Integrate Skype's IP-based phone solution with Salesforce for one click dialing
Jul 13, 2005Some companies are turning to IP-based phone solutions like Skype and Vonage to save money. Skype is a peer-to-peer telecommunications company that has attracted over 40 million users in the past few years. Their plug-in allows PC-based calls through a USB headset or a PC's microphone and speakers. They offer free calls to any other Skype user and very low cost calls to regular phone numbers (2 cents per minute for the US, Western Europe, and Australia.
The example below shows how you might add pop-up dialing functionality to salesforce.com such that a user can click on a web link from a contact record and automatically launches the Skype client.
Here’s how it works.
- Download Skype from http://www.skype.com/products/skype/windows/
- Create an account for yourself and purchase the minimum amount of SkypeOut credit (10 Euro) which allows you to make calls to phone numbers in addition to other Skype accounts.
- Create a new custom formula text field in contacts.
- Name it "Skype Call Contact"
- Use this syntax: HYPERLINK("callto://"&"+1"&{!Phone},"Click here to call this contact with Skype")
- Change the layout for the contact page so that the new "Skype Phone Call" field is directly under the "phone" field.
After we originally made this posts, a Sales
Engineer named Dominic Dinardo suggested that we carry the idea one step
further and create a “Skype Call” field alongside the lead score field. In a single view your sales reps will be able to prioritize their
leads and dial out with a single click. Here's what it might look like.
Bookmark
"Skype This Contact" - Calls a contact at a specified Skype Username, then opens the Log a Call Page. It could also be changed to save the task automatically and return to the Contact (or Lead) detail. If the User has SkypeOut (which allows calls to standard phone numbers), you could replace the custom field with the standard Phone field.
function redirect() {
parent.frames.location.replace("callto://{!Contact_Skype_ID}")
parent.frames.location.replace("/00T/e?retURL=%2F{!Contact_ID}&tsk5=Skype%20Call&who_id={!Contact_ID}&title=Skype%20Call&followup=1")
}
redirect();
Posted by: Chris Sommers | July 15, 2005 at 02:38 PM
Question:
Can salesforce.com integrate with Vonage, using the same technique you discussed?
Posted by: Parama | July 24, 2005 at 08:36 PM
How can I lose the international dialling code from this formula? As given it will only work for US numbers (+1) and I use UK plus a lot of others, so would rather rely on the full code being present in the standard Phone number field.
Posted by: Tim Bowman | July 25, 2005 at 03:41 PM
Here is another similar solution posted on Skype's website....
http://share.skype.com/directory/skypeforce/view/
SkypeForce is a CTI implementation for Skype and Salesforce.com
It enables users of Skype to have Salesforce automatically find and navigate to any record containing a matching phone number for an inbound or outbound Skype call.
Posted by: Gforce | August 10, 2005 at 10:28 AM
Seems like the suggested formula field for Skype dialing does not work. The formula leaves the parentheses around the area code, which Skype does not like.
Posted by: Ron Klopfer | August 12, 2005 at 11:27 AM
Does anyone know how to suppress the browser that pops up along with skype? The browser opens up with the following URL "callto://+1(212)%20555-1212/" (changed the phone number). Thanks
Posted by: Peter Glyman | November 04, 2005 at 09:26 AM
Can this wok with vop boster
Posted by: | November 06, 2005 at 03:11 PM
Hi Peter, I saw your posting on the Successforce blog that asked abotu the Skype popup window and how to supress it.
I built an open-source tool called "SkypeForce" and this is one of the things that it does for you. The window still appears, it it is handled by my tool and is automatically closed before the number is passed to Skype.
I have just released a new version of the tool so you should try it out. Once I hear some successful reports from people like yourself, I'll update the sourceforge page to point to this new version.
The new version is located at http://www.buikhuizen.com/deskconn/
Note : if you want to use SkypeIn for inbound call handling, you might hit a Skype bug if you are using v1.4. In that case, you can try v1.3 - I am teporarily hosting the installer here http://www.buikhuizen.com/installers/
Let me know how this works for you....
Regards, Steve
Posted by: Steve | November 07, 2005 at 11:42 AM
hello sir i want to know that how can i integrate skype in our website.
regards,
bhumit
Posted by: bhumit vyas | December 01, 2005 at 12:09 AM
Enyone
Can this wok with vop boster
Posted by: | December 08, 2005 at 02:34 PM
how does ir work?
Posted by: jim | January 23, 2006 at 01:44 AM
Chris, where would you put that? Is that a custom text formula (but it doesn't recognize function)? Or an s-control (but it doesn't recognize it either)? I'd like to try it out, but can't figure out where to. :-)
Posted by: Chris | January 31, 2006 at 03:39 PM
why use anything other than skype's firefox or ie plug in for the browser? all sf.com fields (lead, contact, account) should have phone numbers that can be dialed in skype if the browser plug in is installed.
Posted by: T Rudd | March 28, 2006 at 09:42 PM
@ T Rudd: That is a good idea too. I would think this solution is easier to roll out than browser extensions though.
Posted by: Kingsley | March 29, 2006 at 08:53 AM
Like the explanation. Need to implement this. For outsourcing voice, chat and email support visit the website http://callcenter.ramshyam.com
Posted by: Call Center India | June 22, 2006 at 10:56 PM
We recently did an interview on this exact topic. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2248171,00.html
We use skype all the time and have never looked back
Posted by: Bulgarian Venture | July 09, 2006 at 04:22 AM
How can a field be created to call a Mobile phone?
I tried to substitute "Mobile" for "Phone" in the provided (HYPERLINK("callto://"&"+1"&{!Phone},"Click here to call this contact with Skype")
It didn't work. Thx
Posted by: Steve Davies | November 13, 2006 at 01:28 PM
Can this wok with vop boster?
for IT Outsource, skills outsource, Online Advertising, Web development, SEO visit our website: http://www.itoutsourceonline.com
Posted by: Jatin Sharma | May 29, 2007 at 08:08 PM
why use anything other than skype's firefox or ie plug in for the browser? all sf.com fields (lead, contact, account) should have phone numbers that can be dialed in skype if the browser plug in is installed.
Posted by: Sharad Saxena | May 30, 2007 at 05:09 AM