P

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Skype toolbar for Outlook - find and collaborate

DocLife Add-in for Outlook integrate Skype telephony and collaboration into Microsoft Outlook XP and 2003. Using DocLife Add-in for Outlook you can initiate Skype calls or chats directly from any Contact in Outlook.

Skype is a powerful collaboration tool; it drives down communication costs, but, more importantly, it adds another dimension to collaboration apart from email.

As a heavy Outlook user I wonder how I can:

  • Define Skype Name for an Outlook Contact
  • Find Skype Name for all Outlook Contacts
  • Start a Skype call or chat directly from within Outlook

As I couldn't find this functionality anywhere, I simply added it out of need.

Define Skype Name for an Outlook Contact

DocLife Add-in for Outlook automatically adds several fields to each contact, including SkypeName. Once you fill in the contacts SkypeName you can start making direct Skype calls or chats directly from within Outlook.

.

Find Skype Name for all Outlook Contacts

DocLife Add-in for Outlook can lookup Skype Name for all your Outlook Contacts. Simply select Add Skyp to Contacts from the menubar.


This ensures that Outlook Contacts remain your master contact database.

Analyzing 1.600 of my own contacts I found that 15% are using Skype.

Start a Skype call or chat directly from within Outlook

Once Outlook knows the SkypeName it provides you with the ability to initiate a call or chat with Skype directly from a Contact or an Email.

When working with a Contact Skype icons will be present if SkypeName for the contact has been set.

Now you can respond to emails using Skype. If the sender has a SkypeName in Outlook Contacts, you can reply to the email directly from within the email. This functionality will shortly also be available from Outlook Appointments which enables you to schedule meetings with people in Outlook and conduct the conference in Skype.


Using Outlook Journals you can keep track of communication with Contacts, whether emails or Skype calls or chats.


However, I didn't look close enough, and it turn out that Skype has such functionality in beta. The functionality seems to be awesome and complementary to what I have done.

Posted by Morten Marquard at 11:37 PM

0 Comments: