice, an option for inserting promotion codes and a “Buy Now” button.
• If you do not have sufficient Skype Credits, you can navigate to the Skype Credits purchase page (requires your Skype login information) and buy Skype Credits through the same Skype transaction engine used to buy SkypeIn, SkypeOut and Skype Pro services. If linked to PayPal you will also have to login into your PayPal account.

PamFax is accompanied by your own individual PamFax Portal – a web-based utility that logs your faxes, stores your default settings (cover page, sender information, notification settings) and provides a rate table.

Rates vary by destination country and can run from €0.17 per page to most European and North American destinations to €1.28 per page to many Middle Eastern, African and South American countries and €1.59 to unlisted countries (confirm via the rate table). Prior to sending a fax and even approving payment, you are provided with the cost of the fax.

Having been a beta tester there are still a couple of features I would like to see in forthcoming versions:

• acceptance of fax numbers from Microsoft Outlook
• adding a fax number to a Skype user profile (which would probably require some coordination with Skype itself).
• configure PamFax as a Windows printer driver option

In summary, after many years of fighting with WinFax and other PC telephony client installations and configurations, PamFax does provide a simple means to transmit faxes from your PC while on the road or any situation where the clarity and accuracy of document provided by a “direct to fax” process that bypasses scanning “fuzzies” is required.

Interesting to note is that, as for using actual Skype features, PamFax only uses Skype Chat for notifications and the Skype Extras Publishing Studio for both hosting the application, managing the digital rights licensing and providing the e-commerce engine.

Note: according to this FAQ, during the beta phase, PamFax is only available to Skype users outside Canada and USA.

Download PamFax beta. PamFax FAQ’s.

Tags: Skype, Pamela, PamConsult, PamFax, WinFax, Skype Fax, Skype Extras