Lync to be reworked as 'Skype for Business'

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Lync's days were numbered, of course, ever since Microsoft bought Skype, several years ago. And now on Microsoft's Skype blog, plans have been detailed to rework and rebrand Lync, an enterprise/intranet IM tool, as 'Skype for Business'. See below for some quotes from the news release.

From the Skype blog:

...For our business customers, we are bringing together the familiar experience and user love of Skype with the enterprise security, compliance, and control from Lync to create the most loved and trusted communications platform for doing things together.

A decade ago, Skype broke down the distance barrier by bringing people together from all over the world. It forever changed the way people shared their lives by getting friends and family together to celebrate special moments and create extraordinary bonds. Today, Skype is so much more. It’s used by more than 300 million people for messaging, calling and sharing. It lets people and groups connect in more spontaneous ways across multiple platforms to have fun and get things done. From desktop, to mobile to TV, it’s for communicating throughout the day, every day. Skype is a universal symbol of togetherness.

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For the past 10 years, Microsoft has invested in the transformation of business, disrupting the status quo with Lync, by simplifying and unifying all of the different tools people used to communicate for work. We made Lync a core part of Office to make it easy for people to connect with others to get work done. Lync means the freedom to work anywhere. It’s like tapping someone on the shoulder to say “let’s chat” no matter where you are in the world. Colleagues meet together and make decisions in an instant and IT Professionals rest easy knowing their end-users are supported by a secure platform for that they manage and control. Today, thousands of organizations, large and small, count on Lync for voice, video and conferencing.

In the first half of 2015, the next version of Lync will become Skype for Business with a new client experience, new server release, and updates to the service in Office 365. We believe that Skype for Business will again transform the way people communicate by giving organizations reach to hundreds of millions of Skype users outside the walls of their business.

We’re really excited about how Skype for Business takes advantage of the strengths of both Skype and Lync. For example, as you can see in the screenshots, we’re adopting the familiar Skype icons for calling, adding video and ending a call. We’ve added the call monitor from Skype, which keeps an active call visible in a small window even when a user moves focus to another application.

For more links, and implementation notes, see the Skype post again. Of course, what industry announcement would be complete without a glossy, expensive 'feel good' promo video? Here's the one for Skype for Business:

Although this won't all be in place for up to another eight months, this is a timescale that sounds about right for businesses. And of course, there's the chance to check it all works with Windows 10 on desktop, tablet, phone, etc.

Source / Credit: Microsoft