Business conferencing

The Internet telephony software Skype has found its way into the business world, as corporate road warriors and remote workers use it to reduce long-distance and cell phone costs. Most of today's Skype adherents use it for personal calls, but a growing number of them are also using it to make calls for work. "I realized while I was traveling overseas how difficult it is for my remote staff and traveling salespeople to communicate with each other," said Don LeBeau, CEO of Aruba Wireless Networks, a maker of Wi-Fi networking gear. "Skype has been a great tool for helping us increase communication. Not to mention it saves us money." Over the past year and a half, ***

SAP Ventures will announce tomorrow that it is investing in meeting software start-up WebEx, and the company plans to incorporate WebEx technology into business portal mySAP.com. Representatives from WebEx said SAP Ventures--the venture arm of German business software maker SAP AG--has invested between $1 million and $5 million in WebEx. WebEx is also expected to announce tomorrow a $26 million Series D round of funding from investors including SAP, Yahoo and Tibco. The deal comes as the market for business-to-business services ramps up. It also follows speculation that SAP faces slowing revenues because of its weakened online strategy. Shares in SAP fell sharply today after a roadshow in the United States pointed to waning enthusiasm for its Web business. Through the proposed partnership, mySAP. ***

Driven by broad market support for Internet standards and increasing business reliance on groupware products, the worldwide market for collaborative systems doubled in 1997, according to a report by the International Data Corporation. The study, released yesterday, put Lotus Development's Domino/Notes at the head of the 50 million new user market followed by Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, and Netscape SuiteSpot. Although Lotus commands the market, the authors of the report said they were surprised at the speed at which Microsoft has shrunk the gap between its Exchange and Lotus Domino/Notes. ***