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MICROSOFT HAS completed the first phase of the integration between its enterprise unified communications (UC) Lync server and its Skype consumer IM and IP telephony network.
The company announced on Wednesday that it's now possible for Lync and Skype users to contact each other, engage in IM text sessions and communicate via audio calls. Videoconferencing integration will be delivered later.
Microsoft disclosed its Lync-Skype plans last year, and in February demonstrated the interaction between the two products for the first time, promising global availability of the first phase of the integration in June of this year, a deadline it has now met.
The interoperability works both for companies that have Lync 2010 and Lync 2013 installed on their own servers and for companies that use it as part of the Microsoft-hosted Office 365 suite, whose other components include Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Skype users must have the latest client software for Windows or Mac OS.
Lync is used by more than 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, and the product provides voice communications for 5 million enterprise users,...