Undoubtedly, online meeting software gained immense popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual meetings offer numerous benefits even before the pandemic allowing people to communicate and collaborate quickly and conveniently. In recent years, remote work has become increasingly popular, prompting the use of virtual communication platforms. Furthermore, a remote job is now the most prominent flexible working option.
A virtual meeting is a fascinating technology in the world of communication. Most business organizations acknowledge that virtual meetings enhance the conferencing experience and improve productivity. Switching to virtual could give a meeting more dimension, reduce the possibility of isolation among remote employees, and promote organizational spirit. Therefore, when you try to avail those significant advantages, you must first select the best virtual meeting software for your organization.
If you have no idea how to choose the best online meeting software, the following tips can help you.
Does Online Meeting Software Matter for Your Business?
According to a report, business apps in Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store topped 62 million downloads worldwide during the third week of March 2020, with a 45% gain over the previous week and above 90% growth in the weekly average number of downloads in 2019. Since the Covid-19 pandemic persists, selecting the same tools as people and organizations utilize digital communication technologies is essential. However, every organization has different requirements, and every software is designed for different purposes.
Picking the best online meeting software with specific features that will fulfill your organization’s needs has always been difficult. Before making a decision, you need to consider some critical criteria.
Software with many functionalities could be wrong, while a freeware platform may not have all the features you want. So, making the right decision always matters for your business organization and arranging productive virtual meetings for everyone.
How to Choose the Best Virtual Meeting Software: 5 Considering Aspects
Many business organizations have used virtual meeting software before the Covid-19 pandemic to arrange meetings. And most platforms also provided nearly similar features with the basic functionalities. However, virtual meeting software now includes more features to make the virtual meeting experience more effective, collaborative, and insightful. Before selecting a virtual meeting software, consider the following key aspects:
- Security and privacy: Everyone expects their virtual meeting software to be safe and all conversations to be protected. When selecting the software for your next meetings, look for security and privacy features. What are the initiatives that the software company has undertaken to safeguard your communications? Are the audiovisual streams encrypted to prevent others from eavesdropping? Can users completely control the privacy settings and limit access to meeting participants?
What’s your option for recording private meetings and archiving them in a secure location? You may be required to retrieve information addressed in a discussion later, and recorded sessions could assist you. However, those recordings could be a resource of confidential data that, if disclosed to a third party, can lead to trouble. Check for the virtual meeting software that allows privacy maintenance and meets compliance requirements recommended by privacy advocates.
- Meeting capacity: When the Covid-19 pandemic started, video conferencing apps gained rapid growth and popularity for arranging virtual meetings. According to a report, video conferencing apps were downloaded from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to a record volume of 58 million downloads in March 2020, 23 times more than in January 2020.
The instances of virtual meetings are also increasing. For example, Zoom users attended 10 million daily meetings in December 2019, while by April 2020, that figure had soared to more than 300 million. Other platforms saw a substantial rise in daily meeting participants as well. Besides that, Gartner estimates that only 25% of corporate meetings will occur face-to-face by 2024, implying that the use of virtual meetings will indeed persist after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The organization you are running now may be a small one with a limited workforce. But it may grow, and you may need to interact with more clients and stakeholders. Hence, choosing a virtual meeting software that can accommodate meetings of all sizes with numerous participants is essential.
- Collaboration tools: In the fast-moving digital world, the flexibility to organize or attend a virtual meeting with just a few clicks is convenient. Yet, there are instances when you require more than simply a face-to-face interaction in a virtual meeting. Besides great video and audio clarity, it’s essential to check out virtual meeting software for features that make your meetings more productive and efficient.
You and your meeting participants may need to share files and screens in a virtual meeting to add more insight to a discussion. You may also need to navigate another window to write a business email while talking with a colleague. For more clarity, meeting participants may be required to send text messages or responses in an online poll. Virtual meeting software includes sophisticated features such as advanced AI tools that automatically take notes from voice commands. So, search for virtual meeting software that comes with collaboration tools.
- Engagement tools: When you are going to organize a productive virtual meeting, you require software that offers a variety of engagement features. Indeed, a virtual meeting isn’t always a one-way conversation between the organizer and the participants. Everybody can share their opinions across the panel with built-in engagement tools. Such tools would be helpful when organizing a virtual meeting to get views from participants. Regarding brainstorming discussions, productive engagement tools are essential to encourage an open conversation among the meeting participants. Polls and questionnaires can instantly collect participants’ opinions on various topics. Participants can easily communicate with others during the meeting or draw attention to organizers with the texting tool. Incorporating a whiteboard tool allows everyone to plan out innovative ideas and share creative thoughts. Furthermore, a virtual background tool can protect privacy while the video is on. Engagement tools within virtual meeting software facilitate effective communication and increased productivity.
- Convenience of Use: Remember, even the best virtual meeting software won’t significantly benefit your organization unless the software is convenient to use for everyone. The meeting software should be easy to use, with the option to organize and attend a meeting with a few clicks and without downloading and installing any additional software.
Besides that, picking the convenient virtual meeting software that works with the existing technologies in your organization will make the adoption much smoother. Once your team learns that organizing or joining a meeting is as simple as clicking a button, they will be willing to benefit from the new virtual meeting software.
Since the world is shifting to a hybrid workspace and people are working from remote locations, choosing the right virtual meeting software for the organization is essential. It’s important to have a solution that is convenient to use while also secure enough to protect the privacy of organizational correspondence. Besides considering only a virtual meeting software’s video and audio performance, remember the importance of additional features like recording, collaboration, engagement tools, etc.
Additional Aspects to Consider in Online Meeting Software
Here are some other essential aspects you need to look for in virtual meeting software-
- Intuitive Design: How difficult is the learning curve? Is the user experience pleasant or painful?
- Affordability: Is the pricing competitive with similar services on the market? Are there hidden fees or added maintenance costs?
- Flexibility: How many simultaneous participants do the service support? Is it easy to integrate with other software services? Can you share screens, files, and media? Does the software have valuable features that other video services lack?
- Excellent Customer Service: Does the company go above and beyond to help its customers? Is it easy to speak with a service representative?
- Dependability: Is the software reliable? Is the company transparent about setup and subscription fees?
Remember- choosing the best virtual meeting software depends on your unique needs. But the fact is- collaboration approaches are missing in all current platforms. Hopefully, this guide will help you find the right one.