Many companies decide to use the internet to make their meetings more rewarding by adopting video meetings. Indeed, with video meetings, there is no need for you to leave your workstation in order to directly communicate with your colleagues or business partners. The internet allows you to hold online meetings easily and quickly. However, apart from that, what are other benefits?
Group FaceTime
If you use Apple products, you can use Group FaceTime to replace Zoom meetings. It supports up to 30 callers and has some intelligent features, such as placing the window belonging to the person currently speaking at the front. It’s also highly secure with end-to-end encryption.
The big problem: it’s not cross-platform, which makes it a fairly ineffective choice much of the time for business.[ Keep up on the latest thought leadership, insights, how-to, and analysis on IT through Computerworld’s newsletters. ]
Microsoft’s Skype and Teams
Microsoft offers two video collaboration tools, Skype and Microsoft Teams. Both have advantages that make them worthy alternatives to Zoom.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.482.0_en.html#goog_14748130121 second of 19 minutes, 0 secondsVolume 0%
You can now use Skype without an account. Skype handles up to 50 people in a video conference or 150 people in group text chat, and it supports group video chat. It’s solid, free to use and you can now use it without an account or download. Available on most platforms, Skype offers a range of useful features, including document and screen sharing.
However, Skype conversations are not end-to-end encrypted.
This is why so many enterprises now use Microsoft Teams. That highly secure solution supports 2FA security, data encryption and meets dozens of national, regional and industry-specific security/privacy compliance regulations. It also integrates extremely well with Microsoft’s other productivity products, including Office 365.[ Download CIO’s new Roadmap Report on 5G in the enterprise! ]
For the enterprise pros
There are a range of high-powered solutions for enterprise users, including Cisco Webex Meetings, TeamViewer and GoToMeeting.
Prices on these vary, but both Cisco Webex and TeamViewer offer free personal accounts, which may be seen as an advantage when working with socially isolated teams. If security and privacy matter to your business, Webex Meetings offers end-to-end encryption as an option.
It is worth considering whether your enterprise really needs end-to-end encryption. While this will be mandatory for some tightly regulated industries, it may not be necessary for everyone, particularly those employing RPA systems, as NoJitter observes.
BlueJeans and Jabber also see use across the enterprise. The former is a fee-based system that’s eminently cross platform and supports up to 100 users (BlueJeans Enterprise); the latter is a Cisco product. It may also be worth taking a look at new solution, Challo, which I’ve noted in the past.
[Still use Zoom? Then you may want to explore 7 Zoom tips]
Always highly secure: Signal
Another highly secure solution, Signal supports video collaboration and offers best-in-the-business end-to-end encryption. It’s a full-featured collaboration solution, however, works on most platforms and lets you share all messages, photos, videos, files and chat using video. It also supports group chats, though this doesn’t extend to video collaboration, which must be one to one.
Best advantage, other than world leading security? It’s free.
Jitsi: An open-source tool for self-hosted systems
Jitsi is an open-source video collaboration solution that has picked up a fair amount of attention in recent weeks. While I’ve not used the service, its advantages include the capacity to set up a self-hosted collaboration system, though some reports claim video can be a little jittery at times.
The great thing about the system is its price (it’s free) and high degree of security – though it does not support end-to-end encryption. Jitsi is available via mobile apps and can be self-hosted, though you can also use the service’s own offering.
That Jitsi can be self-hosted may be a major advantage, given around 13% of enterprises already rely on collaboration tools they maintain on their own servers, according to Nemertes.
There’s always Google Hangouts Meet
To help get through the pandemic, Google has made the premium version of Hangouts Meet available for free to $6/month/user G Suite users.
One of the best things about this is that it supports up to 250 participants in a call, which makes it useful for big meetings. You can also live-stream meetings to up to 100,000 people, good for larger enterprises attempting to reach large groups.
The biggest negative factor is its lack of support for end-to-end encryption, which should be a red flag for any tightly regulated industry.
