Skype touted as money saver for international business calls

In our global economy, almost any business of any appreciable size experiencesrather hefty international phone bills.

As this article from colleague Marguerite Reardon attests, some companies are looking at Skypefor their global communications needs.

International calling between Skype users is free. When you make a call over your Skype to call a non-Skype user,those calls are typically a single-digitpercentage of the cost of standard international dialing plans.

Marguerite cites the interesting example of Tulsa, Okla.-based industrial pump manufacturer Ruhrpumpen.

She notes that Ruhrpumpen "started using Skype last summer to communicate with co-workers and business partners in Asia, Central America and Europe. The company has even put a directory with Skype contacts on its intranet."

I'm not endorsing Skype, just pointing to the experiences and benefits that some users report.

If you want to go this route, just don't start using Skype internally. Get your key stakeholders, clients and customers to sign up. You will free up the money you save on your international dialing costs for other initiatives.

Does your company use Skype for international business calls? If so, post a TalkBack and let us know about your experiences.