Tag Archives: Webex Alternative

WebEx Alternatives Hit Mobile Video Conference Market

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Video conferencing is going mobile. It’s not surprising with video chat becoming a common work tool in an increasingly mobile workforce and with the popularity of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies. No wonder so many video conferencing upstarts are hoping to storm the competitive video conference market with mobile support for video collaboration.

Newcomer Zoom.us, started by talented Cisco WebEx leaders and engineers, recently released its business and education sector products. It’s especially proud of its ability to host up to 25 meeting participants on a mobile device including iOS and Android devices.

Another new business video conference tool emphasizing its iOS and Android support is Meet.FM. This WebEx look alike is web-based (so nothing to download) and was launched late last year by YouDazzle, a cloud collaboration and web meetings tool backed by Former Facebook VP of Growth and Mobile Chamath Palihapitiya and NetSuite cofounder Evan Goldberg.

Finally the recent launch of BlackBerry 10 highlighted several video chat and video conference options for Berry users.  The Blackberry Messenger app now has video chat and screen share. OoVoo’s 12-way video conference has now added Blackberry 10 to its list of ooVoo supported platforms including iOS and Android.  While not as impressive as ooVoo, FaceFlow with its 3-way mobile video calling also made it into the Blackberry 10 launch.

FaceTime, expect some stiff competition in the coming days!

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Will Zoom’s New Enterprise Video Conference Hurt Blue Jeans and Vidyo?

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zoom video conference for businessZoom.us, the hottest new video conferencing company, is revealing its paid UMX (Unified Meeting Experience) offering for businesses. Zoom previously raised $3M in angel funding. It has also just raised $6M in series A funding, from some of the biggest names such as Qualcomm Ventures, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, and Cisco WebEx co-founder Subrah Iyar! With this video conference startup Dream Team – super smart, experienced leaders, and very nice guys, too — Zoom is looking to do great things!

[See Zoom Company Profile here]

Initially a free consumer offering, Zoom received a great review from Walt Mossberg’s AllThingsD column for its clear 15-person group video and screen share.  Now Zoom is limiting free video to 1-on-1 calls as it focuses on entering the enterprise space and the education sector.

David Maldow from the Telepresence Options Human Productivity Lab recently reviewed the new features and gives Zoom a hearty thumbs up. Some of the finer points David points out include multi-screen desktops (so video can be displayed on one screen while screen share content is displayed on another panel) and unlimited video recording.

However, the biggest selling point for Zoom is its full featured mobile support.  It also can accommodate 40 participants in a video conference unlike WebEx Meetings which supports 9 or ooVoo which supports 12.

Vidyo and Blue Jeans out of the picture?

Zoom architecture still uses servers in the cloud to to stream video, like Vidyo and Blue Jeans – two startups that have raised tons of money. (VSee is peer-to-peer and only uses a server for http tunneling if peer-to-peer connection is not possible).

However, Zoom also has significantly higher video performance than either Vidyo or Blue Jeans. It is unclear how these two earlier hot startups will compete with Zoom.  A great advantage of Zoom is that it has a simple pricing — $9.99 for businesses and enterprises, $0.99 for education — unlike Vidyo’s complicated pricing model.

How does VSee compare with Zoom?

A key unknown is how much users care about security.  Zoom streams video to its servers, which have full access to your conversations.  VSee, on the other hand, uses end-to-end encryption where your conversation is always private, confidential, and off-the-record.

Another unknown is how simple the user design needs to be.  VSee has a simpler user experience compared to Zoom for creative team work, telemedicine, and telehealth. How much will people care about a few extra clicks?

The final unknown is the importance of global collaboration with people in developing countries where Internet speed is just not that great.  VSee requires significantly less bandwidth than Zoom making it the ideal tool in developing countries (Africa, Middle East, Latin America) where we have lots of users.

As for Zoom’s education focus, VSee not only offers free group video for anyone, it also gives all students free screen sharing as well.  Why pay for Zoom if you can get it free with VSee?

Please give VSee a try and tell us what you think! :)

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Young Entrepreneurs Love VSee!

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NUS iLEAD student entrepreneurs

Students from the National University of Singapore visit VSee – “V” for VSee!

Last week, a high spirited group of entrepreneuring students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) came to visit our office. As part of the NUS innovative Local Enterprise Achiever Development (iLEAD) program, they were on a trip to visit innovative companies around the world (like VSee) and be exposed to various startup cultures.

Milton, VSee CEO, shared with them how VSee was started and the thought processes that went into designing VSee to make it a simple and effective tool.

The students asked many insightful questions and gave us important feedback on our sign up process – overall a great session!  They were impressed with VSee’s simplicity for getting work done in comparison with Skype, Google+ Hangouts, and WebEx.  They were especially amused to learn that Google Venture’s chief designer wasn’t able to use Google Hangouts to do design work with his 100+ portfolio companies – since Google Hangouts is a great product, but not designed for creative people to get work done.

