Improved collaboration costs have been reduced while daily stand-ups and events run more efficiently
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case for Zoom Workplace Business is that we are using it for daily stand-ups as we have agile teams in place, and they use it for daily stand-ups. Additionally, we have cross-team functionality, so we use it for cross-functional meetings, trainings, and town halls. These are some of the major use cases why we use Zoom Workplace Business.
The AI Companion has changed the way my team handles meetings and follow-ups by helping our organization get a proper view of what is going on in the meetings, even if we are not joining them. Even for those who are joining the daily stand-ups and are not focusing, they can get a summary, which helps us effectively get the details in a short manner. If we're talking about webinars, it helps us host large-scale events so that stakeholders, customers, or team members can collaborate effectively at those events. These are some major use cases why we use Zoom Workplace Business.
How has it helped my organization?
Zoom Workplace Business has positively impacted my organization as we have saved a lot of money because when we spend on employee growth or organizational collaborations, it has definitely reduced the number of resources needed. For example, if there were five teams joining the meetings from a different country, previously, we had to conduct physical meetings, which required international travel and incurred lots of expenditures. Now, it has provided us with virtual collaboration, reducing travel and office overhead by at least 70 to 80%. We have strong ROI due to lower hardware lock-in, flexible licensing, and consolidating meetings, phone, and events into a single platform, which has saved a lot on licensing and other costs. Productivity has been boosted by 33.5%, and the latency and video quality have improved by 22%.
I measured the productivity boost and the reduction in travel or overhead by noting that teams who were previously traveling to the office, even from different cities or countries, have significantly reduced overhead. This is the major way I have measured that point.
What is most valuable?
I feel Zoom Workplace Business handles those different types of meetings well because it comes with hybrid work collaboration via Zoom Rooms. It has that feature and also provides us the whiteboards and persistent team chat, which makes the stand-ups and meetings more productive and more focused on outcomes rather than just chit-chatting on the connect. It is something that has helped us increase the productivity and the collaboration of the team effectively using a single tool.
I have to add that Zoom Workplace Business has such good latency and works on cloud telephony integrated meetings and chat, which helps us in a single place app for calls, video, and messaging.
The best features Zoom Workplace Business offers include meetings with HD video, audio, and screen sharing capabilities along with some breakout room polls and AI Companion for summaries, which is very useful nowadays. The AI Companion provides a good summary, allowing you to see what happened in the meeting, even if you're not available at that time. Apart from that, Zoom also provides good calling and voicemail queue queries, which integrate with sub-devices, and webinar and Zoom Events for registration. It provides us large-scale virtual or hybrid events, making it a good place to host those events as the scalability is really good. Team Chat, Whiteboard, and Zoom Rooms are my other favorites for room-based collaboration and hybrid workplaces.
What needs improvement?
If I were to discuss how Zoom Workplace Business can be improved, I feel that it is providing good service overall; however, the scaling aspect could be enhanced. Even though it has great scalability, if they can make it even more scalable, it would be really good. Also, while the integration is good, with the growth of AI, advancing the AI part to enable other workflows within the application would be beneficial. Those are some observations from my part, but otherwise, I feel everything is all right.
I would love to see advanced AI integrations with major players such as Google and Amazon. Talking about scalability, Zoom Workplace Business is definitely a scalable solution, accommodating up to 1,000 people at once. However, when exceeding that number, the bandwidth may be disturbed and the latency may reduce; I have witnessed that issue occurring during large events, which is why I highlighted this part.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zoom Workplace Business for almost four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zoom Workplace Business is definitely a stable solution, and I have not faced any major challenges so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zoom Workplace Business is definitely a scalable solution, accommodating up to 1,000 people at once. However, when exceeding that number, the bandwidth may be disturbed and the latency may reduce; I have witnessed that issue occurring during large events, which is why I highlighted this part.
The scalability of Zoom Workplace Business is excellent, as it can support up to 1,000 users at a time without any problems. The latency is good, the bandwidth is good, and both upscaling and downscaling work really well, so I have not observed any major issues.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support has been really good; I contacted them around eight months back due to a challenge we were facing while setting up a big webinar for customers and stakeholders. They resolved the issue promptly.
I rate the customer support a 10 out of 10, as the total support provided was commendable, and we really enjoyed their assistance.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Webex by Cisco, but we felt that Zoom is providing a strong hardware and software ecosystem with enterprise-level features at a very good price. It also offers integrated calling and messaging systems, which is why we have chosen Zoom over Webex.
How was the initial setup?
Deploying Zoom Workplace Business in my environment is very easy; it does not require any technical solutions and is very user-friendly. It can be used easily by anyone, tech or non-tech, and can be scaled as needed.
My experience with the configuration process has been awesome, although the admin portal complexity for very large tenants and granular policies may be an issue. Apart from that, everything was good as it can handle a lot of load, and I really appreciate the default security profiles by industries. However, they could improve the guided admin workflows and better proactive monitoring for QoE scale.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment, as I shared already in the previous answers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The metering and billing experience was very good; they provide a free tier for up to 50 people for 40 minutes of group meetings. Since we use it from the AWS Marketplace, they helped us get proper licensing directly with plan flexibility and non-proprietary hardware, keeping the overall deployment cost competitive compared to a traditional room. They have given us good solutioning at a very genuine price, so I would definitely suggest someone looking for a good solution at a low price consider Zoom.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is as I have told you.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other options such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex by Cisco, and RingCentral.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Zoom Workplace Business is that anyone seeking a really good solution at a low-cost price to enhance team collaboration should consider this platform. It supports video calls, images, chatting, and more. Zoom is something you can trust. I have given this review a rating of 4 out of 5.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Unified meetings have simplified scheduling and recording has improved internal collaboration
What is our primary use case?
Zoom Workplace Business is used for internal and external meetings. A typical scenario involves integration into calendar invites so that when meeting with a customer or internal stakeholder, a Zoom link is available immediately.
Zoom Workplace Business is particularly handy when scheduling a meeting where people can choose their own time, as it still includes a link for the meeting to have a video call.
What is most valuable?
The best features Zoom Workplace Business offers include the recording function, which makes it easy to export the audio so that it can be shared elsewhere.
When using the recording function, the audio is typically shared internally, though it may happen externally from time to time if approved. The quality and ease of use are good.
It has always been easy to share screens or bring up a keynote that everyone can see very quickly when using Zoom Workplace Business.
Zoom Workplace Business has positively impacted the organization because by using the same solution, you always know that it is going to work. When people were using Slack, HipChat, Teams, or all of the other different varieties of options, it made it challenging to ensure that everyone was on the same page.
What needs improvement?
Zoom Workplace Business can be improved as the AI features have not been used very often, and it would be beneficial to see how they are utilized and the analysis that they can do.
It would be interesting if you could translate into multiple languages easily.
For how long have I used the solution?
Zoom Workplace Business has been used for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zoom Workplace Business is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There have never been any issues trying to use Zoom Workplace Business concurrently with hundreds of people, so it has been great in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Zoom Workplace Business has not been utilized.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Years ago, several different solutions were used before, but the reason for the change is uncertain. It was a good improvement to use Zoom Workplace Business only.
What was our ROI?
The general impression is that whenever you purchase something from the
AWS Marketplace, it is going to be a faster transaction that is more transparent, indicating a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing were not negotiated, so those details are uncertain.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The names of the other options that were evaluated before choosing Zoom Workplace Business have been forgotten as it has been so many years.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?