Adobe Connect vs. ON24 vs. Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued)

Adobe Connect is wonderful for repeatable branded learning experiences or webinars. They allow for creating an event with a series of similar layouts. The ability to alter these are easy, and duplicating layouts makes for fast alterations. Changing between layouts also creates visual interest as learners see things shift. Adobe Connect also is great for accessibility, the captions allow for resizing and placing the captions in various sections. The recordings also can have a searchable transcript to get to the information you want fast. Adobe Connect allows for running fun games/events as well, there are lots of apps that make the experience unique, and allows for managing content on screen as you'd like.

Incentivized

I find that ON24 caters for all types of organisations, having it allows for more choice/options. The experience around virtual events if fantastic and the ON24 team is constantly improving the platform. If you want to run a virtual events programme where you want to generate leads and track engagement, then ON24 is the platform for you

Incentivized

Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is a remote/virtual team collaboration tool must have...especially if you already use Microsoft tools. Of course, since it now part of an MS 365 subscription, it really doesn't make sense to use anything else. It is easy to use and just works. I'm not sure how anyone who works with digital files/documents and needs to work with other people doing similar work can be effective without such a tool. Of course, there are a number of alternatives like Zoom or Webex, but why pay or use another separate tool if you don't need to. :-)

Incentivized

• It's a quick method to exchange files, file, documents, and videos from a web app. Real-time conversation, and screen-sharing are all supported. It has a highly user-friendly interface. It is really simple to assist the teams.
• Even team engagements is beneficial since it allows them to share their expertise with others, and the big benefit is the security of the rooms' access is fairly simple to manage.
• The interface, which include features like notes, chat, pods, etc. When we're trying to gather rapid and exact information, simplify our work as much as possible.
• Adobe Connect's features since they allow team members to express their ideas during meetings without causing disruptions, thereby bypassing the current international boundary of distance.

Incentivized

• Registration pages are easy to build and look clean
• Console (audience view) offers many tools to use for presentations and to engage the audience
• Reporting and analytics are robust and provide detailed reports that help us process attendees in our marketing database
• Support team and responsive and helpful

Incentivized

• Instant messaging to anyone who we know only by name/email. Even if they're offline, they get the message in missed convos and a notification automatically goes to them via Outlook mail. All conversations are saved and accessible via Outlook.
• Video and voice calls are a norm in the WFH scenario, and an average employee has around 4-5 calls a day. Skype gives notifications for upcoming meetings, allows easy scheduling via outlook calendar, and its audio/video quality [is] reasonably good compared to the amount of data it consumes.
• Status availabilities - in the WFH scenario, you could be off for lunch, out of office, busy, sharing screens - and might not want to be disturbed. Skype allows you to do that, and in case you're off, ensures that you know that you have missed messages.
• Screen sharing - we have to share screens at least once or twice a day with a coworker when working on some issues/features, and Skype easily lets us do that. One of the best things about Skype is that the screen can be shared without being on a video/voice call - which is of immense advantage because oftentimes, you could prefer sharing the screen, while it [is] too noisy to talk.

• Nonetheless, Adobe Connect lacks the engagement monitoring, which can be critical for the management to oversee.
• Besides, Adobe Connect has no certification management, which is essential in the current education or training field.
• Lastly, Adobe Connect has no offline editing tool, hence, when the internet connection is not there, many things can not be conducted effectively.

Incentivized

• There was a recent update within the past year where the UX designer or developer thought it would be best to wide all titles from the audience view until they placed their mouse on top of the window. That was the worst mistake, as we have a moderator script where we tell the audience what each of the tool bars are and they can’t grasp what the tool is without putting their mouse there. From an accessibility standpoint point, it’s back to 1999 when there was no laws about accessibility.
• Number one above is a major pain point.
• ON24 needs to do a better job of introducing features and soliciting feedback from their customers vs making a high impactful change like #1 described above.

Incentivized

• Connection issues can be hard to diagnose when they come up(as some knowledge of server information may be needed to reestablish as the connection troubleshooting options on the sky are not as user-friendly as the rest of the platform.
• Some issues setting up camera/sound could use more info on troubleshooting options with playback sound, video, etc.
• Statuses sometimes are unreliable and do not display correctly .

Incentivized

The longer you use Adobe Connect, the longer you are likely to use it. Because you can build more and more resources over time, creating rooms that you re-use, recorded content you can repurpose, and tools that form the basis of ever increasing productivity, the more you use Connect, the more productive you become. Unlike competing products where, with every meeting you essentially start over -- setting up your resources for each meeting -- in my Connect rooms, I have highly tuned tools to accomplish my knowledge transfer goals. When I want to conduct another session - I send a link out to the appropriate room and instantly we are all focusing on getting a job done together. This ability of Adobe Connect to make you productive at an ever quickening rate is a competitive advantage

ON24 is everything we expected and everything we needed. It's simple to use, extremely customizable, and scales very easily. The integration to our CRM makes ON24 major lead generator for our sales team from our established webinars series. We can automate lead delivery to our sales team as well. If anything, we will look to expand our partnership in the future.

Incentivized

The software is simple to install and configure. It is rather simple to explain for correct use. It is possible to profile users for the different functions offered. It is integrated quite completely with Outlook and with Active Directory security. It performs all communication functions well with one or more interlocutors and the possibility of granting control of your computer is convenient.

Incentivized

I gave it a 6 because it does have lots of functionality, has a strong brand and reputation following, etc. but it does have its glitches and experiences with low bandwidth issues. I believe it has more features than my organization fully leverages, so some of those pieces haven't been explored yet. But there are opportunities for improvement in their online resource support, stability at high usages as well.

