Skype’s CSO, Christopher S Dean, presented the keynote at this year’s VON and Channel Partners events – you can see the slides from his presentation above.

He outlined trends in the service partner landscape, discussing FMC, UC and changes in IT spending – and introduced Skype’s service partner strategy.

If you buy a ThinkPad or ThinkCentre, you’ll be able to get up and running with Skype quickly and easily by locating the Skype icon in the Start menu.

Lenovo is a leading manufacturer of business-grade PCs, and so is an ideal partner for Skype for Business. By working together, we can bring Skype to many more businesses around the world, helping them to save time, save money and stay ahead.

If you’re fortunate enough to get your hands on a Lenovo ThinkPad or ThinkCentre for your home or office, be sure to keep an eye out for Skype.

Here's a detailed case study about HyperOffice, the first place winner in the Americas:

When a new business prospect calls from the Middle East with a poor cell phone connection, how can a salesperson get a clear line into this initial make-or-break discussion? If they work for HyperOffice, they immediately invite the potential client to call via Skype.

Recently, a business executive development and assessment company based in the United Arab Emirates called HyperOffice because they needed a better way to share client files. After initial talking over a spotty mobile connection, HyperOffice's global sales team connected with the potential client on a Skype call to learn their key requirements. In the next two weeks, the sales team demonstrated to the company how their "Software-as-a-Service" software tools could help the business with everything from document sharing, online project collaboration, and corporate-wide communications.

"Skype helped us win a significant contract with this UAE-based client because we were able respond quickly to questions via Skype instant messaging and free Skype calls while minimizing our out of pocket investment in high-cost, international phone calls," said Shahab Kaviani, vice president, HyperOffice. "We use Skype in our international outbound marketing, which has helped us increase our worldwide business significantly this year. We expect international sales to grow to about 20 percent of our revenue in 2009, up from five percent in 2007 -- a three hundred percent increase in just two years."

HyperOffice has found Skype ideal to engage with potential clients. "In our e-mail marketing, we embed a SkypeMe icon. Our prospects receive an e-mail campaign and within minutes we have people who we never spoke to before clicking to Skype chat or call with our Internet sales department," said Kaviani.

Small companies and workgroups turn to HyperOffice for cloud computing software tools including turnkey intranet, collaboration software and business e-mail services. For a minimal monthly charge, HyperOffice creates a secure online workspace customized to match the client's look and feel. This makes it easier for growing businesses to collaborate, communicate, manage projects, share documents, schedule meetings and tasks, and manage information, anytime, from work, from home, while traveling, using any Internet connection.

Recently, a London-based public relations firm needed a client portal to seamlessly coordinate all of its project management activities. While the firm was also looking at a local London-area IT outsourcing company, they selected HyperOffice due to its responsive team.

"As we guided the PR firm through our 30-day software trial, our team addressed their questions quickly via Skype instant messaging. With just a simple glance, they always knew who was online and available because of our Skype presence and status updates. Not only did this save them time, but also it and helped us win the business," noted Kaviani. "Now, the firm is able to have individually branded client workspaces where the latest versions of press releases, brochures, timelines and more are hosted in an easy-to-find, efficient manner."

As a company, HyperOffice relies on Skype to keep its own employees connected. While many are in the company's Rockville, Maryland offices, others are scattered across the U.S. and around the world in Buenos Aires, India and the Middle East.

"We hold regular Skype conference calls and find it makes sharing links much easier with the combined instant messaging and file sharing," said Kaviani. "Since some of our team members use English as a second language, they can contribute more to the calls through instant messaging. In addition, we use instant messaging all day long for quick discussions instead of relying on e-mail."

Overall, HyperOffice has increased sales with Skype. "While we have made many improvements to HyperOffice, I would say Skype was in the top three technology investments made in the last 18 months that helped us grow our sales," concluded Kaviani.

Here's a short video demonstrating how HyperOffice integrated Skype click-to-call into their offering:

If you already use an Asterisk-based phone system, you can add Skype as a complementary form of communications by downloading Skype for Asterisk, without additional costly hardware. If you’re an existing Skype user, you can benefit from the advanced call features of Asterisk, including call transfer, interactive voice response, automated call distribution, flexible call-routing and much more.

In addition, with Skype for Asterisk you can:

• Manage corporate Skype accounts with the Business Control Panel
• Get low Skype global rates on outbound calls and make it easy for customers to reach you with local Skype online numbers
• Route calls according to Skype profile fields, online status and privacy settings
• Streamline customer contact by allowing your website visitors to make free Skype calls directly to your business with global click-to-call buttons

What you need

Skype for Asterisk is compatible with:

• Asterisk 1.4
• Asterisk 1.6
• AsteriskNOW™
• Asterisk Business Edition™

and supports both G.711 and G.729a calling.

How to get it

Skype for Asterisk is available to download now from Digium for $66 USD per concurrent call or from Digium Authorized Resellers and Distributors worldwide, and comes with 90 days of installation support from the time of purchase. No additional hardware is needed.

Groups are this Thursday evening in London. There is limited seating, so please email Janese Evans with your contact information and, a few sentences about the size and focus of your business.

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a few questions and the details. If you qualify for a open position and participate in the discussions, you’ll be paid an honorarium to compensate you for your time.

