In business, however, this kind of pragmatism doesn't always pay off.

For instance, time was when all a company needed was a quill pen and the Penny post to stay in touch, but then along came the typewriter, telegraphy and the telephone. Later on anyone who wanted to stay  ahead had to get a fax machine. Then email took a hold, to be quickly followed by IP telephony, voice and video conferencing and, latterly, social networking and collaboration.

At each and every point along that timeline business managers have probably sat back and said: "That's it, we've all the tools we need, let's just get on and use them". Others have thought otherwise, adopted the new technologies and gained a competitive edge as a result.

It's not as if we're not given plenty of opportunity to take new communication advances on-board. Moreover adopting new technologies  doesn't, necessarily, involve throwing out the baby with the bath water. Vendors are queuing up to integrate what customers already have with the latest and greatest the industry has to offer. To get VoIP working with the PSTN, for example, hook smartphones into the company PBX, facilitate collaboration with simple and affordable video and application sharing and so on.

It's all there for the taking and companies that think sticking with what they've got is good enough will quickly find that's not the case. While competitors are enabling customers, employees and partners to share knowledge and ideas in an efficient and effective manner, they'll be sitting on ever-shrinking profits looking at a fax machine that never rings. 

This article is written by Alan Stevens and sponsored by Avaya. The opinions reflected in this piece are solely those of Alan Stevens and may not reflect those of Avaya management

Just what the ramifications are likely to be, we'll have to wait and see, but there's been plenty of discussion, both as to the financial merits (or otherwise) of the move and the technical pros and cons.

And if that hasn't been enough, here are a few more of my thoughts, in particular as to how it might impact on the business market

Skype inside

One thing that can't be argued against is that, if nothing else, the Skype acquisition will put voice and, more importantly, video collaboration front and centre on the most ubiquitous desktop in the world. OK, it's unlikely to be labelled "Skype inside", but future Windows desktops will have the technology built in somehow, ready and waiting to be used by millions of potential users.

Microsoft has also pledged to continue development of Skype on other platforms, so there's a chance it won't disappear into the Windows-only black hole previous purchases have fallen into. And that's definitely a smart move as, despite its pre-eminence on the desktop, Windows is far from the dominant technology on mobile devices or the latest generation of tablets. Devices which are fast becoming as important as conventional desktop and notebook PCs in the business space.

Woolly thinking

So you'll still be able to use Skype on Xbox or your TV, but what about business users? After all, Skype relies heavily on proprietary VoIP technology, and with the wider unified communications industry putting its weight behind  the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Microsoft would seem to be swimming against the tide.

Not, perhaps, when it comes to the smaller businesses which help make up Skype's 500 million plus users. Skype can also be linked into SIP-based PBX systems and its website does have pages dedicated to larger enterprise use. However, it's hard to see large corporates putting Skype's peer-to-peer technology at the heart of its communications strategy. Most will inevitably prefer a standards-based alternative operating out of managed datacentres.

More than that, Microsoft already has an enterprise class unified messaging product, in the form of Lync Server 2010 (previously known as Microsoft Office Communications Server) which embraces SIP and other communication standards, at least as far as Microsoft is prepared to embrace such things.

Just how the company intends to position Skype alongside Lync has yet to be revealed, but it could be a difficult act to pull off. All the more so given plans to launch an online Lync service as part of the Office 365 project, Microsoft's answer to Google Apps.

It's all very confusing at present with Microsoft giving out mixed and woolly messages as far as the Unified Communications market is concerned, which isn't what enterprise customers want to hear. Indeed, now more than ever, it needs to get its act together fast if it hopes to worry its, currently more focused, competitors.

More than just software

Talking of the competition, there's a lot of it about with the UC market dominated by big names  such as Cisco, Alcatel and Avaya all armed with much clearer strategies, focused on the enterprise market, and with few of the distractions a product like Skype can cause.

The competition also has a lot more experience in this market and much broader product portfolios to offer, including not just software but supporting hardware too. Everything from servers and dedicated PBX platforms, through switches and routers to handsets and other end-user devices.

Moreover, it's these vendors leading the charge when it comes to devices designed specifically with the latest unified communications applications in mind. Able, for example, to better handle video than current generation solutions.

Devices like Cisco's Cius (pronounced "see-us") and the less glamorously named Avaya Desktop Video Device. Both take the tablet format popularised by Apple with its iPad, but target it at handling integrated messaging, voice and video collaboration with, on the Android-based Avaya product, support for the company's recently revamped  video conferencing platform, now known as the Avaya Flare Experience.

Microsoft by comparison simply doesn't do hardware, preferring to partner with others to handle this side of the equation. OK, it is working with Nokia to put Skype on its smartphones, but video conferencing tablets? That will be down to third party developers creating apps for iPad and Google Android devices and it's questionable as to whether Skype or the more standards-based Lync is the right technology here.

Auntie Doris calling

And lastly there's the whole perception of Skype as something used to keep in touch with the kids on their gap year travels, or to call Auntie Doris in Australia without racking up a huge phone bill.

That may not matter in a small business where the main concern is keeping down costs rather than what a product "looks like". In the corporate world, however, there's far more resistance to the use of consumer-focused products. Security and manageability are key issues here and Skype falls short on both counts. It's doubtful that Microsoft will be able to do much about it or, otherwise, raise the profile of its costly new acquisition.

This article is written by Alan Stevens and sponsored by Avaya. The opinions reflected in this piece are solely those of Alan Stevens and may not reflect those of Avaya management

Take email, for example. The first of the killer apps, it took ages to get off the ground. Indeed,  I can remember installing some of the first email systems in the UK way back in the seventies. I can also recall teaching corporate users how to send and receive messages, which seems a little odd some 30 years later when, seemingly, every man and his dog now has an email account.

Text and instant messaging took far less time to get going, social networking came out of nowhere in what seems like the blink of an eye and now it looks like it's the turn of  video.

Think about it. Video is to be found almost everywhere these days. Just about every website has a clip or two of some kind, often in the adverts for goodness sakes. Players are everywhere and it doesn't take much of an investment to make videos yourself. Just a cheap webcam or a mobile phone with a camera built in, plus a few minutes to work out how to use YouTube.

All of which kind of begs the question, why is video conferencing still so expensive and so difficult? After all, with the proliferation of personal video technology,  barriers to the use of video conferencing are disappearing fast and it's about time vendors woke up to what's happening and made their products more accessible.

Some are doing just that so, if my theory is correct, video conferencing should be commonplace any day now.

This article is  written by Alan Stevens and sponsored by Avaya. The opinions reflected in this piece are solely those of Alan Stevens and may not reflect those of Avaya management