Skype – is it useful?

I think of Skype in the business arena akin to the first fax. The first fax users had few others to fax to and the inherent value in their adoption of the technology was questionable. I try to keep my Skype session up and running but others I’ve strong armed into getting accounts can’t seem to do the same.

Today I found a useful function for Skype in our business environment. I was setting up a virtual phone number for a client with an online vendor who I may talk about later when I realized I needed some authentication verification info from her and Lo! she was on Skype. I text chatted her to get some critical data in order to fill out her app. Worked great. Then I needed to show her what I was seeing on my screen to quickly communicate some choices – I hit Screen Share, selected a frame size and sent the request. She came in on audio with her seeing my screen instead of my fuzzy noggin. I talked her through the choices and we signed off.

Very neat. Effective. Now just need a couple more dozen clients online to make it useful.