Recently I was sitting with Nadine a company consultant who advises a law firm in Düsseldorf. She told me that she does this mostly by telephone and now and then uses Skype. Since I have been working with Microsoft Lync for the past three quarters of the year, I spontaneously showed her, by way of the Lync widget we have installed on our colima website, how great Lync functions are. I briefly chatted  to one of the sales representatives at colima HQ “Hello, I would like some information regarding SimpleRoute for Lync.” I almost immediately received a reply in German and English “Hello, of course, what are you particularly interested in?” “ I need to get that for myself because unlike Skype I can link it to Outlook,” Nadine said, after the short demonstration.

What are the differences between Skype and Lync?

Here we are already at the most important difference between Skype and Lync. Skype and Lync do  have many similarities such as status, short messaging, audio/video communications and telephony. While Skype is more suitable for private users Lync on the other hand, is already integrated automatically in Microsoft systems such as Outlook and Office and so more suitable for the business sector. Thus I always have my contacts at hand or can document my Lync conversations in Outlook. With the purchase of Skype by Microsoft, I can imagine that both systems will become more compatible and that in the future you will be able to communicate from Skype to Lync and vice versa.

Total freedom – unified communications live

I’m astonished that I “still” meet so few users of Lync in Germany, whereas many American companies are increasingly using Lync. For me, working with Lync has enormous advantages, since the abstract concept of “unified communications” becomes real to me with Lync. Working with Lync gives me the option of (almost) working anywhere in the world and I’m able to coordinate with my colleagues. All I need is an internet connection. On Tuesday I was sitting in a hotel and briefly logged into the Wireless Lan and had a short call via Lync with our CEO at colima head office in Leipzig. Today I worked from my home office and was still available to my colima colleagues in the office. Lync gives me total freedom, to work from wherever I want, and in which way I want. Not only can I quickly clarify something by phone, but also coordinate things directly via chat (In the “case” that I just do not want to speak). I can also transfer files and documents simply by file transfer in Lync. Or even invite someone spontaneously to a conference call and continue my chat or phone call in the group. All very easy.

Lync and SimpleRoute

I recommend Lync as a practical and decent working tool with good conscience to others. Even I as a “non-IT” cope well with Lync. Some features that are not included by default can be very easily set up with our colima SimpleRoute, e.g. “BusyonBusy” function. When someone calls and I’m engaged in a call a busy signal will inform the caller. For those who want to know more of how it functions should best read the article by Matthias Friedrichs, our CEO, who already wrote about SimpleRoute and BusyonBusy on our blog. Everything is explained there. If you’re curious, you can chat to me via the Lync widget at www.colima.de/en/contact. Please, first check if I’m “green” or “red” , green is available, red is busy, then I’m working … so until then!