Microsoft bought a little company to boost Skype in the workplace

Microsoft has snapped up Australian company Event Zero, a provider of software that makes it easier for your office's IT pros to manage Microsoft Skype for Business.

"Our goal is to make the Skype for Business management tools as powerful and easy-to-use for IT professionals as Skype is for end users," writes Microsoft in an official blog entry.

Skype for Business itself is a major investment area for Microsoft.

This workplace-focused voice and messaging app is a key part of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud productivity suite, and the company hopes to use it to lure more companies into paying a monthly fee for the service.

The short version is that Event Zero's tools make it easier for an IT department to see how, when, and how often failures or hiccups occur in Skype for Business calls and messaging, making it easier to troubleshoot problems as they pop up.

Going forward, Microsoft promises that the Event Zero technology will be opened up for customers to plug in their own software, including anything they use to manage traditional phone lines.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft made employment offers to a "small number" of Event Zero employees including CEO Dave Tucker, a Microsoft spokesperson said. Event Zero, founded in 2005, is listed as having more than 51 employees on its LinkedIn page.