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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor

    Score9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The Lightning Conductor is a content aggregation tool for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Users can build rich, modern content reports based upon SharePoint lists, SharePoint Search, Microsoft Graph or Microsoft 365 Groups. Content can be aggregated from lists and libraries, and other applications such as Planner, To Do, OneDrive, and Teams.

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Microsoft Teams

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.

    $4.80

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Editions & Modules
    Lightning Conductor WSP
    From 1950
    per year One WFE
    Lightning Conductor Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year Four or more WFE
    Lightning Conductor Online
    From 2200
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Plus (Includes Data Viewer)
    From 2500
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Online Enterprise Edition (>10,000 users)
    POA
    per year per installation
    Microsoft Teams Essentials
    $4.80
    per month per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month (paid yearly) per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Basic
    $7.20
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Standard
    $15
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released. (online version)Discounts are available for non profit organizations.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Would buy again
    255 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    225 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    255 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    144 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    8.6
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Microsoft Teams
    8.2
    241 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Task Management8.82 Ratings8.1179 Ratings
    Search8.42 Ratings7.6212 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings8.196 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings8.3208 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.4126 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings8.2229 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.4143 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Teams
    8.0
    251 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings9.0250 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings8.4249 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings8.7235 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings8.2146 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings8.6157 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings6.547 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings5.743 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings9.1155 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Teams
    8.2
    236 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings8.6168 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings8.4202 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings8.8200 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings8.9216 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings8.6198 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings8.5158 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings5.353 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings8.6172 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Flock
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
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    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.6
    (329 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (114 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (114 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Teams
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Having experience of SharePoint On Premise and also SharePoint Online, there isn't an out of the box app/webpart that enables you to 'roll up content' from a variety of source's (in my case SP Lists, but there are many other data sources it works with) across site collections with an easy to use and intuitive interface which is what Lightning tools excels at.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    It's amazing as a daily driver for team communication, and document search/store. Also, if you're doing a lot of LONG meetings and have trouble remembering details, the AI summarization is amazing and convenient. It just works. I'm not saying I always do this, of course, but if I need to 'skim' instead of really digging into every detail from a meeting, the AI-generated summary is generally good enough that I can get away with it.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Aggregate documents across SharePoint site & libraries
    • Filtering for owner/person responsible & due dates
    • Ease of end-user filtering on columns
    • Color-coding & other formatting
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • All in one communication for Teams.
    • High quality and reliable both audio and video meetings.
    • Well organized and clear instant chat.
    • Excellent security features.
    • Beautiful integration with 3rd party tools and systems.
    • Perfect compatibility with windows ,android and iOS.
    • Allow meetings recordings for later us or sharing with teams that missed the live.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • Mobile Friendly
    • Calendar/Gantt views
    • Complex/Custom Logic
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The webinars feature has some missing functionally such as the ability for all users to use the Q&A feature (only those with a Microsoft Teams account can use it now), the ability to upload documents for attendees to easily access and download, and the ability for presenters and organizers to easily chat amongst themselves throughout the webinar.
    • The "Channels" organization hierarchy could be more clear. If you have several channels set up, it can get clunky and hard to find the specific channel you are looking for.
    • The MS Planner tool lacks functionality and organization. You cannot assign more than one person to a task and it's confusing when you try to share tasks with people - it would be nice if they were automatically added to someone's calendar.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and we have no intention of migrating off of Office 365 and Microsoft products. Since Microsoft Teams is included for free with our Office 365 subscription, and since we enjoy all the features, benefits, and functionality, there is no question that our team will continue to use the product
