HCL 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
Webex Meetings
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Webex Meetings is a video conferencing solution powering hybrid work. It enables a seamless collaboration experience and better results with meetings that are designed to give everyone the ability to engage no matter their location, language, or communication style.
$11.95
per month
Pricing
HCL Sametime
Webex Meetings
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Webex Free
$0.00
user/month
Webex Meet
$14.50
user/month
Webex Suite: Meet + Call Plan
$25.00
user/month
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL Sametime
Webex Meetings
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
—
Webex Meetings are available at no cost to users. They are included in the Webex Suite, starting at $11.95 per user/per month for Enterprise Agreements.
IBM's Sametime solution did not require that third party users have their own account, which was a big win over Skype at the time we reviewed that solution. Additionally we found users were frustrated with GoToMeeting and WebEx (the two big names at the time) because plugins …
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.
Good examples: - Conducting trainings and courses - Planning meetings and inviting colleagues to attend - Presenting topics to a large group of people - Speech reproduction is very good - assigning rights and copresentor Not so good: - Interaction with other applications - Mute microphones when using multiple clients - Video call quality - Tracking history, private settings
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.
We have a global and diverse team with different devices and operating systems. Webex works smoothly on all of them and everyone can collaborate in real-time saving a lot of time and effort, making meetings much more productive.
We can easily capture discussion points and decisions for future reference, without the need for manual note-taking. It helps us in smaller group discussions and brainstorming sessions within the main meeting itself.
I can even tailor the layout to suit the meeting's purpose and agenda. Webex is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for non-technical users, joining and scheduling meetings is a smooth process.
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.
Cisco Webex Meetings is a platform that consistently performs well and outperforms some of the other solutions that we have used, such as Zoom. It is user friendly and helps our organization accomplish the goal of connecting with external contacts to conduct meetings and share information
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.
Webex Meetings does not provide enough audio feedback for users with visual disabilities to properly navigate the tool. Students, faculty, and staff who are blind or have low vision may not be able to use Webex Meetings. Users with motor disabilities that navigate via keyboard, may not be able to navigate the web conferencing session enough to participate fully.
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.
So personally I have never faced any kind of meeting unavailability issue while scandaling meeting with WebEx the bandwidth is really good and in terms of application performance the same is my opinion what I mentioned for availability it is good and the objective of communication is quite fruitfully achieved with a simple and effective product like WebEx which is often bundled with the purchase of course which is which we have at our company and great discount is being offered so it is easy on our pocket. I really don't have any specific errors which have faced I should mention over here the operation or application uses is quite smooth.
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
We use browsers to join Webex Meetings and it is very good no issue also appears from Webex APP is very organized and does not consume more resources of PC so no issues appeared. We join audio and video in many ways, all of which are good. We integrated it with active Microsoft Exchange with easy deployment.
I gave this rating for overall support on Webex meetings because if something goes wrong we have the best support here and rarely need to go to help.webex.com. Multiple people have been appropriately trained so finding the answers to any issues we occur is very simple here at work.
It was straight to the point and very informative. effective training often includes clear explanations, hands-on practice opportunities, time for questions and answers, real-world examples, and follow-up support. If you're trying to assess the quality of a specific training session, you might consider these factors. For organizations looking to assess the quality of their in-person training, it's best to solicit feedback directly from the participants. This can be done through anonymous surveys or feedback sessions, enabling the organization to gather firsthand information and improve future training sessions accordingly.
We mostly use training from Cisco's online training programs which is very informative and can be easily incorporated into our daily schedules without disrupting our normal working activities. There are many online training materials are available on cisco's website as well as other third-party training companies may also provide additional training.
That we needed complex implementation that we didn't get tells me 2 things: 1) the product was not designed in a way that "just worked" like some of its peers (Zoom / BlueJeans) and 2) had our company defined actual user needs and validated / verified that they had bought something that matched those, we would have pursued features / designs more closely aligned with what the product actually does: screen share, sometimes video, definitely VOIP audio (always an option regardless of license), and easy recording and retrieval of meetings.
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.
Meetings is the way to go! It blends in with our organization's workflow seamlessly. Teams is great but really suffers in the collaboration department from our personal experience. Webex Meetings is much more fleshed out. The features it has are much more convenient and easier to use. There was a bit of a learning curve, but once you are over that speedbump you are able to get much more use out of Webex Meetings.
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.
I can speak to multiple departments at my organization using Webex Meetings. It has been, and continues to be, our longest online meeting software. It has been deployed across the organization and each department uses it. As I have mentioned, our monthly all-organization Town Halls are hosted on Webex. We have also used it to broadcast a panel-based speaker event.
The costly nature of individual accounts across multiple schools made it difficult to maintain the budget when our student population grew exponentially.
Often communicated to clients and stakeholders that we were a trustworthy and elevated provider.
Limited engagement and interactive features with students often contributed to complaints around student engagement and buy-in.
