Skype and Citrix are combining forces on Web and audio conferencing,
Skype’s vice president and general manager David Gurlé announced in his
keynote address at the Enterprise Connect 2011 conference in Orlando,
Fla.
The partnership expands the Skype for Business desktop experience by
providing meeting and collaboration features for businesses of all
sizes. The platform already integrates instant messaging, voice and
video calling, group video calling, conferencing and file sharing. The
addition of GoToMeeting functionality will add online audio
conferencing and screen sharing capabilities.
“Technology is changing the way we do business. Employees are bringing
their own technology into the workplace, mobility is creating a lot
more flexibility than ever to be wherever you want to be to get work
done, and the advent of cloud-based computing is also breaking down
barriers and enabling people to communicate, access information and be
more productive in new and powerful ways. This is the new way of doing
things in business,” Gurlé wrote in a blog post about the conference and Skype's announcement.
The service is expected to be released later this year.
“GoToMeeting is used by millions of people around the world, which is
testament to our unrelenting focus on ease of use and delivering a
superior customer experience,” said Brett Caine, senior vice president
and general manager of Citrix's Online Services Division, in a
statement. “Teaming with Skype further extends our high quality
capabilities, enhancing the collaboration experience for business users
and workshifters everywhere.”
“We think our business customers will be excited about this because it
means toward the end of this year, we will be adding Citrix's
GoToMeeting capabilities to the Skype Enterprise desktop experience.
This will further enhance Skype's collaboration solutions with a
variety of new Web conferencing and audio features,” Gurlé wrote on
Skype’s blog.
“Already, Skype users can experience high-quality and cost-effective
instant messaging, voice and video calling, group video calling, file
sharing and more. The addition of GoToMeeting capabilities will allow
Skype's business users to quickly set up online meetings with an audio
conferencing bridge that enables users to join via Skype or through
public switched telephone network (PSTN) phone numbers.”
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Messaging and Collaboration 