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    If you have the full Microsoft Office suite, it works really well because it's integrated well within its ecosystem, but if not, it can be annoying because it tries to open a shared file in the web versions of the file equivalents. The web version is also a bit slow, and the login is very difficult to handle if you have multiple Microsoft or Outlook accounts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Rare, but outages do happen
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Sometimes about once a week I get a message that says "Sorry, there seems to be something wrong". But it goes away in a few minutes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    The Lightning Tools support team responds quickly, and team members are very friendly and helpful.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The overall support provided by Microsoft for Microsoft Teams has been quite good but there is still some room for improvements. Microsoft needs to proactively work on fixing the open bugs in order to provide a seamless experience to the users. But over the service and experience provided by the Microsoft team have been quite satisfactory.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I find everything I need for my day-to-day work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results that would be useful.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Teams offers a much more integrated experience between their chat and video call function compared to Google Chat and Slack. Both other tools are much better for internal communications are they have simpler UI without other features. Whereas Microsoft Teams can be used for more critical conversations, particularly between external companies, and has been very useful in sales conversations which is what we chose it for when speaking to companies that work exclusively through Microsoft.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Honestly, this tool is worth every penny. Yes, it's not free and you pay for the quality of services and the license. But the ROI and the benefits are all there. Also, the renewal, negotiation, and contract terms are all very well explained by our Microsoft account manager, and she's a charm.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It does not appear to have a limit to how many teams and employees we can have using it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I used Skype for Business to take calls, hold conferences, and provide remote assistance to users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is superior to Skype for Business in my opinion. My job entails a lot of screen sharing.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • Policies easier to portray
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Personally, I would say that by using Microsoft Teams, it upped my collaboration with my colleagues by around 50% or around more than half of what I usually did prior to using it.
    • I had 100% show rate and attendance on all of my meetings in the past 6 months.
    • If I may add, I also have been chattier & collaborative towards my colleagues in past 3 months particularly the month of December when we had huge traffic at work. I would estimate this behavior to have been increased by around 60% than what I usually incur during normal operating days.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN SHAREPOINT LIST ROLLUP
The Lightning Conductor is a SharePoint Content Aggregator that can be configured quickly by business users. The Lightning Conductor can be used to aggregate content from SharePoint Lists such as Tasks, Document Libraries, Contact Lists, and Custom Lists making it easy to view content in one place even if it is distributed across many sites and site collections. Key data can be highlighted using conditional formatting and data-bars as shown. Content from Search and Microsoft Graph can also be aggregated with the Lightning Conductor.Screenshot of CONTENT AGGREGATION WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Lightning Conductor Web Part can be used within Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Even if content is stored within SharePoint sites, it is useful to have aggregated Documents, Tasks, Announcements, Calendars or Custom Lists from multiple sites displayed in a single handy view in Microsoft Teams. The Lightning Conductor can be added as a Teams Tab in any Microsoft Teams Channel.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT GRAPH
The Lightning Conductor can be used (without code) to aggregate content from Microsoft Graph as well as Search and SharePoint Lists. This example displays Microsoft Planner Plans and Microsoft Planner Tasks where users can Add new Tasks, Assign Users to Planner Tasks, Delete Tasks, and Complete Tasks. The same can be performed on Microsoft To Do items and displayed within Modern SharePoint pages or Microsoft Teams Tabs. The Lighting Conductor can also contain multiple views of content, making it ideal to display all of your tasks from SharePoint Task lists, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Planner in a single web part or Teams Tab.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT 365 GROUPS
Powered by Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 Group Rollup Provider enables users to aggregate content by browsing and selecting Microsoft 365 Groups. Within Microsoft 365 Groups, you’ll be able to select entities such as Drive Items, Owners, Members, Planner Plans, Planner Tasks, Events, Posts,  Sites, Lists, and Calendars.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of AGGREGATING USING SEARCH
When performance is critical, search can be used for rollups. The Lightning Conductor offers three data source configurations to get to content. Object Model (Real Time Aggregation from SharePoint Lists), Microsoft Graph (Aggregation from Graph Entities such as Planner, OneDrive, Outlook), and Search. The Search Data Source enables the aggregation of content from large SharePoint lists and libraries when performance is critical. Thousands of documents can be displayed in under a second using Search.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA WITHIN VIEWS
End users and Site Owners can highlight the data that is important to them, the data that they need to prioritize. Using conditional formatting, data bars, and icons, conditions can be configured to highlight the data that is most important. Icons and Data Bars can be any color or size desired. Examples include highlighting High Priority tasks, Showing data bars for the completion progress of Tasks, or indicating which tasks are assigned to any particular user.