GoToMeeting
Even though GoToMeeting no longer dominates the video conferencing space, it remains a highly polished remote meeting software with a long list of features that would satisfy the needs of most business environments.
This user-friendly software has a few important advantages over its competitors, including its polling and “raise a hand” features. Furthermore, GoToMeeting allows unlimited video meetings and secures these meetings with end-to-end encryption.
All GoToMeeting plans include:
- 24/7 customer care
- HD video
- Unlimited meetings
- Screen sharing from desktops, tablets or mobile devices
- Messaging
- Web audio – no phone required
- Security
With a 14-day free trial, you can see the ease and convenience of the features first-hand.
Participants
GoToMeeting allows 10 to 250 participants, depending on the type of plan you get. However, the free version allows a maximum of three participants vs. up to 100 on other platforms.
Skype for Business
Packaged with Microsoft Office 365, Skype for Business is likely already familiar to many users. The business version takes the free, standard platform’s capabilities to the next level.
All Skype for Business plans include:
- Unlimited meetings
- Screen sharing
- Instant messaging anytime
- Tight security
- Conferencing with up to 250 participants
Skype can also easily integrate with Microsoft Office programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook.
By adding an enterprise package, meeting leaders can host up to 250 participants over a secure connection. Upgrading to Online Plan 2 adds HD video and audio calling, a 50GB mailbox and up to 1 TB file storage and mobile technical support.
Microsoft recently announced that it will be retiring Skype for Business requiring users to find a new solution.
ezTalks Meetings
Perhaps the biggest selling points of ezTalks Meetings are its continuous technological advancements and its developers’ unwavering commitment to introducing cutting-edge features and state-of-the-art video meeting protocols.
This solution is compatible with Android and iOS devices and has a relatively straightforward user interface, even for first-time users. ezTalks Meetings is a solid web application for video conferencing in healthcare, community and education. However, with less distribution and adoption as Zoom, you may find less partners familiar with the tool.
All ezTalks Meetings plans include:
- Unlimited number of meetings
- Instant or scheduled meetings
- Join by telephone call-in
- HD video and audio
- Private and group chat
- Interactive whiteboards
- Screen sharing with co-annotation
In the free version, it’s possible to accommodate as many as 100 people in a single meeting for up to 40 minutes, and host an unlimited number of HD video conferencing recordings on this platform.
StarLeaf
StarLeaf is outfitted with its own API, which makes it possible to customize its conferencing. The company provides an extensive range of upgrades and integrations including Slack and Skype for Business, and it comes with a complimentary app for Android, iOS and Windows users.
StarLeaf’s unique architecture allows you to deliver business-wide connectivity, avoiding the limitations associated with virtual meeting room solutions. The platform is an incredible alternative for those who don’t want to spend on costly on premise video infrastructure.
All StarLeaf plans include:
- Global audio dial-in telephone numbers
- Full interoperability with Skype for Business
- Unlimited guest invitations
- Calendar integrations with Outlook and Google
StarLeaf is UK-based, but has a rapidly growing international client base in Europe, New Zealand, America and Australia. The company has plans to invest in APAC and expand worldwide.
Zoom Video Conferencing Security Evaluation
Popular video-conferencing platform Zoom has apologized for issues with the security of its online service, and announced a number of new measures to make the platform more secure for its users. This comes at a time when multiple countries and organizations are banning its use. Issues such as data hacking, routing information through China, and “Zoombombing” — where individuals can crash sessions — are high on the organization’s radar according to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. He’s announced a number of steps being taken to combat these problems.
- Ability to be administered and customized centrally – Allows for customization of web portals, email templates, landing page, and system administrators can centrally manage settings for users.
- Compatibility and dial-in capabilities – Criteria is met. Agents available for popular OSs, web calling, and toll free dial-in are available (for paid versions).
