Conferencing is something businesses simply cannot do without. If you are considering purchase of conferencing solution then this brief guide should help you. It is not about brands but about features to look for in what should be the best conferencing solution for you. You can pick conferencing software based on power, performance and price or simply because it is a snap to set it up and use it.
Power
You cannot have wimpy software when you think of conferencing. It should be able to accommodate anywhere from 250 to even 1000 participants without breaking stride or faltering when presented with a huge load. Participants may be doing different things like talking with each other, some leave and rejoin. Others just listen. Some feel compelled to join in on an ongoing chat or butt in. The software simply lets everything proceed.
Performance
If you conduct a conference you will find that someone somewhere has a weak internet connection. Audio and video may make use of different codecs. Some people are sharing documents. A presentation is going on in the form of a video within a video. Some participants tend to talk loud while others can barely be heard. The software performs like a champ, equalizing and normalizing everything so you have jitter-free audio and no lapses in video. Ease of use also falls under performance. You cannot have kludgy software that needs a lot of fiddling and set up every time you want to initiate a conference or join it. Just log in with credentials and get going.
Price
Take a look at some of the best paid solutions for conferencing. You will find that rates vary. You may outright for the software. Others may be based on a per user cost. Proprietary systems cost a packet. Open source solutions like asterisk web conferencing solutions are more affordable since the platform is free and you pay for asterisk development. Then there are hosted, cloud based conferencing solutions. This should be the best provided it has power and performance to match. A simple signup gets you started. Large scale enterprises will love it and a small businessman will find it a boon.
You need hardware, no?
If a conferencing package requires you to install software and hardware then you are better off without it. You may afford it but not all participants can and that means some or all will be left out. Go for WebRTC included conferencing software. It does away with the need for dedicated hardware. Your mobile and desktop computers equipped with a browser are all you need. Anyone anywhere can be invited to join and he does not need to have software or install it. That is the solution you need for conferencing.
Security
It is all very well to use whatsapp or skype at a personal level but when you are discussing business matters you cannot be too careful about security.
The best conferencing solution for 2020 is one that probably has all or most of these features, backed by support.