Likelihood to Recommend Well suited for businesses of all sizes. HOWEVER, I would say keep the chat groups limited at the departmental level, ensure that your moderator or the individual responsible for the group keeps it on topic, and have your IT team monitor it from time to time. Google Chat gets used so much in our organization that we have rules and regs in our Employee Handbook regarding its proper use (and when used PROPERLY, it can be very effective).
Read full review We have just started to use IBM B2B Cloud Services within our department. We were looking for a cloud-based solution to manage all of our partner's B2B processes within a single interface. We did not want to have to go through the hassle of managing any sort of solution ourselves; thus, we came to the conclusion that a cloud-based solution would work best for our department. So far, we have found that the product has been reliable, and not having to worry about maintenance and patch cycles is always a good thing.
Read full review Pros Google Hangouts Chat allows you to send and receive messages real time with emoticons that can help you express your mood. You can download and upload image file that can be use for business process and more. Google Hangouts Chat also allows you to make a calls to reach other users.What I like the most is the awesome screen sharing while on call. Read full review Document process management Transition services, including planning, design, project management and testing Translation, community and visibility service Trading partner community support Read full review Cons I wish it was easier to turn the sound off, I hate being in meetings and my chat is blowing up. Needing to "accept" a chat invite from someone within my org seems counter-intuitive. Some people have trouble getting their notifications before midnight, somehow? Prior to downloading the app, group messages didn't come up for me on my computer. Read full review Can't rely on huge data sets Organizations is huge, it's tough to handle Limited feature sets Read full review Likelihood to Renew The updates, support, general reviews on Google Chat are great everywhere. The development of the features is ongoing and this adds a great value to Google as a big company in the market. Other applications are limiting communication while Google Chat is allowing communication to grow. It is very easy to use it and teach others how to use Google Chat.
Read full review Usability It's not perfect. There are occasional glitches, drop-outs, and it takes a bit to get everything loaded and working. But it is significantly better than Zoom or
GoToMeeting when you're in instructional settings. I know my teacher friends here like it and the administrators and parents seem to be satisfied too.
Read full review Support Rating I have not needed to contact the support folks for Google Hangouts Chat, so I can't speak to this with any accuracy. The online instructions are fairly clearly written, so it is fairly intuitive to start with. I did not feel the need to use the support people anyway.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Prior to Google Hangouts, our company used Spark. Spark was not integrated into our email, therefore it couldn't be easily accessed in the same browser. With Spark we also couldn't search our emails for keywords in a conversation, searching had to be done manually. The one feature I enjoyed about Spark was a request to get a user's attention: If I had an urgent question and I wanted to ensure the recipient saw my message/question, I would request their attention and the message screen would pop up on their screen.
Read full review IBM B2B Cloud Services stands out among the competition with its solid performance, wealth of features, and multiple platform compatibility. While it can be more expensive than competitive services, its core components are powerful enough to work with multiple levels of marketing campaigns and outreach efforts. The service works well among different levels of clients and can be utilized better across different viewing devices
Read full review Return on Investment In my work it allows us to report troubles that may cost loss of investment thru Google Hangouts Chat we were able to communicate on how to fix it. I hope we can make it on our own choice of colors to heightened workers vibe It is connected to your email Read full review We feel that IBM B2B Cloud Services will drive down our maintenance costs because my group is no longer responsible for patching and maintaining infrastructure. High availability of IBM B2B Cloud Services will allow us to have a greater up time with less downtime. Having a single platform where all B2B integrations are shown and presented in a single interface will allow us to quickly and effectively manage those integrations and see which ones are really needed. A single view will provide instant visibility into any sort of problems that may arise as well. Read full review ScreenShots