Lync Migration Featured Article

Clarity Connect Works Exclusively for Skype for Business

By Casey Houser Contributing Writer

Clarity has announced the launch of its new Connect cloud-based contact center software for enterprises that enjoy the benefits of Office 365 and Skype (News - Alert) for Business. For newcomers and veterans to those Microsoft products, Connect means to offer additions such as call routing and reporting while retaining all the functionality customers expect from their office suite and unified communications mainstays.

Clarity does this work as an official Microsoft (News - Alert) Gold partner. Its announcement confirms that Clarity was constructed for Skype for Business. The company’s chief technology officer, Jon Rauschenberger, commented that this exclusive call center may be one of the most advanced available on the market.

“Clarity (News - Alert) Connect is the most significant and fully-realized cloud contact center solution for Office 365 available on the market,” Rauschenberger said. “No other vendor can provide the full-featured functionality of Clarity Connect with the seamless interaction with Office 365 and Skype for Business.”

Perhaps the most enticing feature of this pairing is that Skype can also be deployed in the cloud. Gartner (News - Alert) predicted earlier this year that public cloud infrastructure, including software-as-a-service, will continue to grow throughout 2016 and into 2017. The rate of growth for packaged software, it said, could climb between one and three percent per year. This is the reality on which Skype and Clarity can both sit.

Although many companies still use Skype as installed on their own machines, there are benefits to going all-cloud. Enterprises can gain flexibility and ease of use. They should be better able to extend Skype to desktop and mobile devices across multiple company sites because their installations will not be limited to individual machines. A single login per user can help IT spread the access. Meanwhile, such logins can make pricing plans easier to manage, and that can save companies money.

The same arguments apply to Clarity. Its call routing, addition of web-based chat to Skype, reporting of statistics such as key performance indicators, and integration with additional products such as Microsoft Dynamics (customer relationship management) can make it an enticing choice for clients that want a lot of features but need to keep their installations simple. Clarity is available now for installations of Skype for Business in the cloud or on-site, waiting for migration to the cloud for any companies that choose to do so.

Edited by Alicia Young