- Performance, capacity and video quality – 50-500 users (10,000 webinar). Zoom offers high-definition and high-quality video.
- Overall security – Zoom uses TLS 1.2 with AES-256 to protect signalling and uses AES-128 (to protect streaming media, MFA, encrypted user password, and OAuth-based provisioning. Zoom also allows users to pick the data center location.
- Price – Four variants of Zoom meeting plans for business, with different features: Basic: free, Pro: $14.99/mo/host, Business: $19.99/mo/host, and Enterprise: $19.99 /mo/host. The cost for a SMB with 50 employees is $999.50 per month.
- Ease of use, looks, and other subjective comments – Zoom is easy to set up, use, and manage.
- Integrations – 26 key integrations ranging from productivity, security and compliance, marketing, scheduling, and process automation. Includes add-in, plug-in, and extension capabilities. The Zoom app makes it easy to instantly start or join a meeting directly from Slack, include Zoom meeting details in Calendly events sent to invitees, and integrates with G Suite enterprise products like Gmail and Google Drive.
- Recording – supports recording; the host can enable participants to record or not. Clients can send cloud meeting recordings on Zoom directly to the Google Drive folder.
Cisco Webex Video Conferencing Security Evaluation
Cisco Webex Meetings delivers over 6 billion meetings per month, offering industry-leading video and audio conferencing with sharing, chat, and more. However in March 2020, Cisco Webex registered a record 324 million attendees and 73 million meetings in March, with usage more than doubling in the Americas, as the coronavirus-led lockdowns forced businesses to have employees work from home.
- Ability to be administered and customized centrally – Allows for customization of email templates, company branding, ringtones, app look and feel.. Administrators use Cisco Webex Control Hub a central interface to manage the organization users, assign services, view usage analytics, configure and customize organization-wide settings
- Compatibility and dial in capabilities – Cisco Webex agents are available for popular OS, web calling and toll free dial-in are available. However, this is not an option because of the compatibility issues with Linux clients, transcripts, meeting notes, join before host in a meeting when end to end encrypted video conferencing is enabled.
- Performance, capacity and video quality – 50-200 (webcast 100,00), HD video available.
- Overall security – TLS 1.2 support, Personal Room locking and unlocking, Secure meeting settings by default. Strong passwords by default for every meeting. After a session is established over TLS, all media streams are encrypted. Media transmitted via UDP, encrypted with AES 128, HMAC ensures authentication, integrity, PIN Lock Remote Wipe Block File Share Block External Coms and supports end to end encryption. It is headquartered in California, U.S. with data centers in California and Australia. Webex supports MFA via SAML 2.0 federated SSO.
- Price – Four variants of Webex meeting plan for business, with different features: Personal – free, Starter – $13.50/mo/host Plus $17.95/mon/host Business- $26.95/mon/host. The cost for a mid-size team of 50 employees per month is $897.50.
- Ease of use, looks and other subjective comments – easy to use and setup—even for first-time users.
- Integrations – Integrates with 148+ applications ranging from productivity, security and compliance, including developer tools to scheduling. Cisco Webex Meetings provides integration with Slack to meet and collaborate, GSuite users can schedule Webex meetings and Webex Personal Room meetings directly from Google Calendar or Gmail and use the Google Drive bot for Webex teams to stay notified on all the latest changes to shared files, folders, and other critical content. Cisco Webex integration with Calendly is achieved through a custom integration using calendly’s API and connectors
- Recording – supports encrypted video conferencing cloud recordings. AI-powered Webex Assistant creates action items like, record meetings, take notes, set up future meetings and automatically transcribe the entire meeting in real-time.
Conclusion
It’s the era where communication is just a click away. And that communication has to be secure and confidential as well as on time and reliable. Teams and individuals need a platform where they can make their work visible and share files online. Businesses require technologies, processes and tools to collaborate with ease and on any device. Meeting coordination software’s help make it work on the go.