Skype to recruit resellers and SIs

Users can browse and buy a range of Skype Certified accessories and hardware from third party merchants whom the company has partnered with.

Dan Neary, general manager and VP for Skype APAC said 35 percent of people use Skype for business and this is an area it wants to expand into.

He said it will launch SIP, a protocol for VoIP at the end of the year for businesses and was looking for resellers for its sales channel and system integrators.

"Skype is trying to increase its level of servicing in Australia. We understand the way the business market works today and we need a sales channel and SIs and a support service on the back of this to make sure we can deliver," Neary said.

"We are spending a lot of time building on our support and training for SIP."

The Skype Shop offers a range of products for sale from third party merchants including wireless headsets and web cameras, with more products to be added as the shop develops.

Users who have upgraded to the all-new Skype, can access the web store from within Skype's 4.0 client for Windows, by clicking on the "Shop" tab.

Users can access the Skype Shop at http://shop.skype.com

Speaking about the announcement, Mark Roberts product manager for IP networking Lan1 said the pending channel program is a natural evolution of any provider.

"It won't affect our sales at all," he said.

"It's a consumer brand and jumping across the business space is not an easy task and the lack of industry standards is going to be a big barrier moving forward.

"Skype has a lack of a channel structure and it's going against the grain of the other service providers where we're seeing people such as GoTalk or  iiNet. We need the channel particularly when it comes to services."

Referring to the 'two dominant standards covering VoIP, SIP and AIX', Roberts said Skype offers a service that's not compliant with the industry standard at the moment and this is a 'big thing' against them.