Ooma Office vs. Skype

We use Ooma Office for everyone in the company including mobile users. It has allowed us to eliminate the spam callers as well give our mobile and remote users the ability to make business calls - from any device, from anywhere, at any time - without having to worry about any long distance charges, or without giving up their personal telephone numbers (at home or cellular).

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Ease of IVR customization: Allows my business to adapt quickly to an ever-changing business economy
• Plug and Play application: I was up and running within minutes of opening the box with the equipment in it!
• Find Me, Follow Me for remote access: No matter where I go, I can bring the office with me.
• Simple, Straightforward Billing: I recognized savings from day 1; my monthly invoice stays the same every month!

• 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.

Incentivized

• Cell phone app could be a little easier to use.
• Ooma Desktop needs some tweaking to make it more user friendly.
• I would like my 800 number to be assigned to my personal mailbox vs. having to have its own extension.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

We have found it very easy to configure, manage, and expand our phone operations with Ooma Office. We needed a reliable phone network as this is the first means of communication for our customers - Ooma has made it a lot easier for us to manage. Their support is also available 24x7 so that's a huge plus.

I have given this rating as this need to give more than that as it's very helpful for us and makes our work more efficient and fast.

Their usability is a perfect fit for a small business. We can offer the same features a large company offer their customer at a much more affordable price. The ease of use of the system make it quick to set up and train staff with little time required.

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.

Incentivized

Ooma Office support is always available. I've never been on the phone with them for longer than 5 minutes. They are knowledgable, have great active listening skills, are able to make recommendations on how to make Ooma Office work even better for you, and wait times to speak with an agent are reasonable and typically less than 1 minute.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Have a plan in place before you start the implementation, open communication with the staff on the changes being made, prepare a reference guide on the system and how to navigate the new setup. Budget and allocate time for helping staff learn the new system. Consolidate and coordinate all the questions internally before reaching out to support.

It can be used on the phone via mobile application as well as on the desktop by logging in to the website. Easily installed and ready to use.

Incentivized

We went over to Ooma [Office] after having had Intermedia for several years. Intermedia was good, but they were due for an update on many of their systems, which they did after we left. With Ooma [Office], we have our hold music and other basic, easy to use options that fit well for our small business.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

The service provided is up to date, as discussed before buying.

• System made it one-stop shopping for fax lines and phones numbers and equipment which was convenient.
• It was a shock to see that $39.98 of service manages to result in about $18 of additional “fees” every month. Makes the service significantly less of a bargain than is advertised.

• 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.

Incentivized