Today it’s more important than ever to adopt online meetings and to do that you need to invest in video conferencing or online meeting software. These software platforms provide the latest video, audio, and web conferencing capabilities, and include click-to-join connectivity from any device, generally with nothing to download — making it super easy.
This checklist will lead you through the steps needed to properly evaluate video conferencing and online meeting software.
Shortlist the problems you need the new online meeting software to solve.
- Are employees collaborating efficiently?
- Do your teams need an intelligent solution to increase productivity?
- Are employees having difficulty operating your existing solution? Is it too complex?
- Are your conference rooms underutilized?
- Are your existing meeting services or collaboration tools too fragmented?
- Do you need to save on travel costs?
- Do you want to better connect remote offices?
- What types of meetings do you need to support?
Ensure these needs are aligned with your business goals and budget.
- What collaboration issues are facing your industry?
- How do modern meetings fit within your organization?
- What meeting benefits will make the biggest difference for your organization?
Determine and prioritize IT infrastructure as well as room system requirements.
- Do you need to integrate other applications, such as Google Calendar or Slack, to share with users?
- Are all your room systems operating on the same service?
- Do you want to get more from your existing software or A/V equipment?
Identify platform management capabilities, usage analysis, and ROI reporting.
- How important is it to track usage and provide remote support?
- What metrics are important to you?
- Which meeting metrics do you currently measure?
- Are there metrics you want to measure, but can’t?
Identify existing processes that will be affected by the new software.
- Will existing employee collaboration practices need to be revamped?
- How will IT personnel be affected?
- How will this new platform affect sales team collaboration?
- How will company all-hands meetings or training sessions be affected?
Consider how these processes can be improved.
- Does your meetings provider assist with change management and offer ongoing platform support?
- How can you work with the provider to easily roll out a new solution to your end users?
Compare meetings solutions with your requirements and remove those that do not match.
- Does your proposed meetings provider have experience meeting your unique requirements?
Research similar business use cases for proof points.
- How are similar companies in your industry using meeting solutions?
- What types of meetings does your organization require?
- What’s their track record with companies in your industry?
Participate in product demonstrations and hands-on free trials.
- Have you evaluated all aspects of the solution thoroughly?
- Have your questions or concerns been addressed to your satisfaction?
