Likelihood to Recommend FoxDen tended to work slightly better for very small video conferences. The audio was typically reliable, so it would be ok to use for audio conferencing. It is definitely not ready for prime time: it cannot handle very large conferences. It didn't seem ready to be used on mobile either. I also think it's better suited for a smaller company.
Read full review Skype is well suited for quick calls back and forth, in both video and audio, among team members who have it already installed and who know how to use it. It is less well-suited when trying to do a presentation for somebody who does NOT have it installed or who lacks internet speed.
Read full review Pros Easy to join meetings Audio is fairly reliable Moderately easy to host meetings Read full review 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. Read full review Cons Horrible video quality. It basically never worked, and we stopped using the video feature. Buggy behavior all the time. Dropped calls, loss of screen sharing, rendered unusable most of the time. Poor response by the vendor to issues. The answer was basically "we know it's unusable, and we're trying to figure that out. There's nothing we can do right now." Read full review This is really small, but I'd love to see the emoticons updated to emojis. Make calling free like some other communications app providers. Grant the ability to not show that you're online even when you are. Sometimes you want to make a call, but you don't want other people to see you're online and start messaging you. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I believe they selected FoxDen because we use ReadyTalk for voice conferencing and FoxDen represented a cost savings compared to our previous
Skype for Business investment. However, in the end, most of our company has abandoned ever using FoxDen and, instead, still uses all of the products listed above (
Skype for Business ,
Google Hangouts ,
Slack ) or just plain ReadyTalk voice conferencing.
Read full review Microsoft Teams provides basically the same services. Local number calling is not available (that I know of) but that only matters if you have any need to use it. Teams is a little more stable, especially with a lot of people on a call. Skype is easier to set up and to operate. Skype also has a larger install base.
Read full review Professional Services The service provided is up to date, as discussed before buying.
Read full review Return on Investment Increased the length of our meetings due to copious amounts of time spent trying to fix the video and screen sharing. Added frustration for everyone who attempted to use it. Ultimately resulted in a lot of money lost on video equipment that everyone stopped using in favor of voice-only conferencing due to the faulty video. Read full review Overall Skype is a good investment. We use regular Skype so its a product that comes with Windows PC's as a standard app. We dont use Skype for Business so this cuts cost overall. Using the basic functions of Skype and not Skype for business does have some downsides but you do save money. There are many other apps we use as well as Skype in order to accomplish all of our goals. The downside of course is that the more you want Skype to do, the more money it will cost the organization as a whole. It does have many more functions which you have to upgrade to Skype for business for. That is my only criticism. Read full review ScreenShots