A recent survey spearheaded by Spiceworks found that the vast majority of companies (92% of them, in fact) have deployed or are considering deploying multiple collaboration solutions. This makes sense. Employees should have various communication and collaboration options at their disposal. Sometimes a quick chat message will be sufficient, while at other times a phone call is the only thing that will work. You want your employees to have access to any and all means of communication as often as possible. But juggling multiple solutions with divergent infrastructures and separate subscription plans can get confusing and expensive.
According to the Spiceworks survey, the average IT pro is attempting to manage three providers. And what seems to have resulted are runaway budgets, as the same survey found that 56% of IT professionals do not know what they’re spending on subscriptions and licenses for collaboration solutions. That’s a troubling statistic. You should know how much you are paying for your communication technology.
It’s pretty clear that keeping tabs on multiple solutions with multiple subscriptions can too quickly get way out of hand. It doesn’t have to be this way, though. There are plenty of all-in-one options that keep conferencing, collaboration, chat and voice calling bundled into simple and intuitive packages, thereby eliminating IT headaches and budget concerns. Here are a few of our favorite remedies.
Powered by Videxio, Prime Call Cloud MeetMe offers video, audio and collaboration tools with monthly as well as annual pre-pay pricing options. And with universal browser access, anyone inside or outside your organization can connect on a PC, tablet or smartphone by clicking on a URL received in an IM, email or calendar invitation.
Crestron Unified Communications
Crestron’s all-in-one touchscreen is perfect for huddle rooms. It is a compact device packed with everything you’ll need: video, voice, interactive content sharing and chat. The touch screen also allows users to control lighting, climate and room scheduling. It truly is the Swiss army knife of small room solutions.
Cisco Spark is a versatile all-in-one solution for group collaboration. The Group Chat feature allows you to set up chat rooms for all of your teams and check in from all of your devices, while the Video Calling feature enables users to initiate an HD video call with one person or the entire team with a simple tap or click. When paired with the Cisco Spark Board, Spark becomes darn near undeniable, by giving users whiteboard and content sharing capabilities with maximum mobile access. Your teams will want for nothing.
Learn more about our subscription-based and cloud collaboration solutions and contact us if you have any questions about pricing or deployment. We will have one of our experts get back to as soon as possible.