Highrise is the simple customer relationship management system from 37 Signals. As part of last weekend's update:

We’ve added a “Skype” option to the phone number data type. Skype numbers are automatically linked up in the contact information sidebar. Clicking a Skype number will dial the number if you have Skype installed on your computer.

This is a work in progress, but we've been using our own version of the SEI Capability Maturity Model to assess the sophistication of Skypified web sites. The five stages of the SJ SSMM:

0. None
1. Static.
2. Dynamic
3. Peering
4. Transactional

37 Signals is half way through Level 1 with Skype names and links.

With a little more explanation... 

Skype Journal Site Skypification Maturity Model

Level 0: None
What's Skype?

Level 1: Static
Storing Skype names and Skype-linking Phone Numbers

Storing and linking people’s Skype names is one part. The other is to offer SkypeOut links for PSTN phone numbers.

Tech: Skype’s “skype:” html protocol to launch Skype from a browser link.

Level 2: Dynamic
Integrating Skype Presence

Is this person available for a call now? You can show a person’s Skype presence in a web page.

You can also use presence information to inform other site behavior. For example, you might aggregate presence data for a team to create collective presence scores.

Tech: Polling Skype’s web presence services

Level 3: Peering
Syncing Skype Profile, Social Graph, and History Data

Skype clients are information rich. You can use that data to enrich profiles, enhance your site’s social graph (who knows whom, how, and how they interact), collect communication histories (who talked to whom, when, for how long), and import chat archives.

You can keep your site's data synced with Skype's by refreshing active connections with your Skype client.

Tech: Using Skype’s client APIs to log in on behalf of a user. With that access you can both read and write to the client, and trigger conversations. At large scale, you will need to operate a Skype client farm.

Level 4: Transactional
Integrating Skype Business/Commerce Services

Skype offers some access to its payment services. PamFax is an example of this, where customers pay with Skype credits for sent faxes.

Tech: Skype publishing and DRM client and web service APIs.

The SJ SSMM helps us assess current Skype readiness and plan a Skype strategic roadmap for our consulting clients.

We've used maturity models in several areas of our consulting practice. I spoke at the 2006 ETel conference about our Skype Journal Platform Program Maturity Model.

Level 0. No API.

Level 1. Afterthought.

Level 2. API follows UI.

Level 3. Ambition and Leadership.

And the Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model addresses a device's Skype-completeness.

Level 0. No connection.

Level 1. Skype indifferent.

Level 2. Skype aware.

Level 3. Skype conversant.

How Skype ready is your site?