Workspace Blog

So – this is it. Our panels of judges around the world have scrutinised your entries, reviewed them, ordered them and reordered them to arrive at our list of winners (and we thank them for their time and effort). Now, we’re delighted to be able to announce the results of the Skype for Business Competition.

]]>For those of you who need a quick refresher, we asked for your stories about the most creative and original uses of Skype in a business environment. We were looking to see how you were using Skype to enable collaboration, improve productivity or deliver new, unique services to your customers.

Our judges looked not only at the creativity and originality of how Skype is being used, but also the range of Skype features used and the geographic spread of their use. Prizes include bespoke Skype solutions for first place winners, along with Skype Credit and Skype Certified hardware.

The winning companies, who best demonstrated how they are saving time, saving money and staying ahead by using Skype, are as follows:

Europe, Middle East and Africa

1. 
   First Place: Nordic Hotels, Estonia - For using Skype in the hotel’s guest rooms, conference rooms and their entire office and booking centre.
2. 
   Second Place: Elf English, Russia - A start-up company that is not only teaching English online via Skype, but also using Skype to interview prospective teachers.
3. 
   Third Place: CARD.COOP, Sweden - A cooperative enterprise that is using Skype to share vital knowledge with anyone who wants to redesign business and society towards sustainability.

Americas

1. 
   First Place: HyperOffice, US - For using Skype to improve sales of its software by more than 100 percent.
2. 
   Second Place: OpenEMR HQ, US - A virtual company that uses Skype to communicate both internally and externally, as well as to train its customers around the world.
3. 
   Third Place: One VRS, US - For using Skype to provide real-time sign language translation services for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Asia-Pacific

1. 
   First Place: Lighthouse Independent Media, Singapore - An international publishing company that has made Skype an integral part of its daily editorial and production processes.
2. 
   Second Place: RareJob, Japan - A company delivering more than 2,000 English conversation lessons via Skype each day.
3. 
   Third Place: Rusty, Australia - An international surfwear and apparel brand that uses Skype to enable close collaboration between its employees around the world.

We’ll be following up in the next few weeks to share more details about how the winners (and other entrants) are using Skype in their businesses.

For now, congratulations! You all deserve a big thank you from everyone on the Skype for Business team.