With the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing continuing into summer of 2020, many businesses feel it is a necessary step to continue having their employees work from home. This change and demand in remote work has transformed the office structure, creating new, innovative working techniques to better fit home/ life balance and working strategies.
One major change is the way employees communicate with one another. No longer face-to-face, businesses have made the switch to using video conferencing, chats, email, etc. The top three platforms used to carry out these features are: Zoom, Microsoft, and Google.
But how do you know which one will work best for your business? To get an idea, Zoom, Google, and Microsoft offer many of the same benefits, but it is their differences that make one better than the other for your needs. Luckily, you can test out their free versions to gain a better understanding!
We have also provided a comparison of each below to help you make the best decision for your business:
Zoom
Overall, Zoom is a great place to start if you are looking for something quick. Zoom is easy to use and gives many of the basic features needed to communicate with others.
- Basic, free version allows for 100 participants and up to 40 minute meetings
- Pro version offers more administration controls like recording, customizing meeting ID’s, and analytics tools
- Business version allows 1,000 participants and includes all of the Pro version features
- Customizable video backgrounds
- Takes security seriously and offers fully encrypt meetings and has a waiting room and report user feature
Microsoft
If you need a tool for your business, we recommend using Microsoft Teams if you are already using Microsoft products. You can integrate Teams with your other Microsoft products, allowing for real-time collaboration. This means you can share Word, Excel, etc. documents with your team and synch the files with OneDrive or SharePoint. This can all be accessed through the same dashboard, along with calls and chats via Teams.
- Free version offers video, calls, chats, screensharing, and document collaboration, which can be accessed as a standalone product
- Office 365 subscriptions allow for Teams Live Events, which supports 250 participants and 10,000 viewers, along with scheduling capabilities and additional security features. You also can record your live events and get a full attendance report.
- Virtual backgrounds
- Texts can be shared with a group of up to 250
- Encrypted meetings and all documents shared on SharePoint and OneDrive are encrypted
Google Meet was originally made for those using the G Suite platform. However, with the change in remote work, Google Meet will now be available for anyone with a Gmail account.
- Free version offers meetings of up to 100 participants for up to 60 minutes
- Offers screenshare, recording, real-time captioning
- Can join directly from Google’s calendar app
- Smart blue background option
- Encrypted meetings