Google Chat vs. Socialcast (discontinued)

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).

Incentivized

Socialcast has been a great tool for FactSet. I would recommend it to any firm looking for an easy-to-use tool to centralize communication and collaborate on a global scale.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Socialcast has an exceptional user experience. With very few idiosyncrasies, it works well on every platform I've tried.
• The platform has such a high level of ease of use, it becomes somewhat addicting.
• Social analytics are superb.
• The platform is highly intuitive and requires zero training or coaching in order for network members to become productive with it.
• It's extremely reliable. Only once in 4 years, was the product not available, and that was only for about a half-hour. In that half-hour, we realized how dependent we were on it. (Very.)
• The multi-device and deployment options are excellent. On-premise, Private Cloud, and Multi-tenant SaaS all available.
• The mobile apps for iPhone, tablets, and Android render well with a beautiful UI/UX. The desktop AIR app is equally highly usable.

• 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.

Incentivized

• The software is a little bit pricey because it is charged by user/month and depending on the deployment method.
• For companies with a lot of workers the price can increase significantly.
• The mobile app usability and notifications are poor. Need to be improved.
• If there were more administrative features available the product would be improved

Incentivized

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.

Beyond the value FactSet derives from using the platform, Socialcast (the firm) has been a good partner to FactSet. We've experienced very little downtime with the service and they have been responsive and fair with enhancement requests and questions

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.

Incentivized

The UX is its best feature

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.

Incentivized

Excellent support; of course not perfect. :-)

Not applicable, as it is a SaaS platform with minimal implementation

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.

Incentivized

Socialcast is great for collaboration & light project management, but anything complex doesn't work well.

Using it as an email notification curator works nice for us.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Definitely more organized project management and team collaboration.
• Efficiency in carrying out tasks.
• Creates a spirit of collaboration and friendliness among colleagues.

Incentivized