Item: ReadyTalk (Discontinued)
Rating: 7
Author: Lisa Durant

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ReadyTalk across our entire organization, which spans across multiple countries. ReadyTalk is our primary means of hosting web and voice conferences. We use its screen sharing, voice conferencing, and recording capabilities along with its instant messaging to run "polls" during some of our meetings. We use ReadyTalk both on our individual computers and phones, including for our remote and work-from-home workers, as well as in our conferencing rooms. We even use it via mobile devices when necessary. We also have ReadyTalk integrated with our email and calendar tools (Outlook).

Pros and Cons

Merges multiple collaboration capabilities in one place: screen share, IM, and voice collaboration
Integrates with other products such as Outlook calendar
Provides reliable recording technology to capture communications/meetings

Buggy behavior especially for screen sharing; sometimes, screen sharing just stops working. We've often found this is because another instance of ReadyTalk is still running in the background and it failed to close entirely when we left the last meeting.
Unreliable softphone - we typically have to dial in from a cell or landline and cannot use the computer itself to connect to audio as it won't work.
Very slow at promoting co-presenters and can be buggy when trying to transition between people for screen sharing.

Return on Investment

Increased collaboration between all teams
Enhanced communication across time zones, states, and even countries; enables us to have an engaged distributed workforce
Enables us to have remote workers/work from home
Enables us to capture and record our communications and maintain these recordings so that they can be reused in trainings, etc.

Alternatives Considered

GoToMeeting, FoxDen, Skype for Business, Slack and GoToWebinar

ReadyTalk probably provides some of the easiest integration with physical phones. I really like that I only have to click a link in my invite and then can get ReadyTalk to dial my cell phone and launch screen sharing from one place versus other systems where I'm stuck having to either manually dial in or speak through just my computer. I do prefer something like GoToMeeting for large meetings/public webinars (GoToWebinar) because I always feel I have more control over the event with GTW than I would with ReadyTalk, which requires a lot of manual dialing to use its audio controls. I also like the ease of recording meetings from ReadyTalk versus something like Skype for Business.

Other Software Used

Slack, Skype for Business, Snagit, FoxDen

Likelihood to Recommend

ReadyTalk is best for small to mid-sized conferences (say 15 people or fewer). It combines IM, screen sharing, and voice conferencing and does allow you to record your conferences without the need for separate software. However, I have typically seen more buggy behavior for larger conferences - in particular, it can be difficult to really control noise feedback from people who have failed to mute their lines. That's not to say it is unusable for large conferences (we still use it for our huge all-hands conferences twice a year), but I believe there's also a maximum number of people our licensing allows. I wouldn't use it for, say, a public webinar. But, it's good for internal communications.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar	Unnecessarily complex

Easy Tasks

Sharing your screen
Launching a conference or joining a conference from a computer so that it dials your phone
Recording the conference

Difficult Tasks

Initial integration with Outlook
Trying to remember all of the audio commands
Muting individual users if they forget to go on mute

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - It works fairly well although I prefer to just use the ReadtTalk web interface via my phone's web browser. Mostly because I would have to sign in again to use the app while, if I click the link from my calendar on my phone and launch just the web page, I don't have to log in - it knows who I am and all the details I need to launch the correct meeting.

Usability

ReadyTalk is easy to use, but I did find the initial integration to Outlook a bit cumbersome. I couldn't tell you how to do it now - someone else had to walk me through it when I started at the company. We also have a lot of issues with people trying to use their computers for audio; often, it stops working entirely mid-meeting.

Decent Conferencing for a Distributed Workforce

Overall Satisfaction with GlobalMeet Collaboration