Microsoft unifies Lync and Skype communication platforms for enterprise users

Following Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s vision to ‘reinvent productivity‘, the company is hard at work turning its enterprise-focused communications platform Lync into Skype for Business. The idea behind the transformation is to “give organizations reach to hundreds of millions of Skype users outside the walls of their business.”

While Lync allowed enterprise users to chat and call colleagues within their organizations, the next version of the platform will see a new client experience, a new server release and updates to the service in Office 365.

Users will get Skype’s call monitor to keep active calls visible while working with other apps, and the ability to make video calls to any Skype user, on any supported device. Transferring a call has been simplified from three clicks to one.

Lync Server customers will need to update from Lync Server 2013 to Skype for Business Server to take advantage of the new capabilities. Office 365 users can expect an automatic update.

This is one of Microsoft’s biggest Skype announcements since it acquired the service for $8.5 billion in May 2011.