Likelihood to Recommend FreeConferenceCall is well suited for a low price service to connect with others. The onboarding is super simple and easy to use. The ability to record to the cloud is also useful. The ability to host a large number of people is great. The only scenario I can think of less appropriate is that the interface just looks a bit dated, so maybe it is not the best for the wow factor of dealing with clients.
Read full review Sametime is well suited for very quick conversations, where you know the person is an active Sametime user. It also serves as an easy way to reach out to someone you may not know when looking for an answer to a quick question, as they are likely to be a Sametime user. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to use Sametime for Audio or Video chat. The quality and reliability are horrendous.
Read full review Pros The online portal to access call details and recordings is very easy to use. The functions that are offered beyond the free plan are competitive with other providers. I feel that our calls are secure with our own personal access codes and the same number always being used. Read full review Sametime's web-based interfaces are "zero load", requiring no plug-ins to be installed to join a meeting, launch a meeting, or use chat in a browser. A plugin is required only if you want to share your screen. Integration with IBM Notes is very tight. Sametime's chat status can change according to your Notes calendar. You can easily see if someone who just emailed you is available to chat. Your chat History is right inside Notes as well. IBM's mobile apps are top notch. We automated the apps for our users thanks to IBM's work with third party MDMs. This made it very simple for us to deploy the Sametime mobile apps -- Chat and Meetings -- and get new capabilities such as Audio & Video mobilized quickly. No down time, ever. The rock solid WebSphere back-end of Sametime means the environment is always up. Period. Read full review Cons Recently callers cannot get onto the call Users on the call get bumped off Non-transparent policy about why problems are occurring. If FreeConferenceCall.com can't reliably provide free service, just tell me that rather than blaming it on a law that changed and local carriers causing the problems. The real problem is that the law did recently change, which allowed companies like FreeConferenceCall.com to collect a revenue share for all calls placed through certain hubs--even free calls. This loophole was removed recently, and I believe the service issues I've been experiencing are being used to extort users to buy a paid service in order to receive trouble-free service. I found customer service representatives rude and dismissive Read full review Not convenient for a large group meeting. Very basic tool for internal communication only not available for third party communication Very basic and limited mobile app features. High speed connection is needed to connect to Sametime Read full review Likelihood to Renew It is so user friendly.
Read full review Sametime is now an embedded experience for our users. They know it, they like it, they use it, and they expect it to be wherever they are. Because it is pretty easy to use and NEVER goes down, users know they can rely on it and won't be frustrated by it. Sametime is right up with there with Microsoft Office in terms of user adoption and appreciation.
Read full review Usability I am and have been extremely pleased with my use of this product.
Read full review Just about everything works the way you expect it would and it's relatively easy for users to figure out. Sametime was one of those things that we started with only a few people as a "test" and before the test period was done we discovered a few hundred people had figured out how to log in and most got it working all on their own. Many of our users want to use Sametime and do so regularly; we do not have to create policies enforcing its usage. Users find it practical to use Sametime to do things like chat, transfer files, share their screen, and so forth.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Typically if Sametime is not available, it's because Windows Updates were done on the servers and they were not rebooted. However, that's not a problem with Sametime -- in fact, if you have Linux you could probably run Sametime for years without any hiccups whatsoever. We have no internal Linux expertise.
Read full review Performance Generally very good. Occasionally AV or screen-sharing will stutter and every now and then I hear of it dropping out altogether, but in all cases it was easy to re-establish
Read full review Support Rating I haven't had the need to call for any support at all yet for FreeConferenceCall.com. It has just worked splendidly for me. That being said, when I first downloaded it and got started using it there was a wizard which made every section and button very clear on what it does. It was easy to get started by following the wizard. I imagine then that their customer service will be just as good.
Read full review I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.
Read full review Implementation Rating It's a no brainer!
Read full review Alternatives Considered So this doesn't have the polish that say Zoom or Teams has, but for free, you can't complain. The real big unknown is anything to do with security where a product like Teams is great. Zoom and Teams seem to have become standard that everyone has installed and is familiar with, but the adjustment to FCC is pretty fast and painless.
Read full review We use
Jabber globally in our company and Symphony (no relevant app in able list) in some of the teams as well. All these are instant messenger tools, bu
t Sametime is the easiest one to be used and its chat history is easy to be searched. Sametime can be used to contact almost all internal staff as it’s included in default computer package. Symphony is used to chat with front end business while
Jabber is used for call.
Read full review Scalability Sametime is rock solid. It runs on WebSphere, DB2 and other related IBM technologies. This does mean the back-end is highly complex and very difficult to learn and get comfortable with, however.
Read full review Return on Investment We pay next to nothing for our access and it creates a professional means of connecting with our clients. Connecting via FreeConferenceCall.com has helped our business stay afloat during this challenging time by giving us multiple ways to connect with our clients. FreeConferenceCall.com has allowed our team to more efficiently collaborate by being able to access calls even when they aren't able to be present during the live conversation. Read full review Sametime keeps many of our team members in contact throughout the day which leads to increased productivity which makes everyone happy. We use the team chat room feature every day. This allows a team to stay focused on the task without any extra messages that are not on topic. The split between IBM Sametime, Slack and Google Hangouts has caused some issues when team members are not checking for messages on a certain app. Read full review ScreenShots