Following the acquisition of Skype, Microsoft (News - Alert) announced it will integrate Skype with Lync in Office 365. The integrated solution will strengthen Microsoft's portfolio for SMB customers by providing them with a competitive unified communications/collaboration solution, says the latest SMB market study from AMI Partners.

According to AMI Partners’ 2011 “SMB Cloud Playbook – Strategic and Tactical GTM Planning Guides,” the combined potential of Office 365 and Skype (News - Alert) can boost Microsoft's presence in both domains while Skype can also act as a catalyst to cross-sell complementary hosted solutions.

The solution will provide SMBs with the ability to call landlines and cell phones along with Lync's pre-existing capabilities. Microsoft has also announced plans to strengthen collaboration with local service providers to guarantee performance and security for their cloud-based services. This, according to company officials, should provide a strong quality differentiator to SMB customers, and thus increase Microsoft's share of the lucrative European SMB sector.

The Skype /Lync solution will enable SMBs to gain global control of internal communication and collaboration, yet be able to connect to consumers, businesses and trading partners around the world, according to company officials. The integration will also facilitate and accelerate adoption in business environments of video and social media already commonly used by private consumers.

"AMI's latest SMB Market Study reveals high levels of interest in Unified Communication solutions when bundled with a Productivity / Collaboration Suite for a low fixed monthly cost," said Lorenza Brescia, EMEA Cloud Services director at AMI Partners, in a statement. "Increased purchase probability produced by these kinds of service bundles offers service providers a potential market opportunity of $3.8BN amongst the 11 million SMBs in Europe's largest markets.”

Brescia, however, said that SMB customers will demand service quality if Microsoft wants to capitalize on Skype's extensive user base.

The market for Unified Collaboration software is highly competitive. Big technology companies are vying for both market penetration and mind share. This will prove to be a differentiator to gain new customers and maintain the existing ones.

How Microsoft will converge Skype with Lync and the related quality of service that the company will effectively offer may prove crucial to its success in building penetration in SMB markets, according to AMI Partners.

Recently, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (News - Alert) stated that Microsoft’s recent $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype will help solidify Lync, not mark its demise.

“One of the great motivations in acquiring Skype is to enable the enterprise to have all the control it wants in communication and collaboration through Active Directory and Lync, and yet be able to connect people within enterprises to consumers, businesses and trading partners around the world,” Ballmer said.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.