Skype announces winners of first Skype for Business Competition 
ConvergenceAsia staff
12/08/2009

Skype has announced the winners of the first Skype for Business Competition, which puts the spotlight on how companies can use Skype for cost-effective communications around the world.

The month-long competition in May-June - launched to celebrate the new look for the Skype for Business portal (www.skype.biz) - was open to companies in the Asia Pacific, EMEA and Americas regions. The 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.

Entries were judged based on the following criteria:
- Creativity and originality of submission and use of Skype – 50 per cent
- Range of Skype features used – 20 per cent
- Geographic spread of Skype usage – 20 per cent; clarity of case study – 10 per cent

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

- First Place: Lighthouse Independent Media, Singapore – An international publishing company with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur uses Skype as an everyday communications tool to keep all offices and all people in all offices connected throughout the day. In addition to the conversations and file sharing capabilities, Skype is used in the three market morning news conferences held between the different editorial teams as well as a medium to address the entire company over Skype via speakers. Skype is also used to celebrate birthdays across geographic markets. The company even had a two office bar night via video Skype, making it a tool that is used effectively to balance work and play.

- Second Place: RareJob, Japan – RareJob offers man-to-man English conversation lessons. The organisation employs more than 600 instructors and over 2,000 lessons via Skype on a daily basis. In order to reduce the workload involved in lesson support, the team has developed its own in-house software to ensure that Skype is utilised to its full efficiency. The software distributes the same message simultaneously to hundreds of people via Skype chats, and provides instantaneous information on the on-line status of hundreds of people. The team also uses Skype for internal communications purposes.

- Third Place: Rusty, Australia – Rusty is a global Surfwear & Apparel Brand that operates in over 15 countries worldwide. Skype is used to easily and instantly chat/video chat with colleagues all over the world. On an average, the company saves a minimum of US$40,000 per annum on the costs of domestic and international travel and productivity. Skype is liked across the retail stores and the organisation has recently started making Skype Out calls to landlines and mobiles.

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