Item: Skype
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Skype was being tested as one of the video conference calling tools for our office. Since we're an audio and music company, one of the most crucial elements of these different programs we were auditing to make a decision was the sound quality, which unfortunately Skype fell very short. We were constantly having issues with dropped audio, robotic sounding voices, and difficulty sharing audio. It's unfortunate since we would have had this service already implemented with Microsoft Office.

Pros and Cons

UX/UI is very intuitive
Built in video features make privacy/backgrounds simple
Cross-device functionality is seamless

Audio quality is horrible: choppy, robotic, dropped, etc.
Other functions outside video calls are virtually useless + other apps (Slack) work much better
Limited features: no breakout rooms, lack of interactivity, it's very basic

Return on Investment

Positive: cost, it's affordable and often included in your Microsoft Suite
Negative: due to the bad audio quality, we had to pay extra for another service even though this is already included in what we pay for
Positive: people found it extremely easy to use, the UX/UI is very understandable for surface level use
Negative: the surface level use is about all that Skype is good for. Getting into more advanced user settings is not simple and does not always work well

Alternatives Considered

Zoom, Slack and GoToMeeting

Skype was used literally only cause it was included in the Microsoft Suite and we did not need to pay for another service. However, after using it for some time and constantly running into audio/video issues (especially during client presentations when sharing powerpoint, video, or audio files) it quickly became obsolete. Management was not happy that we now had to pay for a new service due to Skype's shortcomings

Key Insights

Do you think Skype delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Skype's feature set?

Did Skype live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Skype go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Skype again?

Other Software Used

Zoom, Slack, Box, Mavenlink, Pipedrive, Proposify

Likelihood to Recommend

The biggest benefit of Skype is that it's native to the Microsoft ecosystem. If you're using Office 365 it's already part of the suite and makes it a lot easier for IT/tech to manage within these settings. You're not managing several different accounts for employees on multiple platforms with different passwords, 2 factor authentication, etc. It's simple to use, quick to pick up, and relatively effortless for people who simply need to make video calls to communicate and talk.

However, if you're looking for a more robust system and video/audio quality are extremely important features to you, I'd look elsewhere. We're a smaller team so dealing with multiple accounts/different logins across SaaS programs isn't an issue, but I could see this problematic if you're a larger organization managing everything from a central account (Microsoft for example).

If simplicity + ease are what you're looking for, go for Skype. If more than that, look elsewhere

Overall Satisfaction with Skype