Lingo is a telephony and VoIP software solution from Lingo.
$15
per month
Skype
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
Skype (the personal edition) is a free web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software. The free version includes audio and video Skype-to-Skype calls, ability to call mobile phones and landlines, paid international calling, and conference calling capabilities for up to 25 people.
Lingo is great for small to mid sized company working with big box retailers that want to manage EDI in a cost effective but also time efficient manner. If you are looking for complete automation and integration, or a highly developed interface this is not the EDI platofrm for you
Skype is well suited for quick calls back and forth, in both video and audio, among team members who have it already installed and who know how to use it. It is less well-suited when trying to do a presentation for somebody who does NOT have it installed or who lacks internet speed.
The instant chat function is great. Very straightforward, easy to use, easy to learn, no technical issues.
Video calls are pretty easy also, user friendly and a mostly stable connection with no issues.
Voice calls are easy also, eliminates the need for an external landline or the need to use your cell phone. Clear connections, not really any dropped calls.
Cost setup for each retail partner is steep. In this digital age, it seems like a rip off to have to pay for this service
ERP/Warehouse integration - it does not have the ability to integrate with our ERP setup currently.
Sometimes there are just one too many steps to submit documents - wish it automatically prompted to the next submission step to remember to get through all steps more easily and not get lost in submitting documents
This is really small, but I'd love to see the emoticons updated to emojis.
Make calling free like some other communications app providers.
Grant the ability to not show that you're online even when you are. Sometimes you want to make a call, but you don't want other people to see you're online and start messaging you.
Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.
I am not aware of the current support level for Skype for business, as I have never used even though I have the product. However, the support for Skype's personal paid users is not where it could be. Users who pay for Skype features do not have a clear path to reach out to support. So, rating 6, can be better as soon as I need to use Skype for business support and get a good experience. I will say that I will renew Skype for Business subscription, which is a significant inconsistency on my end. The explanation is that Skype for Business comes bundled with Office for Business, with no additional cost, so why not.
We used SPS for a brief time because our warehouse had the capability to integrate with this program. It was very expensive and the interface for manually processing was not user friendly or easy to navigate. The integration was going to be an additional large cost. Lingo, while it does not have the integration capabilities, was the lower cost and easier to use option. We could get things done quickly for a lower cost and easily teach our third party warehouse to help in the process.
Microsoft Teams provides basically the same services. Local number calling is not available (that I know of) but that only matters if you have any need to use it. Teams is a little more stable, especially with a lot of people on a call. Skype is easier to set up and to operate. Skype also has a larger install base.
It was user friendly so we could have our warehouse take over helping us process ASNs and take over steps on processing EDI orders for no additional cost- this has saved our admin time needed for these orders
We were able to add all our retailer partners with specific requirements without issue. It helps us stream the processing and save time/money on these orders where the margins are not always great and the rules complicated
Overall Skype is a good investment. We use regular Skype so its a product that comes with Windows PC's as a standard app. We dont use Skype for Business so this cuts cost overall.
Using the basic functions of Skype and not Skype for business does have some downsides but you do save money. There are many other apps we use as well as Skype in order to accomplish all of our goals.
The downside of course is that the more you want Skype to do, the more money it will cost the organization as a whole. It does have many more functions which you have to upgrade to Skype for business for. That is my only criticism.
