Nifty vs. Polycom RealPresence Group Series

I've found myself recommending Nifty to other business owners as well as for personal use. I've personally found it to be invaluable when it comes to:

• Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly recurring tasks
• Creating templates for company processes such as new product creation, marketing strategy, on-boarding, quarterly goals, content management
• Having forms zapped into a new task from multiple locations ensuring they're never overlooked
• Having clear milestones and timelines for projects
• Communicating on projects, tasks, and just in general
• Assigning different components of projects to different people
• Creating prior requirements that must be completed before completing the task

Incentivized

If you're always working in the Polycom ecosystem then the Group Series codecs are reliable and the quality of the camera and microphones are extremely good. However, the system relies heavily on either having onsite server technology and/or cloud based bridging capability. In addition, the peripherals like cameras and microphones are quite expensive. Maintenance and support costs also make the ongoing investment a costly one

Incentivized

• An overview of project timelines and milestones.
• One-on-one or group conversations.
• Tracking the status of projects and tasks.

Incentivized

• The audio and video quality can not be matched.
• For the most part, they are rather simplistic in their use and just work. People don't usually have a hard time operating them
• They are rather versatile in that we have been able to integrate them with other applications

Incentivized

• Time Expense could be improved since we cannot edit the previous/past time logs entered.
• Lacks expense management and Purchase order management functionality
• Newest product updates are not always stable and I had to reach Nifty's support team a couple of times in the past to fix the issues with new updates e.g. our document management and meeting integrations had to be re-authorized

Incentivized

• The only issue that we have experienced with Polycom RealPresence Group Series is the speed dial functionality. When attempting to use the speed dial buttons, the system occasionally sends a call through the computer system, not the phone. While the computer call option is valuable, not everyone can answer calls that way and we have had to do a manual lookup of an extension and call back when that happens.

Incentivized

We love the product and is totally integrated in our company.

Incentivized

The directory is slightly dated and unless you have a Skype for Business integration license, dialing users into a call is difficult. The Group Series Remote whilst minimalistic is actually more difficult to use than the previous HDX remote. Having to recharge the battery on the group series remote is both annoying and difficult as if you do not keep on top of it, you will be faced with a situation where the remote is not working and then have to try and find another one. Not ideal if you need to start a video call (assuming auto join has not been enabled in the admin portal).

Incentivized

I can't say I've needed support more than a handful of times. One was for trying to connect a Polycom Conference phone and a Real Presence together. After a few months, we came to the conclusion it wasn't possible, that was the only frustrating occurance with support. Any other time if we needed to RMA a device, it was very smooth.

Incentivized

There's no comparison. Nifty does what all of these do all in one place (with the exception of Slack's community aspect with hashtagging - not sure if Nifty can do this, never tried) Nifty even has the ability to import directly from many other platforms - I've personally imported projects from Trello and Asana, saving tons of time in migration.

Incentivized

Our Polycom RealPresence Group Series unit replaced a Cisco Room Series that was mounted to a mobile cart. The cart had one smaller display and the speakers\microphone at the cart. This required staff to be very close to the cart to hear and speak during the meeting. No fault of Cisco but the cart was not sufficient for the space. Polycom RealPresence Group Series was less costly when we were planning out the room.

Incentivized

• Consistent communications.
• Staying on project schedule.
• Aligned projects with business strategies.

Incentivized

• Once pexip integrates Polycom/skype this will be a big win for us due to the RPTouch integrating the "one - touch join". This will increase adoption of video greatly.
• Before the Group series with peripherals was implemented the cost of a video room was twice what it is today. Massive win.
• Due to provisioning and automated firmware the IT involvement has been greatly reduced. No longer is there a need for manual changes to individual endpoints.

Incentivized