Polycom RealPresence Group Series vs. Webex Meetings

While expensive, you can't compare the cost and time of people flying all over the globe to have in-person meetings when 95% of the time they can be done between a RealPresense.... even more so in today's post-pandemic world. You just get such a better video and audio experience than a Teams meeting. We were also able to connect our RealPresence to Teams so that you can join a meeting and choose whether to join it from your desk with Teams or from a conference room with a Real Presence. This solved 2 issues for us in that there's now a simple link on the Real Presence to join a meeting instead of making a direct phone call to another RP device, and for meetings with 1 or 2 people from a site, they can now join this meeting from their desk and free up the conference room for a large meeting.

Incentivized

The first reason is the ease of use and availability, which makes WebEx work for all. The quality of audio and video is adorable. As a business development associate, I must make an impression on the other side, and WebEx helps me make first impressions. A few features are complex for new users but can be resolved.

Incentivized

• Polycom are still a high-end videoconferencing manufacturer and it shows. The build quality is very high, with quality components provided. In the current environment where 'huddle-room' systems are taking over and are a mix of solutions from multiple manufacturers, you can tell the difference when you open the box and get dedicated hardware that is designed to work as a single package.
• The audio quality is very good. May sound like an odd thing to consider audio quality before video quality, but if the sound is poor, it doesn't matter how good the video is - you wont stay in the meeting.
• Great video from the dedicated cameras. The image quality is high and the camera is silent when it moves to presets.

Incentivized

• We have a global and diverse team with different devices and operating systems. Webex works smoothly on all of them and everyone can collaborate in real-time saving a lot of time and effort, making meetings much more productive.
• We can easily capture discussion points and decisions for future reference, without the need for manual note-taking. It helps us in smaller group discussions and brainstorming sessions within the main meeting itself.
• I can even tailor the layout to suit the meeting's purpose and agenda. Webex is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for non-technical users, joining and scheduling meetings is a smooth process.

Incentivized

• Install was a bit fast with a tech that was not the best, this lead to a round of support issues, fixes, and training.
• Much of the internal learning was on our own with trial and error, and the Outlook integration was not really 100% (abandoned that as users could not understand and remember the shortcomings when meetings changed. Moved to reservation-less.
• Stability was better after a major upgrade(only 1 year old) and a better Polycom tech.

Incentivized

• At times, the meeting audio/video can get glitchy if there are a lot of attendees online and using bandwidth.
• Sometimes, it is hard for my prospects to join the meeting without downloading software or can't get the audio to work for some reason.
• Hard to navigate attendees while presenting yourself.

Incentivized

We love the product and is totally integrated in our company.

Incentivized

Webex is going in a direction which is going to make it incompatible with how we use it. They're more interested in developing the gimmicky AI features and leaving behind the core ability to share documents and allow participants to annotate and save annotated shared documents and other features that were what made it the best choice for classrooms.

Incentivized

The directory is slightly dated and unless you have a Skype for Business integration license, dialing users into a call is difficult. The Group Series Remote whilst minimalistic is actually more difficult to use than the previous HDX remote. Having to recharge the battery on the group series remote is both annoying and difficult as if you do not keep on top of it, you will be faced with a situation where the remote is not working and then have to try and find another one. Not ideal if you need to start a video call (assuming auto join has not been enabled in the admin portal).

Incentivized

Webex Meetings does not provide enough audio feedback for users with visual disabilities to properly navigate the tool. Students, faculty, and staff who are blind or have low vision may not be able to use Webex Meetings. Users with motor disabilities that navigate via keyboard, may not be able to navigate the web conferencing session enough to participate fully.

Incentivized

So personally I have never faced any kind of meeting unavailability issue while scandaling meeting with WebEx the bandwidth is really good and in terms of application performance the same is my opinion what I mentioned for availability it is good and the objective of communication is quite fruitfully achieved with a simple and effective product like WebEx which is often bundled with the purchase of course which is which we have at our company and great discount is being offered so it is easy on our pocket. I really don't have any specific errors which have faced I should mention over here the operation or application uses is quite smooth.