Incentivized

97% of our attendees say it is the best trainings they have every attended. But they other 3% have a horrible experience (while watching the event live) interesting fact. On24 uses two different encoders for live vs OnDemand. I have never had issues with the On-Demand experience. My only complaints come during live events

Incentivized

Very easy to use. Even though Microsoft Teams has a lot of features and integrations, as a user I feel completely comfortable on finding what I need, getting information about the app extensions and using them. It's a very comprehensive tool, intuitive design and does not make me feel tired to be using it. I am glad with the current experience.

ON24 is always available when I have a question about a new feature, if I'm having issues during a live webinar, or if I'm having issues with a webinar on the backend. Our client support specialist, Heather Haines, has always been incredibly consistent with getting me the answers I need when I need them.

Incentivized

Sometimes (it may be my computer) i cant login to ON24. I create a new PW and then i still cant get in. I clear cache/try new browser etc. and nothing works. I come back in a few hours and its like the problem never existed, its the strangest thing. Outside of that everything works pretty seamless. We've ran into a few bumps with Marketo talking to ON24 and passing reg through but have that figured out now. Not being able to be on a VPN when connecting to webcam on the presenter side does cause issues for our government speakers.

Incentivized

The customer support of Adobe connect is professional and well-skilled for resolving our minor and major issues. Moreover, it has almost all the features that will provide you a secure connection, with people across the world. Education institutes can also implement this software. On the basis of its quality and technology, I will surely advise you to try it once.

Incentivized

ON24 support is really good with the 24/5 support chat line, where someone actually responds within 30 seconds. The customers success team is also really good and our rep is very helpful with all our questions. Whenever we have more technical questions, she will bring on a IT designer or a tech specialist on our calls for additional comments and help.

Incentivized

I have only had to reach out to the Support team at Skype for Business once with an issue, and I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the quickness and thoroughness of their response. The wait time was short and my question was dealt with politely and clearly, so I would say the support team has it together.

Incentivized

Most points of relevance were covered as far as I can remember.

Incentivized

The ability to have most of the functionality of a full LMS at a fraction of the cost is huge. I can create manage and deploy both synchronous and asynchronous training based on the situation and all of my training is tracked through a series of easily created reports

On24 has amazing ON-Demand trainings that you can use at anytime and they walk you through step by step on different topics/ they are always updating and innovating and putting out new trainings. I would highly reccomend the trainings and reading the documents they have created. They also do live webinars on a rolling basis that are filled with so much knowledge and Information

Incentivized

Prices do not seem to vary much among resellers of the Adobe Connect hosted license; the only price variation you're likely to find are among the audio providers. When implementing, you may also wish to look into expanding the amount of storage you are allowed on the server to avoid any problems later on as your library of files starts to build up

We had a few training's, which were broken up, and focused on specific areas of how to use the platform. Mostly though, a lot of it is just dedicating your time to learning and exploring what the possibilities are for enhancing your webinars

Skpe for business is utilized company wide in regards to my company. Everyone not only uses it, but uses it often. It is an effective way of communicating. It also integrates very nicely with outlook and all conversation history is pushed to a folder within the outlook system. We also have it so that if someone misses a message, they are sent an email reminder saying that there is a message that went unread.

Incentivized

Actually, it was the other way around....we were using Adobe Connect, company-wide, then switched over to Zoom, mostly, I think, as a cost-cutting measure. But some Learning & Development folks campaigned to be allowed to retain some Adobe Connect licenses (for example, one L&D area had literally over 250 room layouts that their course facilitators could just jump into and use to deliver a course on short notice), which also allows some of us to continue to publish Presenter and Captivate modules to the Adobe server. (But, even those of us who still have Adobe Connect licenses use Zoom for most regular business meetings.)

Incentivized

From what I've seen, ON24 is built specifically to meet the needs of event marketing (or marketing generally), versus the other platforms which are more about simply providing a mechanism to hold virtual meetings. The integration with sales and marketing systems is really valuable. I don't know about pricing differences, but if the competitors were comparable, I would still select ON24.

Incentivized

For the below reason I will always choose this app over its competitors: Better audio and video quality, Little to no disconnections or freezing when on a call/video conference Integrates well with mailbox/ calendar/ one drive, and SharePoint is easy to use

The ON24 platform is straightforward to use and train clients on, which is a huge plus. Clients appreciate its features and simplicity. Internally, we receive valuable analytical data from webinar events, enabling the organization to make data-driven decisions. This helps us optimize strategies and drive success for B2B businesses effectively.

• Save on time - our instructors and people that use the platform can teach more classes and more often than in-person training and time traveling.
• We cut down on spending. When we offer training using Connect - we do not have to spend on meals, hard copy materials, and reserving a venue to deliver training.
• We increase our training sales significantly but offering Connect as an alternative - any unforeseen cancellations to a public class can result in transferring to a remote online Connected class.

Incentivized

• We get a lot of MQLs from our webinars. The integration with SFDC is a game changer over platforms that don't offer that integration.
• The addition of emojis and chat to our event consoles has greatly increased our engagement.
• We love marketing the fact that on-demand viewers can still submit questions and we'll answer them by email. Who else can say that?
• We would like to be able to make changes to all console elements after events have taken place. Sometimes stuff just needs to be updated.
• As we improve our audience segmentation, we are looking forward to the segment customization options that are now available on the console.
• The webinars ON24 sponsors provide us with some great ideas for improving our overall strategic marketing.

Incentivized

• Skype for Business has enabled a migration in part away from fixed line telephony and introduced the user to mobile working with a headset which cannot be overstated as being a game changer.
• Being able to schedule Skype for Business meetings through Outlook has meant meetings with colleagues without a meeting room has been a great enabler.

Incentivized