Center to hold Skype for Business training

  • Published
  • By Brian Brackens
  • Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – As a large, diverse organization spread across multiple time zones, geographical distance between units can often pose challenges.

In an effort to improve communication and collaboration, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center will host a number of Skype for Business training sessions in June.

The classes will be held center-wide and will help familiarize users with a product that is already available on their workstations. In addition the classes will encourage participants to go back and train individuals within their organizations.

“Skype for Business is phenomenal,” said Philip Ball, chief of the Enterprise Analysis Branch within the AFLCMC Logistics Directorate. “We have partners, customers and employees across the United States and we were struggling with how to collaborate effectively. We found out about Skype and it has been great.”

Ball added that when his team is looking at code, databases or when folks are running into an issue that is difficult to describe over email, Skype for Business is beneficial.

“You can dial someone up on Skype, share your screen, show them what you are seeing, they can take control or share their own screen and you can work on the same document real-time” he said.

Ball went on to say that without Skype it would have taken days and sometimes weeks to resolve some issues.

“To me I would rather use Skype to call people than use the phone, it’s just so much easier,” Ball said. “I hope the word gets out and that people starting using it a lot more.”

In addition to having the ability to share screens and work collaboratively on the same documents, Skype for Business allows video-teleconferencing.

The training classes will be web based, approximately four hours long and is open to military and civil service employees from AFLCMC.

“Skype for Business is a key collaboration capability for AFLCMC,” said Christopher Echols, AFLCMC Chief Information Technology Officer. “Phil Ball and the Logistics team were early adopters who have embraced Skype for Business throughout their organization saving them time previously spent holding face to face meetings. I encourage everyone in AFLCMC and the Air Force to learn the capabilities of Skype for Business, which is more than an instant message application.”

For more information about the upcoming training sessions please contact Mike Sakacsi at michael.sakacsi@us.af.mil.