Incentivized

We use browsers to join Webex Meetings and it is very good no issue also appears from Webex APP is very organized and does not consume more resources of PC so no issues appeared. We join audio and video in many ways, all of which are good. We integrated it with active Microsoft Exchange with easy deployment.

I can't say I've needed support more than a handful of times. One was for trying to connect a Polycom Conference phone and a Real Presence together. After a few months, we came to the conclusion it wasn't possible, that was the only frustrating occurance with support. Any other time if we needed to RMA a device, it was very smooth.

Incentivized

The support cases can be opened instantly. The support engineers can support you via Telephone, E-Mail, WebEx Meetings, and My favorite WebEx application.24X7 Availability of the engineers. Step-by-step guidance is available by an engineer. https://help.webex.com/ - Great Site for instant FAQ's. https://status.webex.com/ - Is helpful to identify the updated schedule of WebEx or to know the server status of WebEx services.

Incentivized

In-person training offers the benefit of personalized instruction. Users have the chance to ask specific questions and work through any challenges directly with an instructor. This hands-on learning style can be incredibly valuable for those who learn better through interaction. With in-person training, participants can receive instant feedback and troubleshooting assistance for any technical issues they encounter during the session. This makes it easier to resolve issues on the spot rather than waiting for online support.

Incentivized

It was very interactive and well explained. The trainor is very much knowledgeable of the product. He was able to answer all of our inquiries in a timely and professional manner. There were lots of exercises done during the duration of the training to ensure that we have a better view on what to expect from the product.

Incentivized

That we needed complex implementation that we didn't get tells me 2 things: 1) the product was not designed in a way that "just worked" like some of its peers (Zoom / BlueJeans) and 2) had our company defined actual user needs and validated / verified that they had bought something that matched those, we would have pursued features / designs more closely aligned with what the product actually does: screen share, sometimes video, definitely VOIP audio (always an option regardless of license), and easy recording and retrieval of meetings.

Incentivized

Polycom Group Series was very good for what it used to do for its time, however newer technology that provides a more simpler method to configure, join and host video conference meetings has come in the form of Zoom and [Microsoft] Teams which is hard to go back from and therefore means the Polycom codecs of yesteryear are rapidly becoming phased out. The Polycom Trio is a more forward thinking technology which can be configured for the likes of Teams, Zoom and Zoom Phone and with the Poly Studio X range of codecs, this is ultimately the way forward.

Incentivized

The ability to transfer multimedia files directly into the platform and a very robust free plan helped me make the decision to try out Webex Meetings. Easy to set up in a company environment and accessible once the learning curve and sign up process are complete. In-platform web navigating is also a nice feature when onboarding new staff or doing market research.

Incentivized

I can speak to multiple departments at my organization using Webex Meetings. It has been, and continues to be, our longest online meeting software. It has been deployed across the organization and each department uses it. As I have mentioned, our monthly all-organization Town Halls are hosted on Webex. We have also used it to broadcast a panel-based speaker event.

Incentivized

• We have been able to increase productivity by spending less time navigating through a phone directory to call someone, and to find out if and when they are available.
• We can determine if someone is available through the notifications on the phone screen itself or use the instant messaging function, which are both linked to our Outlook calendars.
• We are able to more quickly connect our students to resources and other professionals on campus by being able to anticipate who is available to meet with them or speak with them over the phone, before even having to make a call.

Incentivized

• Our clients and teams like the solution and have been using it for years.
• Tiered pricing could improve the cost for SMBs, but the ROI is still great for what we use Webex for.
• The install base using the product and its features saves us money in not using other solutions that are not as flexible, saving us money in annual license fees.
• From a global meeting and conference perspective, no significant issues cause scheduling and participation problems.
• We can grow usage of tool and not break the budget.
• Team leadership finds it cost effective, but can be improved.

Incentivized