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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. Verizon Cloud

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Social Squared is a SharePoint Discussion Board App that can be deployed across SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Social Squared improves productivity and efficiency by providing structured discussion forums for employee and student discussions. For Microsoft SharePoint Social Squared is a SharePoint discussion board application where users can post questions within relevant forums and receive answers to their questions from subject matter experts. The…

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Verizon Cloud Portfolio

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AThe Verizon Cloud is a cloud storage solution, integrating technologies from CloudSwitch (acquired in 2011).N/A
    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
    Editions & Modules
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    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.—
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Verizon Cloud
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Verizon Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile Access9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Search9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Verizon Cloud
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Verizon Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Chat9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Notifications9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Discussions9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Verizon Cloud
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Verizon Cloud
    6.9
    2 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Versioning9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video files9.11 Ratings7.42 Ratings
    Audio files9.11 Ratings5.62 Ratings
    Document collaboration9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access control9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    File search00 Ratings6.72 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Cloud Storage Security & Administration
    Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Verizon Cloud
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    -
    Ratings
    Verizon Cloud
    6.8
    2 Ratings
    24% below category average
    User and role management00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    File organization00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Device management00 Ratings6.32 Ratings
    Cloud Storage Platform
    Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Verizon Cloud
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    -
    Ratings
    Verizon Cloud
    7.4
    2 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Performance00 Ratings7.72 Ratings
    Reliability00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
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    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
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    Score9.5 out of 10
    IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Apple iCloud
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    ownCloud
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardVerizon Cloud Portfolio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Their customer service it top notch and always responsive. I struggled in the beginning a little bit because I'm not tech savvy and we had to add it to our SharePoint site but they helped me along the way and even had share screen meetings with me to assist!!
    Read full review
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    I think this service works very well for me, but I have been a Verizon customer for almost 15 years. If you are someone who hops carriers it may not be the best fit. I also like that you can easily use it with all of your employees regardless if they prefer Android or Apple phones. (Whereas using Apple's or Google's services may not work seamlessly for all phones.) I think it still has room for improvement, and sometimes I worry about the longevity of utilization due to the nature of cell phone carriers constantly changing prices, plans, and every option under the sun to make a buck that we could be very screwed in the future if Verizon does something stupid (because historically, they all have)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    • Auto-Sync of files or contacts to the cloud that are chosen to be auto-synced.
    • Has the ability to turn off auto-sync and allow only manual sync.
    • Stores files and contacts in the cloud for later recovery in case of a data loss.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • I would love to be able to assign various people as administrators of different topics (this may be an option now but a couple years ago it wasn't)
    Read full review
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    • The home screen shows a little bit of everything, but being a control freak, I would like to be able to customize it. (Granted, it would most likely have most of the same elements, but, for example, I don't need photos scrolling across the top. I'd rather have buttons like quick links to jump directly to what I want or to see a further bird's eye view of the content.
    • I like receiving notifications that a back-up is complete, but I would like to be able to set what other notifications are and aren't allowed to push to my phone.
    • I have set Verizon Cloud to back up on wifi OR using the data network. But if you are using wifi while doing a content restore and you lose that connection, either by leaving the building or the local wifi dropping out momentarily, the entire content restore will stop and need to be restarted. This can be very frustrating.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    Our employees really like the fact that they can find things easily with the search feature and add questions and comments as they see fit.
    Read full review
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    All of the others provide more free storage. Verizon should out best or at least equal the best when you are already a Verizon data subscriber. It seems that by not doing this that they want to "nickle-and-dime" their already loyal customer base
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • We signed up for a 3 year contract and hope to do another 3yr contract when this one is up. :)
    Read full review
    Verizon Business (formerly Verizon Enterprise)
    • Thus far is has been a positive experience, and has saved a lot of man hours of both employees who replaced their phones to the IT department trying to help them put everything back no longer needs to go through a lengthy process.
    • The cost of this option is a bit higher than I'd like. I think Verizon is a little too proud of a product that every company is now starting to offer.
    • There is a free version with limited space, so at least trying it out to see how it will fit with your needs isn't much of a risk.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN, RESPONSIVE SHAREPOINT DISCUSSION BOARD
Discussion Forums can be created for a variety of different reasons. This example is a Forum Group for the Microsoft 365 technologies such as Teams, Planner, and SharePoint. Forums are then created within the Forum Groups for more specific discussions. Under the SharePoint Forum Group, there is a Forum for SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online. Anyone looking to ask a question regarding SharePoint 2019 for example would be able to post their question under SharePoint On-Premises rather than SharePoint Online. This also allows subject matter experts to focus more on the questions that they can respond to and provide value.Screenshot of SHAREPOINT DISCUSS BOARD – TOPICS VIEW
When navigating into a forum, the topics and discussions that are taking place are shown. Any new topics that not yet read will be highlighted. It also displays whether topics have been answered, their average ratings, how many views and posts are within the topic, and also provides the ability to subscribe to the forum to be notified of new posts within it.Screenshot of READING DISCUSSIONS AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Social Squared offers a threaded discussion view with the ability to provide feedback to other users.

Posts can be rated, voted upon, or liked by users in order to give feedback to the user creating or responding to a post. Additionally, replies can be marked as answered or marked as featured, which gives readers of forums assurance that the response they are reading is validated to be the correct answer.

Users also receive feedback through the earning of badges. The more users post or mark posts as answered, the more points are rewarded. This makes it easy to spot subject matter experts.Screenshot of SUGGESTED TAGS
Social Squared provides a rich text editor for creating and replying to topics. The Rich Text toolbar provides functionality such as inserting images, YouTube videos, Stream Videos, Formatted Code Inserts, as well as font formatting.

While typing, suggestions on how to tag a post appear. Selecting an existing tag will provide consistency in the tags used making it easier for other users to discover the post.Screenshot of SOCIAL SQUARED TAG CLOUD VIEW
The Social Squared Tag Cloud view makes it easy to navigate to posts within a specific category even if they span multiple forums. The more a tag appears in different posts, the more prominent it will be in the tag cloud. Users can navigate to posts with the tag in one click.Screenshot of DISCUSSION BOARD WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS TAB
Social Squared is a Discussion Board App for Microsoft Teams Tab’s and Microsoft Teams Personal Apps. Social Squared provides information workers the ability to post questions within relevant forums, and receive answers from their team. The Discussion Board layout for posts makes it easier to find answers to questions that may have already been asked before. Through features such as “Mark as Answered”, “Forum Moderation”, “Post Rating”, “Post Likes”, “Post Voting”, users will be assured that the answers they are reading are validated.