Skype debuted Skype Groups on Tuesday, a service that lets small businesses provision Skype’s VoIP-based calling services to a group of employees.

A central administrator can buy and distribute free and premium Skype services among the people in the group, which can also include customers and suppliers, from a web-based interface, according to Saul Klein, vice president of marketing at Skype, recently acquired by eBay.

The administrator creates the account and deposits money, which can come from an eBay PayPal account, credit card, or bank transfer.

The administrator can then apportion Skype credits to allow people to perform functions such as making phone calls for just $0.02 a minute from their cell phones, pay for SkypeIn inbound calling services from non-Skype phones, purchase voice mail services, or buy a 212 number so people in New York can call employees at the local rate.

The administrator can also set up free Skype services through the interface for employees, such as conference calls, call forwarding, group chat, and file transfers.

Small-Business Focus

Skype’s acquisition by eBay closed earlier this month, and Skype Groups’ small-business functionality should fit in with eBay’s small-business focus. Skype, based in Luxembourg, will continue to function as an independent business and brand within the eBay family, according to Mr. Klein.

“We are very much going about our business as usual, getting on what Skype gets on about,” he said.

However, Skype Groups, which the company began beta testing in September, is Skype’s first product aimed at small businesses. “Both eBay and PayPal have strong links to the small business community and we hope we can offer Skype Groups to those folks,” said Mr. Klein.

Skype recently conducted a survey of the 2,000 users beta testing Skype Groups and found that 63 percent employed the software to conduct business abroad, while 52 percent used Skype across regional offices, and 46 percent used it to conduct conference calls.

In addition, Skype has found that 30 percent of its 61 million registered users utilize the software for business purposes.

As part of the announcement, Skype is also partnering with several hardware makers, including Linksys, which introduced a Skype cordless phone earlier this month (see Linksys Debuts Wi-Fi Finder).

Other partners include Plantronics and Polycom, which is introducing SoundStation2 and SoundStation 2W conference phones, and a Computer-Calling Kit. Skype is also partnering with several customer relationship management software developers, such as Salesforce.com and Hansa.