Skype announced that it will open up the Skype for SIP beta program to allow businesses of all sizes to use Skype for SIP with their existing SIP-based PBX or unified communications systems.

According to a press release, a company’s IT administrator creates and registers a Skype Business Control Panel for their organization and can then configure Skype for SIP to work with its existing SIP-enabled communications system.

The Web-based tool allows a company to control its Skype usage and enables centralized billing, allocation of Skype Credit, subscriptions and online numbers to users, as well as reporting about both usage and spending.

Walter Curd, CIO of Maxim Integrated Products, a Fortune 1000 company, said Maxim is already using the Skype solution.

“With Skype for SIP, our ShoreTel PBX will now enable calls from desktop phones to go out via Skype. This will allow us to capture more calling traffic via Skype and save even more money, while making it invisible to our employees,” Curd said in a statement.

Skype says that it has received applications from nearly 10,000 businesses and service providers globally to use the service.