Here's a detailed case study about RareJob, the second place winner in Asia-Pacific:

RareJob was established in Tokyo in 2007 based on the idea of using Skype to create unique job opportunities linking Japan with other countries around the world. The inaugural project the company took on was teaching English as a second language, or ESL, employing tutors from the Philippines.

ESL instruction is a major industry in Japan, valued at ¥316.6 billion (about US$316 million) in 2007 according to Yano Research Institute Ltd. This is also a highly competitive market dominated until recently by several large nationwide chains of privately operated schools.

RareJob entered the fray armed with Skype. Gaku Nakamura, Chief Technology Officer, knew Skype well before he started the company with partner and CEO Tomohisa Kato.

"Before starting RareJob, I was involved in software development using the peer-to-peer technology at the heart of Skype. I used Skype at work everyday, so I knew its potential as a low-cost, high-quality communications tool," said Nakamura.

Great tutors without exorbitant costs
Skype enabled RareJob to build a strong base of highly qualified tutors in the Philippines, and at the same time sprint ahead of the competition by keeping operating costs down.

"All of our tutors are students or graduates of the University of the Philippines. We select tutors who have the highest English capability and most natural accents. We then help them get set up on Skype if they do not yet have an account, and train them in using Skype as an educational medium."

Unlike most of the major players in the Japanese ESL field, RareJob avoids the cost of maintaining schools in high-rent districts around train and subway stations. These areas have traditionally been the most convenient locations for busy commuters. And while the company pays competitive salaries to its Philippine tutors, labor costs are noticeably less than in Japan, and the tutors do not have to travel to Japan to do their jobs.

All this means savings to students without sacrificing profitability for RareJob.

"We use Skype for all our internal communications with tutors, as well as with our office in Manila. This lets us provide online lessons to Japanese students at ¥5,000 (US$50) per month. If a student does a 25-minute lesson everyday, that's ¥129 per lesson, about 40 times less than what the same student would pay for one-on-one lessons in a classroom."

The home advantage
What can be more convenient than studying in the comfort of your own home? RareJob users reserve time slots in advance over the web. When the reserved time arrives, one of the company's tutors calls the user, and the lesson begins. It's that easy, and another key reason for RareJob's popularity. In the economic climate since late 2008, more Japanese are going straight home from work, dining in rather than spending money outside. RareJob provides the cost-conscious Japanese with an easy, interactive means toward gaining a new skill, and perhaps contributing to future career development.

With an average of more than 2,000 ESL lessons per day and 700 registered tutors, RareJob is Japan's largest independent provider of online ESL instruction. Registered students have steadily risen, from about 1,000 in April 2008 to more than 13,000 in August 2009, and if anything the economic crisis is driving new growth.

"Other online service providers use different technologies, such as dedicated videophones the students have to lease or buy. This makes them less expensive than the classroom-style schools, but still a lot more than RareJob."

RareJob's students can also take advantage of Skype features not available with other online technologies, such as very high-quality audio and fast file sharing.

The future is video?
RareJob is only a year and a half old, but it has quickly emerged as a promising entrant in Japan's ESL market and a company with a bright future. Nakamura sees his brand of ESL instruction as continuing to evolve with Skype.

"Most of our students use voice calls for their lessons. The Philippine broadband infrastructure is not as far along as Japan's, so video calls are often impractical. But as we see Skype improving both audio and video quality while reducing the bandwidth needed, the potential of video instruction will grow. Video adds the dimension of visual aids like pictures. And students can observe the gestures that go along with different phrases and ways of speaking, leading to more natural conversation."

RareJob's mission is also only partially completed. ESL instruction is a success, but Nakamura and Kato are constantly working on new ideas for "rare jobs." Whatever the result, Skype will be there as the company's core utility.

Our judges looked not only at the creativity and originality of how Skype is being used, but also the range of Skype features used and the geographic spread of their use. Prizes include bespoke Skype solutions for first place winners, along with Skype Credit and Skype Certified hardware.

The winning companies, who best demonstrated how they are saving time, saving money and staying ahead by using Skype, are as follows:

Europe, Middle East and Africa

1. First Place: Nordic Hotels, Estonia - For using Skype in the hotel's guest rooms, conference rooms and their entire office and booking centre.
2. Second Place: Elf English, Russia - A start-up company that is not only teaching English online via Skype, but also using Skype to interview prospective teachers.
3. Third Place: CARD.COOP, Sweden - A cooperative enterprise that is using Skype to share vital knowledge with anyone who wants to redesign business and society towards sustainability.

Americas

1. First Place: HyperOffice, US - For using Skype to improve sales of its software by more than 100 percent.
2. Second Place: OpenEMR HQ, US - A virtual company that uses Skype to communicate both internally and externally, as well as to train its customers around the world.
3. Third Place: One VRS, US - For using Skype to provide real-time sign language translation services for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Asia-Pacific

1. First Place: Lighthouse Independent Media, Singapore - An international publishing company that has made Skype an integral part of its daily editorial and production processes.
2. Second Place: RareJob, Japan - A company delivering more than 2,000 English conversation lessons via Skype each day.
3. Third Place: Rusty, Australia - An international surfwear and apparel brand that uses Skype to enable close collaboration between its employees around the world.

We'll be following up in the next few weeks to share more details about how the winners (and other entrants) are using Skype in their businesses.

For now, congratulations! You all deserve a big thank you from everyone on the Skype for Business team.