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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HCL Sametime

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AHCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.N/A

    Zoom Phone

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/ABuilt on Zoom's platform, Zoom's cloud phone consolidates business communication and collaboration into a single system. Available in 40+ countries, with expandable coverage through a bring-your-own-carrier offering, Zoom Phone supports inbound and outbound calling through the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Features: Post call summary & next steps A post-call summary from Zoom’s AI Companion keeps the focus on the conversation instead of…

    $10

    per month per user

    Pricing
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    US & Canada Metered
    $10
    per month per user
    US & Canada Unlimited
    $15
    per month per user
    Global Select
    $20
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—No fees for emergency 911 Service No fees for compliance and administrative cost recovery Fee No 10DLC SMS fees
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Considered Both Products
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Zoom
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    48 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    44 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    47 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    43 Answers
    Features
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of HCL Sametime and Zoom Phone
    Feature
    HCL Sametime
    8.4
    7 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Zoom Phone
    8.4
    48 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Hosted PBX9.02 Ratings8.525 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)9.02 Ratings8.031 Ratings
    User templates8.02 Ratings8.119 Ratings
    Call reports8.02 Ratings9.023 Ratings
    Directory of employee names8.07 Ratings8.543 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of HCL Sametime and Zoom Phone
    Feature
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    8 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Zoom Phone
    8.5
    47 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Answering rules8.05 Ratings8.544 Ratings
    Call recording8.02 Ratings8.145 Ratings
    Call park8.01 Ratings8.537 Ratings
    Call screening8.02 Ratings9.835 Ratings
    Message alerts8.06 Ratings8.542 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of HCL Sametime and Zoom Phone
    Feature
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    6 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Zoom Phone
    9.3
    24 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Video conferencing8.06 Ratings9.223 Ratings
    Audio conferencing8.05 Ratings9.223 Ratings
    Video screen sharing8.01 Ratings9.423 Ratings
    Instant messaging8.01 Ratings9.419 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of HCL Sametime and Zoom Phone
    Feature
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    8 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Zoom Phone
    8.5
    46 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Mobile app for iOS8.08 Ratings8.541 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android8.07 Ratings8.532 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Small Businesses
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (10 ratings)
    6.1
    (51 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    6.6
    (4 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL SametimeZoom Phone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Zoom Workplace is ideal for any business looking for a communication/collaboration solution. This is more so for businesses with a hybrid workforce. It makes holding virtual meetings and collaboration sessions easy, and teams can participate seamlessly thanks to features such as Zoom Whiteboard, Zoom Teams chat, and Zoom Phone, among others. In a nutshell, Zoom Workplace makes teamwork and productivity easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    HCLSoftware
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • Having our Phone system all in onc place. Call, Text, Voicemail. with live transcript
    • Zoom Meeting AI companion - taking notes, creating action items, and summarizing the meetings then email immediately afterwards
    • Scheduler - being able to send links to team members or vendors to book a time that works best for them that is linked and synced to my calendar.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    HCLSoftware
    • 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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • The first time I ported a number and set up a outlying office, I had to keep going back in and correcting things. I feel like there could be more straightforward instructions on this, instead of having to go to multiple sections just to accomplish everything.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Almost perfect. Transformed from just being on my mobile phone. The phone has moved from a ituility to a value driving service in the business. Nobody yet has an AI to help manage the system. Come on Zoom, seems an obvious AI use case.
    Read full review
    Usability
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    Zoom Phone has a very sleek design which makes it very easy to operate and use both in the setting up of and interacting in a meeting space. That being said, certain features can seem a bit crowded while trying to screen share or display video which somewhat defeats the purpose of the application as compared to a standard conference call.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    HCLSoftware
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    HCLSoftware
    I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    I haven't had any sort of issues with Zoom as of yet to have to call Support. That right there makes me think it's a good product. Simple and easy to use. Nothing confusing or glitchy that would make me have to get in touch with them. Straightforward so I'm not trying to figure out a specific workflow.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    HCLSoftware
    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, but 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.
    Incentivized
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    Zoom
    The main reason why we switched to Zoom Phone is because our VOIP system inexplicably went down for almost a month and no one could figure out what was wrong. Lumen was charging way more than Zoom Workplace, but could not get the system to work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    HCLSoftware
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoom
    • We're better able to work together as a team answering phones multiple people can be logged in to answer at the same time.
    • The voicemail transcription feature helps with sharing messages to different departments.
    • Overall, we're able to answer more calls and have fewer callers being sent to voicemail.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Zoom Phone Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Zoom AI for business phone communications, available at no additional costScreenshot of Zoom's integrated workflowsScreenshot of the Call Handling Panel