Do we need to Zoom?

Do we need to Zoom?

In our changing work environment and the new "normal" that COVID-19 has meant the Video Chat/Conferencing/Meeting App has become king.
Without a doubt, the coolest king on the block has become Zoom.
But does our business need Zoom, or do we already have what we need?

Firstly I am not against Zoom, I probably sit in 4-5 Zoom meetings or webinars a week right now. It's a stable and quality environment which offers some advantages over its competitors.
There are also some reported drawbacks, security lately has been forefront.

What I have noticed however is peoples tendency, particularly those who own or are in businesses who do not have dedicated IT, to want to use Zoom when in fact they have and are often paying for a product which does everything they need.

I am talking about any business or organisation with a Microsoft365 for Business or a Google GSuite for Business account.
Having these products gives you access to Microsoft Teams and Google's Chat and Meet.

Both have a different approach to how they do things, but essentially they all have Video and Voice Conferencing/Meeting, Text Chat, File Sharing and Screen Sharing, Calendar Integration and Presence.
Microsoft is pushing hard to win back the head start that Zoom got when the world started to change and Google is doing what Google does, being an advertising company first and a Software Company second or even third.
Google doesn't care how many people use Zoom, just how many find Zoom using a Google search and click on the Zoom link.

I see both products in Teams and Meet achieving everything Zoom does, but with a distinct advantage. Internally your contacts and your data (files) are already there and connected.
To invite someone to a quick meeting is "very" quick and sharing documents and entire folders of documents to work and collaborate on, is built into the overall environment. The added benefit of having constant visibility of when a co-worker is online or away or in another meeting is almost paramount to sitting next to them in the office.
This is where a product like Zoom begins to show what it is and what it isn't.

Yes, it's a great video conferencing platform, but it's not much more. Teams and Meet integrated into a much larger world of Office and GSuite is a better solution.

Meet and Teams can also invite and include guests from outside the organisation without any hassle but this is where Zoom may have an edge and may be competing in a slightly different market against other competitors such as Cisco WebEx, TeamViewer and GoToMeeting. The big-scale webinar, video conference where most of the attendees are from outside of your business.

My belief is this is where considerations such as security, collaboration and functionality of the environment come in. Typically Zoom and these other platforms will happily cater for the webinar where attendees sit and listen and only engage through chat or are used for a meeting of talking heads. Teams and Meet are designed around collaboration and communication. Creating that virtual office environment where you can see people, access everything in your business, have not only meetings but have general chat, ask questions and share ideas. Teams and Meet do more than put you in a meeting for an hour, it puts you in the office every day.

So before you Zoom off to talk to a work colleague, perhaps you should get with the Team and Meet a while.

Stay Healthy and Stay Home!

Neil

Do we need to Zoom?

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