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Too many options - which is best?
As you get into the world of online meetings, one of the first questions you’ll be asking yourself is “which platform should I use?”. With so many choice, it’s a question a lot of companies are struggling with, and we’re often asked for our opinion. So, here’s the Knowledge Bites guide to the different online meeting platforms available...
Zoom™
This is our platform of choice, and the one we use for our online training courses. What tips the balance for us is the breakout room functionality. This makes it ideal for larger meetings, or those involving different groups of people (i.e. different departments in a company) as you can split the group into smaller rooms which then can’t hear each other. As the leader, you can dip in and out of the different rooms to add insight and contribute to conversations, then bring everyone back together again for a large group session when you’re ready.
Zoom has a couple of negatives, though. One is that audio-only calls are harder to arrange than on other platforms. The other is that it’s really difficult to join without downloading the app. It’s possible, and the experience is good, but the functionality is well-hidden.
Join.me™
Loses out to Zoom due to the lack of breakout functionality, but there are a number of benefits. The big one for me is that Join.me easily doubles as a conference calling facility which can be easily set up for dial-in access by all participants, including the leader. Join.me also gets a vote from us because it’s very easy to join from a web browser without having to download anything. However, different browsers have different levels of functionality.
GoTo Meeting™
This is a more expensive solution than the other options, and as a result is more suited to enterprise-level usage. There’s no breakout functionality, but more control over quality and bandwidth. Some people find it a little too complex for quick meetings.
Microsoft Teams™
If you’ve been wondering what that new icon is on your desktop, it’s Microsoft Teams – a platform for online meetings which is included in Office 365. It’s not exactly new – it was originally Lync, which became Skype for Business, and now has had a complete overhaul. It has all the Skype functionality you’d expect, and great integration with the rest of Office 365. However, if you meeting involves members of the public or freelancers, it’s still not compatible with personal Skype, and this can turn people off.
Skype™ (personal version)
Best suited to one-to-one or small participant numbers, Skype is a popular option due to it being free, and people’s familiarity with it from their personal lives. It lacks a lot of the functionality of other platforms, but is fine if you want a quick-and-easy option.
Knowledge Bites' conclusion
At Knowledge Bites, we’ve tried all of these, and the runaway winner is Zoom, but you need to find the best videoconferencing platform for your needs. Fortunately, these all have a free option, so you can try them out on some internal meetings and see how you get on before committing to something for the longer term.
Alongside choosing your web platform, you'll also need to ensure your own skills are up to running meetings online. Check out our training course, Running Effective Online Meetings for more details.
