What's the best communication app for remotely working team?

At Response IT, we are mainly a Microsoft shop, but that doesn’t mean we won’t look around to see what’s on the market and what could be better for our clients.

So you have a new remote workforce. They used to be able to go up to one another in the office to ask questions, how do they perform the same actions working for a different location? What tasks should the app be able to do?

  1. Chat functionality - Great to communicate with someone instantly instead of waiting for back and forth emails. Also great to leave people messages who are busy and checking their availability. Also group chats good for teamwork

  2. Audio and Video - Great for Stand up meetings at the start and during the working day so everyone knows who is doing what and answering any questions

  3. External Communication - Speaking with people outside your organization

Microsoft Teams

This is bundled into the Office 365 suit for free so that an immediate advantage. Team Chat/Audio and Video is a tiny part of Teams there is strong integration into Sharepoint for File Collaboration as well as Outlook for Meeting Functionality.

Another big one is Teams can be your Phone System as well means your Chat/Phone System/Video Conferencing unit is a single program on any of your devices.

Microsoft built this tool to match all its internal 365 compliance in regards to Archiving & Retention and Attendance Management

Zoom

Zoom have built their system from the ground up for useability. Ease of use was a big part of their design and it shows that anyone no matter what skillset can join a meeting. It Just Works!

Larger calls I think work better on Zoom than Teams. Any number over 4 and the quiet people of the meeting disappear from the group Dashboard, Zoom all attendees appear

The ability to integrate into old video conference units (sip/h.323 room systems) for SIP and IP with the CRC Connector is a massive plus. Means, unlike teams you don’t need to pay for a third party bridging service.

They also have heavy Integration with third parties like slack if you already use Slack internally as a messaging system it works well, they even have integrations to Microsoft Apps!

Webex

Unlike Microsoft Teams, where there is a single app to call external number, Webex has a separate app called WebEx calling for this which means there is more ground for error and usability. There is WebEx Meeting for meetings and WebEx Teams for Chat.

Webex is nearly double the price of Teams and does not have free service.

Webex has a strong range of Room Systems and Cisco created hardware that fully integrates into Webex Meetings offering a Seamless Solution. Webex Meeting also offers a bridge service to other devices and platforms.

Each product has its unique advantages depending on what you want to use it for. Enterprise would be utilizing WebEx due to its Cisco Device range of Phone HandSets and Video Conferencing units

A Company with Office 365 it would make sense to use Teams!

Other Companies who need to call people who have email hosted outside of Office 365 it would make sense to use Zoom , especially if they need to connect to a (sip/h.323 room system) via Software