Boost seller productivity with Skype for Business and Salesforce

Amidst all the disruption that enterprises are experiencing today, one thing has remained constant—real-time communications are still fundamental to workplace productivity. By embedding real-time communications into applications, you can instantly transform business processes, make them more agile and deliver a better service to your partners and customers.

Earlier this year, we announced an update to the Skype Web SDK, which enables you to build web experiences that seamlessly integrate presence, chat, audio and video by leveraging Skype for Business services and the larger Skype communications network.

Salesforce is a great showcase of how the new Skype Web SDK can be used to deliver a customized and integrated communication experience directly from the browser and without the need for any plug-ins.

Skype for Salesforce

Skype for Salesforce surfaces the capabilities of Skype for Business Online directly within Salesforce to give sellers the ability to communicate in real-time with colleagues straight from the Salesforce Lightning Experience.

Simply hover your mouse over a name in the activity timeline, a record or a list and you can immediately see whether a coworker is online and available. The ability to see a person’s status, within the context of a CRM activity, allows you to choose the most effective form of communication. For example, if you need feedback on an action and that person is on a call, an email may be appropriate, but if that person is available, you could get an instant response via chat. You can start a chat, voice call or video call with a single click and without the need to switch to a different application. With real-time communications embedded directly in Salesforce, you can significantly reduce the turnaround time on sales tasks and customer queries.

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Want to give it a try?

Skype for Salesforce is now in beta and available to all customers with Skype for Business Online and Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited Edition. Users can chat using Skype for Salesforce on any supported browsers for Lightning Experience, but audio and video calls are currently only supported for Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari®. Support for additional browsers, including Chrome and Firefox, is coming soon, along with even more communication features.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What is Skype for Business Online?

A. Skype for Business Online is a complete, cloud-based communications and collaboration service that brings together an experience inspired by Skype with enterprise-grade security, compliance and control. It offers features including presence, IM, voice and video calls, and online meetings. It is built right into Microsoft Office—so initiating chats, calls and meetings is an integrated experience within Office.

Q. What Microsoft and Salesforce subscriptions are required to use Skype for Salesforce?

A. A Skype for Business Online and Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited Edition subscription is needed to use Skype for Salesforce. Skype for Business Online is included with many of the Office 365 plans, including Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Enterprise E5.

Q. How do I enable Skype for Salesforce?

A. Salesforce administrators can enable Skype for Salesforce for your organization. Detailed instructions can be found at Enable Skype for Salesforce.

Q. Is the new Lightning Experience required to use Skype for Salesforce?

A. Yes, you will need the Lightning Experience to use Skype for Salesforce.

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