I'm having trouble searching for what I'm looking for or finding a contact at Microsoft to discuss this with.  Aside from answers suggestions I would appreciate effective search phrases, links and Microsoft contact information.

I have a growing number of clients using Skype and have been investigating Lync.

A huge request is the ability to both send and receive SMS messages using Skype.  Sending is a breeze but the receivers can not respond and on a good day sometimes the text response will be converted to a voice mail.  We'd like to be able to receive a SMS message on the Skype number and have it also forwarded to the cell phone Skype forwards voice calls to.  In addition we would like to archive both sent and received SMS messages in a Customer Relationship Managment (CRM) or Customer Management System (CMS).

This does not appear possible yet in Skype at least not in the United States.

Is this something that Microsoft Lync can do out of the box or can be accomplished using the API?

We'd also like to implement a smarter call forwarding system.  Via Skype we are using a clunky daisy-chain type system.  Sales reps need to remember to setup their forwards throughout the week.  At times they want their Skype number to forward their phone to their cells and other times they would like it routed to an office land line and other times to someone else.  Skype only allows one forward to be entered.  We'd like to have multiple forwards with logic behind them.  So the forward that occurs is based on the day of week and the time of day.

Thanks for any help!

Pierce

Your questions do not appear to be about the Lync Server SDK. It sounds like you are asking questions about Lync Client and Server functionality, so I will first direct this question to the Lync Client forums so you can find out more about call forwarding.

Q. If you are asking: "Can Lync do SMS?" the answer is no. There are addon for Lync to do SMS: check Vyrtru.

You may want to check out this blog about Lync and SMS:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2012/12/lync-user-quicktip-26-lync-instant.html

Q. Archiving:

Lync has a built in archiving role that will archive Instant Messages into a MS SQL database. (you would have to integrate to your CRM/CMS)

Q. complex forwarding:

You *may* be able to do this with the built in Outlook/Exchange Call Answering Rules, but I would suggest working with consultant to verify it will meet your needs. 

Yeah thanks.  There is a lot to look into here and I was looking for a start.  Starting with the available functionality helped me determine how to search for SDKs, APIs and Add-Ins and other code based solutions.

I wouldn't be surprised if the unified API that I'm looking for that sits on top of *everything* and makes it look the same is in development somewhere and will be released soon with a killer API to tie all this stuff together.  I'm almost thinking the difficulty of tying this all together lies in the vast array of telecoms we have here in the US more so than the diversity of devices.

Pierce