Amazon Chime vs. Ooma Office vs. Skype (discontinued)

Amazon Chime is well suited for online video and audio meetings, IMs, and conducting training sessions using a whiteboard. It can be integrated well with Google Calendar and Microsoft outlook. With Amazon Chime mobile app you can attend meetings on the go as well. Meetings can be locked so that only legitimate participants can join the meeting. Amazon Chime is less suited in case you want meeting transcripts as well for your meetings. Given that Amazon Chime is not used by a larger audience so your client or customer may face some difficulties in join the meeting or accessing some of the features of the Chime.

Incentivized

We use Ooma Office for everyone in the company including mobile users. It has allowed us to eliminate the spam callers as well give our mobile and remote users the ability to make business calls - from any device, from anywhere, at any time - without having to worry about any long distance charges, or without giving up their personal telephone numbers (at home or cellular).

Incentivized

Having interacted with a new replacement tool, Microsoft Teams, it is challenging to recommend Skype, as it lacks some essential features, such as being less equipped with the latest updates, and it is not platform-independent, causing issues on PCs and phones, as well as during calls that might hinder work.

Incentivized

• Chat tools, video calls, on spot meeting invite[s] easy to create and use.
• Ability to record any meeting and automatically downloads the meeting recording after ending the meeting.
• UI is clean and easy to navigate around Amazon Chime.
• Ability to invite outside guests easily using Amazon Chime without any issues.

Incentivized

• Ease of IVR customization: Allows my business to adapt quickly to an ever-changing business economy
• Plug and Play application: I was up and running within minutes of opening the box with the equipment in it!
• Find Me, Follow Me for remote access: No matter where I go, I can bring the office with me.
• Simple, Straightforward Billing: I recognized savings from day 1; my monthly invoice stays the same every month!

• The instant chat function is great. Very straightforward, easy to use, easy to learn, no technical issues.
• Video calls are pretty easy also, user friendly and a mostly stable connection with no issues.
• Voice calls are easy also, eliminates the need for an external landline or the need to use your cell phone. Clear connections, not really any dropped calls.

Incentivized

• More simplified dial-in numbers. The PIN for our conference line is long and easy to mistype.
• You do not have to download the Chime app in order to join a conference, but if you want to do anything beyond join (schedule a conference, participate in a group chat, control participants), you have to have the app downloaded and installed. The app that you have to download in order to launch a conference is a memory hog, and slows down a computer's boot up time.
• The add-in for Microsoft Outlook is particularly clunky. It helps you add scheduled conference calls/video conferences to your Outlook calendar, but it can cause Outlook to crash, and creates a really slow open time for Outlook. If you can avoid downloading the Outlook Add-In, I would.
• No built-in screen sharing capabilities.

Incentivized

• Cell phone app could be a little easier to use.
• Ooma Desktop needs some tweaking to make it more user friendly.
• I would like my 800 number to be assigned to my personal mailbox vs. having to have its own extension.

Incentivized

• Skype is a RESOURCE hog. People who have limited bandwidth will have poor call quality.
• It is hard to figure out how to use emojis and upload images in the chat.
• The background images do not fool anybody....it is clearly not your real background.

Incentivized

We have found it very easy to configure, manage, and expand our phone operations with Ooma Office. We needed a reliable phone network as this is the first means of communication for our customers - Ooma has made it a lot easier for us to manage. Their support is also available 24x7 so that's a huge plus.

I have given this rating as this need to give more than that as it's very helpful for us and makes our work more efficient and fast.

Ooma has helped us make better use of our phones and given us many more capabilities than our previous service. The mobile app has provided an excellent connection and quality. Its integration with the cellular phone app and contacts makes it a breeze to use. Emailed recordings of voicemails are very helpful for both receiving messages and allowing us to archive them. It has also saved us a significant amount of money and provided us with a more capable and reliable system all at once.

Incentivized

Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.

Incentivized

They were very supportive in answering all of our questions when we had problems. Their in-person calls but their support site also had a full set of information that can answer a good portion of your questions before you have to pick up the phone. But when you, you will get good service.

Incentivized

Ooma Office support is always available. I've never been on the phone with them for longer than 5 minutes. They are knowledgable, have great active listening skills, are able to make recommendations on how to make Ooma Office work even better for you, and wait times to speak with an agent are reasonable and typically less than 1 minute.

Incentivized

I am not aware of the current support level for Skype for business, as I have never used even though I have the product. However, the support for Skype's personal paid users is not where it could be. Users who pay for Skype features do not have a clear path to reach out to support. So, rating 6, can be better as soon as I need to use Skype for business support and get a good experience. I will say that I will renew Skype for Business subscription, which is a significant inconsistency on my end. The explanation is that Skype for Business comes bundled with Office for Business, with no additional cost, so why not.

Incentivized

Have a plan in place before you start the implementation, open communication with the staff on the changes being made, prepare a reference guide on the system and how to navigate the new setup. Budget and allocate time for helping staff learn the new system. Consolidate and coordinate all the questions internally before reaching out to support.

It can be used on the phone via mobile application as well as on the desktop by logging in to the website. Easily installed and ready to use.

Incentivized

Better than Skype for Business in terms of loading the application onto your device. Skype had crashing issues always and those are comparatively low when using Amazon Chime. Amazon chime is fast and easy to work with while collaborating and setting up meetings. The audio and video quality are better than Skype for Business.

Incentivized

We went over to Ooma [Office] after having had Intermedia for several years. Intermedia was good, but they were due for an update on many of their systems, which they did after we left. With Ooma [Office], we have our hold music and other basic, easy to use options that fit well for our small business.

Incentivized

We use Skype in combination with Grasshopper. While Grasshopper acts as a routing toll free number with extensions, if we are making calls directly, we do it through Skype. Skype's desktop and mobile apps are easier to use, and provide unlimited local calls at a flat, affordable rate. Allowing our team to use their existing mobile or desktop devices without additional hardware for business office phone calls is important, and Skype makes that possible

Incentivized

The service provided is up to date, as discussed before buying.

• The positive ROI is Amazon Chime helps make our sales reps more professional in their calls leading to an increase in closed/won deals.
• Amazon Chime has increased overall morale across our sales team because it has greatly improved our call processes when compared to other tools we've used in the past.

Incentivized

• System made it one-stop shopping for fax lines and phones numbers and equipment which was convenient.
• It was a shock to see that $39.98 of service manages to result in about $18 of additional “fees” every month. Makes the service significantly less of a bargain than is advertised.

• Skype made keeping in touch with an advisor in Mexico very easy. The initiative there resulted in 5 new partnerships.
• Skype has helped me with account management for at least 3 customers in LATAM--usually it's a fast way to answer a question about a support renewal.
• For about 9 months Skype helped me stay in touch with a colleague in Prague. We would meet once a week to go over sales activities.

Incentivized