A second group of student entrepreneurs from China and Singapore also visited us on the same day as part of the Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance (YEA). YEA is an international non-profit organization established in 2009. It aims to promote entrepreneurship, leadership and business networking across different geographical districts worldwide.

One student, Lincoln, suggested we should take a group photo using the VSee video feed. This was the result!

YEA student entrepreneurs in a VSee call

A screen shot of YEA students in an HD VSee call

See how VSee is able to send 2 HD video streams for an immersive conference room experience.  VSee’s bandwidth requirements are so low, you can get 2 HD videos for the same bandwidth of a single HD video in Skype or Google Hangouts!

iLead student entrepreneurs pictured:

1 Chin Fushi Vanessa
2 Chng Yi An
3 Gregory Chew Bo Wen
4 Hong Chengfeng
5 Lau Xin Ling
6 Lee Mei Yi
7 Li Yilin
8 Naomi Tay Yi Lin
9 Ni Xiqin
10 Nicholas Ang Teck Choon
11 Nur Iman Izam Bin Othman
12 Paul Antonio
13 Quek Yuen Xian
14 Rahul Rajeev
15 Shambavi Krishnamurthi
16 Srinath Nalluri
17 Suvrata Mohapatra
18 Tang Weigang, Mark
19 Yang Kai Ting
20 Jacky Yap
21 Ritesh Angural
22 Joshua Lurdes Newman
23 Lee Tun Leng

YEA student entrepreneurs pictured:

1 Du Yijun
2 Ren RuiYun
3 Lai Laifeng
4 Royston
5 Liu Linkun
6 Jiang Haiyang
7 Zhai Lizhu
8 Swetha Narayanan
9 Shen Shen
10 Chen Deshun
11 Wang Runyu
12 Diao Jing Wen
13 Zhang Qi
14 Zhao Lingfeng
15 Liang Jiawei
16 Guo Chi
17 Wu Guoping
18 Song Yupeng
19 Luan Qi
20 Li Shuting
21 Lu Tianshu
22 Sheng Lu
23 Qian Chen
24 Alex Zuo Xiao

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OmniJoin? Nefsis? Brother, what’s going on?

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Brother OmniJoin Nefsis

Last December, when Brother purchased Nefsis, I thought it was a great outcome for Nefsis and a great move for Brother.  Nefsis had a very complex pricing structure and needed a huge distribution partner to push its complicated solution into enterprises.  Brother had a huge distribution base, with its long history in home and office products – especially its printers, typewriters, and sewing machines.  It made a lot of sense for Brother to push an enterprise collaboration product to its core customers.

June of this year, Brother launched OmniJoin web conferencing (a rebranding of Nefsis). What isn’t clear is how Brother plans to make OmniJoin a viable competitor in the web conferencing/unified communications space.  It doesn’t seem to be too much different from WebEx and GoTo Meeting, except in its pricing scheme, and it sports a pretty hefty price tag.

Despite a mostly glowing review of OmniJoin, No Jitter blog still expressed reservations about OmniJoin’s overburdened interface.  OmniJoin also currently lacks a Mac client and the ability to record.

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VSee empowers HR recruiting and training

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VSee is a robust online-based video tool that can be utilized in a number of applications. One of them is the field of human resource recruiting and training which I work on a fair bit. Thanks to the ease of creating and maintaining the video sessions, I find the combination of verbal and non-verbal interaction particularly helpful. This combination is difficult to manage with similar software products.

Evaluating Potential Employees

As one who is charged with the initial screening of applicants, the ability to arrange an online meeting saves me a great deal of time. All that is necessary is notifying the candidate of the time for the meeting, then log in when that time arrives. In a typical day, I can interview multiple candidates in less time than using traditional methods. My company benefits because there is no need to fly candidates in for an interview.

During the interview process, software Engineering candidates share their favorite IDE with me as I observe them working on some live programming exercises. Design candidates do the same with their Photoshop application. Not only do I get to observe their working style, I can also see their facial expressions and body language while they work. This often provides me with more feedback than verbal cues. This fuller range of interaction makes VSee an excellent Skype alternative thanks to the quality of the interaction.

Training Employees

I also find the product very helpful with when it comes to training. Since my role involves entry level training for new employees, the task of conducting sessions can be time consuming. Using this type of virtual environment makes it much easier to set up the process. I can distribute the training documents via a simple drag and drop to their VSee video screen. I can also pull in other remote co-workers anytime and introduce them to our newest team member. As a result, I can keep the new teammate set up as soon as he joins the company.

The Bottom Line Benefits

For me, VSee is much easier to set up and initiate a virtual meeting, since the interface is designed for users, and not technicians. This makes the product a viable WebEx alternative, since I can conduct with ease and first time attendees can quickly get the hang of how to participate in the meetings. It helps me get my HR work done quickly and effectively, making my experience as a user all the more productive.

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