By John Doyle, CTS-D and Steve Jabek, CTS-D, DMC-E 4K
Over the past two years, many video conferencing and collaboration tools have been riding the waves of a world pandemic storm. Now that the storm clouds appear to be parting, at least to some degree, it is clear the business landscape has been forever changed. Many organizations are looking to satisfy the demands of employees who have become accustomed to working from a distance. Whether the path forward is back to the traditional office space, fully remote, or a hybrid combination of the two, each approach will require some level of online meeting and collaboration capability. Rising above the tempest of the past two years are two applications that seem to have users facing off in two passionate camps: Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom. Both appear to be here to stay, but which one is best for your organization?
Since its inception in 2011, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) has been focused on developing and refining its “frictionless communications platform” to enable video and audio conferencing and collabortion for organizations of all sizes. The Zoom is praised by advocates for its many features and intuitive interface for end-users.
Zoom has demonstrated a commitment to improving its software offering, establishing a global footprint, and further developing partnerships with hardware companies to enable their solution.
Zoom has struggled re-establishing itself as a secure platform after the “Zoombombing” issues of 2020 but has made strides by implementing more advanced security features.
Its ease of use, intuitive interface, and video-centric approach has made Zoom an attractive choice for many adopters
The Microsoft Corporation develops software and products for a variety of uses while, at the same time, has a strong reputation among corporate IT clients for data and user security. Microsoft is also committed to developing Microsoft Teams (Teams) as their primary means of a platform for video and audio collaboration.
Microsoft has established partnerships with many of the hardware manufacturers in the audio visual market and Teams has been adopted by many organizations already entrenched in the Microsoft sphere.
Many users will find Zoom to be a more polished platform with a clean user interface. It is also arguably the most user-friendly virtual meeting and collaboration solution on the market today with exceptional online video quality and robust business features. As a company, Zoom is significantly smaller than Microsoft, offering clients the advantage of more direct contact with Zoom’s development team, which in turn provides Zoom with crucial and timely client feedback on its software. As a result, Zoom will likely continue to outpace Microsoft in user experience design and satisfaction.
Microsoft, however, does not require users to exit its platform to collaborate, giving it a distinct advantage over Zoom. The company’s forward-thinking approach to making Teams the “one-stop-shop” for all things collaborative has made video and audio calling just another piece of what they already do. Leveraging the search engine in Teams to look through the history of chat, channels, the Outlook Calendar, and other apps helps to streamline workflows.
Zoom has an uphill battle to attract the well-established and corporately engrained Microsoft user base. However, non-Microsoft users who have jumped on Zoom’s platform will continue to force Microsoft to accommodate the Zoom user base.
Sharing professional insights and knowledge, senior audio visual consultants John Doyle and Steve Jabek demonstrate their personal and professional investment in pursuing ESD’s mission to improve society through the built environment.
For more information on how to adapt technology to the post-COVID workplace, reach out to John or Steve.
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