Skype for Business was an online messaging and conferencing tool, now superseded by Microsoft Teams.
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Zoom Rooms
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Zoom's conference rooms that make it easy to run or join video meetings with a tap of a button. Zoom Rooms bring HD video collaboration into any space – in the office, in the classroom, or at home – and enables in-person and remote participants to interact in real time. The solution also makes it simple to start a meeting, book a room, and share content.
Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is just better for us since we were already a Microsoft productivity suite (Office) user. No additional cost when we went from traditional product license model to SaaS. Continuous integration and upgrades with MS 365 make it …
Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is a remote/virtual team collaboration tool must have...especially if you already use Microsoft tools. Of course, since it now part of an MS 365 subscription, it really doesn't make sense to use anything else. It is easy to use and just works. I'm not sure how anyone who works with digital files/documents and needs to work with other people doing similar work can be effective without such a tool. Of course, there are a number of alternatives like Zoom or Webex, but why pay or use another separate tool if you don't need to. :-)
User friendly, reliable and inclusive to remote audiences. The product grows organically for us which speaks for itself ; the business at sites we could not equip with our initial investments requests it. We have made the choice of Zoom rooms 5 years ago and it is still one our our star products supporting frictionless collaboration.
Instant messaging to anyone who we know only by name/email. Even if they're offline, they get the message in missed convos and a notification automatically goes to them via Outlook mail. All conversations are saved and accessible via Outlook.
Video and voice calls are a norm in the WFH scenario, and an average employee has around 4-5 calls a day. Skype gives notifications for upcoming meetings, allows easy scheduling via outlook calendar, and its audio/video quality [is] reasonably good compared to the amount of data it consumes.
Status availabilities - in the WFH scenario, you could be off for lunch, out of office, busy, sharing screens - and might not want to be disturbed. Skype allows you to do that, and in case you're off, ensures that you know that you have missed messages.
Screen sharing - we have to share screens at least once or twice a day with a coworker when working on some issues/features, and Skype easily lets us do that. One of the best things about Skype is that the screen can be shared without being on a video/voice call - which is of immense advantage because oftentimes, you could prefer sharing the screen, while it [is] too noisy to talk.
Connection issues can be hard to diagnose when they come up(as some knowledge of server information may be needed to reestablish as the connection troubleshooting options on the sky are not as user-friendly as the rest of the platform.
Some issues setting up camera/sound could use more info on troubleshooting options with playback sound, video, etc.
Statuses sometimes are unreliable and do not display correctly .
Support is prompt, but not always the most immediately knowledgable or helpful.
Admin portal is convoluted. There's gotta be a better way to assign scheduling permisissions.
Zoom account managers are constantly being reassigned. It is nearly impossible to keep track of who presently is our account manager. When we were going through the process of looking into Zoom Phone, our manager was literally switched twice, resulting in us working with three total managers during that two-month process.
The software is simple to install and configure. It is rather simple to explain for correct use. It is possible to profile users for the different functions offered. It is integrated quite completely with Outlook and with Active Directory security. It performs all communication functions well with one or more interlocutors and the possibility of granting control of your computer is convenient.
Very easy to use. Even though Microsoft Teams has a lot of features and integrations, as a user I feel completely comfortable on finding what I need, getting information about the app extensions and using them. It's a very comprehensive tool, intuitive design and does not make me feel tired to be using it. I am glad with the current experience.
User friendliness (experience very similar to the already familiar Zoom app), consistency of the UX across locations and manufacturers. Screen sharing is made super easy (proximity). Zoom rooms support strategic needs for Hybrid work and reduced travels. Backend admin interface is simple (that's good) and provides useful dashboards for trend analysis.
I have only had to reach out to the Support team at Skype for Business once with an issue, and I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the quickness and thoroughness of their response. The wait time was short and my question was dealt with politely and clearly, so I would say the support team has it together.
Skpe for business is utilized company wide in regards to my company. Everyone not only uses it, but uses it often. It is an effective way of communicating. It also integrates very nicely with outlook and all conversation history is pushed to a folder within the outlook system. We also have it so that if someone misses a message, they are sent an email reminder saying that there is a message that went unread.
For the below reason I will always choose this app over its competitors: Better audio and video quality, Little to no disconnections or freezing when on a call/video conference Integrates well with mailbox/ calendar/ one drive, and SharePoint is easy to use
I personally think Zoom Rooms is superior to Teams. I have setup 3 or 4 Zooms Rooms for my organisation and it is pretty straightforward to do without any formal training or education on Zoom Rooms. My experience with Teams was the opposite. A horrible interface and options deliberately hidden away in menus levels deep. On top of which, Zoom Room outperforms Teams Rooms in both video and audio. On the desktop, Teams is a bloated app whereas, in my experience, Zoom Rooms works well.
Skype for Business has enabled a migration in part away from fixed line telephony and introduced the user to mobile working with a headset which cannot be overstated as being a game changer.
Being able to schedule Skype for Business meetings through Outlook has meant meetings with colleagues without a meeting room has been a great enabler.
