Likelihood to Recommend 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 RingEX is a great solution if you want reliability and flexibility. We can trust that our phones are just going to work when we need them. Our users love the ability to be able to use the app on their mobile phones or computers when they are on the go. The ability to review the call logs makes troubleshooting very easy. The call quality is also very good.
Read full review Pros 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 VOIP calling - call quality is excellent and has replaced our traditional landline phones Video meetings - video quality is great(provided you have a good webcam) and the video features(multiple hosts, screen sharing, multiple room management) is 2nd to none. Screen sharing - As an unexpected benefit, the ability to do a screen share has helped our IT crew in being able to remotely diagnose and fix problems with faculty or staff machines. Read full review Cons 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 Pricing for SMB space is high compared to other solutions Still lagging behind 8x8 with desk phone support and integrations UI for managing Limited Extensions is significantly more cumbersome than user extensions Video meeting software still lags behind industry leaders (such as Zoom and MS Teams) No licensing option for Common Area Phones with routing features Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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 We are grandfathered into our unlimited toll-free minutes plan. We are very unlikely to switch because of that. It has been the major factor saving us a lot of money compared to switching to other solutions. I don't know any other company that still offers these unlimited plans.
Read full review Usability 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 They were working on updating a few of the modules while we were going live, so this made usability difficult to train on once they did go live with those changes. Now that the changes are in place, we have really enjoyed the usability of the platform
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 It is quite reliable, we have the support of being able to identify failures and escalate it, also monitor the failures that are posted on the web about the status of the failures and evolutions. Its easy start-up and access allow us to have better performance and productivity, which in the long run turns into benefits.
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 Occasional bandwith issues. In addition to this, I have one individual whose calls are blocked. We were not able to determine whether this was a RingEX or a carrier issue.
Read full review Support Rating I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.
Read full review I have called RingEX a few times for assistance in setting up call handling or implementing changes in our call handling structure. The wait time to speak with an agent is usually minimal and the ones I have spoken to are excellent at walking me thru what changes I am trying to make as well as ensuring I understand what is being done so I can handle it myself next time if the need arises.
Read full review In-Person Training I really didn't know all the capabilities
Read full review Implementation Rating If someone has an existing system I tell them to keep that running initially and keep RingEX separate initially until the system is configured and tested to one's satisfaction. After testing and configuration is completed, then roll over the main phone numbers to the new RingEX system. I've seen one person who immediately flipped over to RingEX without properly configuring/testing the software and had many issues with missed customer calls until I helped him sort out his configuration.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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 During the tender process, we met with several other vendors. During this phase, we realized that RingEX was the only vendor we were investigating, and it was its own telecom provider – instead of offering phone software running on someone else’s network. So, we figured, ‘Why not cut out the middleman and partner with a cloud communication provider that also knows how to run a phone network?' More than any other cloud communication vendor, RingEX seemed to understand what we wanted. They listened to our needs and came back with a proposed solution that proved they heard us. They never tried to sell us on bells and whistles they knew we didn’t need. That’s what you want in a tech partner.
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model not to sign up for it or give them any money for a product that does not work
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 We have 75 users and 85 phones on the system and have yet to have any noticeable outages. The system just works all of the time without issues. Our old VOIP system on
Voyant would go out all the time for multiple hours. RingEX is much more stable and reliable.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Better connectivity and communication with team messaging. Enhanced customer experience with call routing, after-hours messaging, and emergency routing. Better privacy for my team by not having to share their mobile numbers as users within RingEX. Easier onboarding of new teammates as new users in RingEX. Read full review ScreenShots