Remote working is definitely still a thing for a lot of UK businesses who are choosing for (all/part of) their team to not be based from a fixed office owned by the business. With remote working, any member of your team should be able to work from home, coffee shop or even across the world.
The concept is due to the advancements of technology where you can use different communications methods and software to do your job, that you do not have to be in the same building, office or even the same country as your colleagues. It also allows business to pull from a far greater pool of skilled people when the employees can work from where they are based. It has been hugely popular in America for many years but in Britain, it is a growing trend but not the norm although, attitudes towards remote working has greatly changed since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Everyone has heard of Zoom, which has risen in popularity exponentially since the pandemic. But is it the best tool for your business video conferencing needs? Let's find out.
Zoom - Video Conferencing Tool
The Benefits
- A free account which can faciliate a lot of requirements
- For paid accounts, the pricing is competitive
- Ease of installation and use
- Great video quality
The Flaws
- Questions surrounding security issues
Alternatives to Zoom
There are, of course, a lot of alternatives now on the market. And whilst Zoom ticks an awful lot of boxes, one thing to consider for your business video conferencing needs is the collaboration element of calls.
A Unified Communications (UC) tool which utilises all the great aspects of Zoom video calls, plus collaboration is definitely next level.
A tool we use in house is Microsoft Teams. Within one application, Microsoft Teams enables users to schedule video or audio meetings with a single person or a team. There is also the facility to organise webinars and large meetings with up to 10,000 participants.
Full integration with Microsoft 365 means that calls can be easily scheduled and invites shared among the business, while external guests can join from their web browser without downloading the application.
Microsoft Teams also provides the full range of features expected from a leading video conferencing software provider, including screen sharing and call recording, live captions, background blur technology, and chat functionalities.
Further reading on remote working
Unified Communications Tools
UC is a type of tool that creates a seamless communication method between customers, staff, suppliers and prospects. You can do audio and video group/individual calls with screen-sharing abilities, Instant messages, ability to annotate and share files, integrate with calendars and show availability status.Unified Communication tools are available on mobiles, too so it really doesn’t matter where you are, your business can communicate effectively. We recommend the following three unified communications tools; Horizon Collaborate, Mitel MiCollab and Wildix.
Zoom can be integrated within all of these tools via a plug-in if you want to keep Zoom but take advantage of the benefits of Unified Communications.