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The year 2020 has certainly brought a huge number of changes with it. Many of these were caused directly by the worldwide pandemic with so many people in all walks of life having to social distance. This meant staying at home as opposed to going to work. Thanks to this, working remotely has become more mainstream, as the preference for homework has gained considerable support, even though people are returning to their workplaces at present. As of writing it's estimated that around 65% of all workers would prefer to work from home.
Probably one of the main reasons is that working from home is actually more productive. Allowing people to make use of their own time and to decide what's beneficial, and what's not, is always going to be the best option. One only has to consider how much time is wasted in, for example, an office environment, by many employees. The very same amount of work can be done within a much smaller time window, meaning that much of the 9 to 5 work time frame is wasted. So it’s no surprise people would prefer to spend this wasted time at home.
But working remotely is not all rainbows and unicorns.There are some considerable downsides, in spite of many of the benefits being put forward. One of the major issues for most people who are used to being around others during the working day, is this sense of isolation. This can lead to less than perfect situations when it comes to both mental health and work productivity. One of the issues which employers are trying to address is that of communication. Thanks to a number of conferencing apps, employees are able to keep in touch with each other in real time using their laptop video camera. So we thought it would be a good idea to have a look through the different conferencing software options that can be used to help remote teams remain in touch with each other.
Although video conferencing has become more mainstream now with many workers, you are probably not aware of the software that's being used. Basically it allows for both video and audio communication as if you were all situated in the same room. You can play versions of the software directly within your web browser or make use of others that are downloadable. Whatever format you decide to go with, you'll have no problem connecting your remote teams together.
Today nearly all video conferencing software will provide the user with much more than simply the basics of video calling. Many come with all sorts of advanced features meaning you can screen and share files, engage in team building activities, share presentations and much more. The video conferencing itself makes virtual communication easy, accessible and simple. In some ways, being both visual and audio, it helps address health and safety concerns of your individual team members. After all, feeling connected and being part of a team are all important aspects for maintaining good mental health.
Although it took the Covid-19 pandemic to help promote video conferencing software, we should point out that these programs have been around for eons. You'll find that all the best platforms are available as apps and are easy to set up, intuitive to use and more importantly very affordable. Below you'll find a list of our favourite video conferencing software options.
Zoom is probably the best known of all video conferencing platforms today. It provides a number of different online capabilities and is known for its Zoom meetings feature. If you're looking for an extremely efficient and effective way to connect two or more people, using both audio and video, then you can't go wrong with Zoom. The mobile app is also easy to use from your portable devices. It's cloud-based and does not require a user account.
The platform comes with a number of different pricing tiers which depend on your needs and wants. The most basic plan is absolutely free and this is ideal for small teams and users can host meetings up to 40 minutes long. On the other end of the scale, its Large Enterprise Plan will cost you $240 per year. Mind you, with this you can connect up to 500 different people from all parts of the world. It also comes with unlimited cloud storage.
Though it all looks great on paper, we should point out that the free plan from Zoom does have limitations. The main one being the 40 minutes cap on a meeting. So if you are using it, then everyone will have to be mindful of their time limit. Or constantly relaunch a new meeting. This latter solution means that the conference will be interrupted and this could affect the flow of the meeting. Obviously, if you're a business, then paying just $240 a year is small change. Although this may be costly for an individual, for a business enterprise it's worth every cent.
Sometime ago Google Meet was only available for its Enterprise customers. But today anyone with a Google account can use it. You'll find all sorts of advanced features here depending on whether you're a school or business or any other particular organisation. The most basic version of Google Meet is absolutely free, though we should point out its capabilities are very limited. There are other features available which might be useful to you including intelligent noise cancellation, breakout rooms and polls. These are available both for Enterprise and individual use for $8 per user per month.
The limitations with Google Meet are that it only supports meeting times of up to 1 hour. Just like Zoom, this limit can have detrimental effects especially if you are dealing with a team building activity, a complex meeting or any other in-depth discussion.
This is a cloud-based collaboration tool which is hosted on the cloud by Microsoft. The software itself can allow users to customise their backgrounds, record their meetings to the cloud and host virtual events. And of course, it includes a great video conferencing component. One of the great things about Microsoft Teams is that it is absolutely free for use. In fact, it comes bundled with other Microsoft 365 packages. Some users have complained about Microsoft Teams irritating file structure. All of your uploads will be sent directly into a root file channel which means that organising things elsewhere is, to put it mildly, very challenging. For larger teams navigation may be a problem
In some ways Skype is the granddaddy of all of these video conferencing apps, being first launched way back in 2003. Skype actually stands for “Sky Peer To peer.” Today the software allows teams to connect with voice, video, text or file sharing. As you're probably well aware, the conference software is capable of calling landlines and also cell phones. If you want to use the video conferencing feature then you'll find it's free and you don't even need to register the software. The Skype to Phone option will cost you around $3 per month. Skype For Business which was an option for business owners on the platform was merged into Microsoft Teams in 2021. It's still possible to host meetings of up to 100 people on Skype. But those who wish to share other capabilities will have no option but to sign up to Microsoft Teams.
