WebEx Meeting Center is Cisco’s long-standing answer to modern business’ needs for an easy to use, fast, quality video conferencing app.
The ever-expanding power of the internet created the perfect environment for businesses to coordinate with both clients and employees located in different regions.
And when you’re trying to effectively communicate over the internet, video and accompanying features are essential to making the communication as natural as possible.
That’s where WebEx comes into play.
The well-regarded conferencing platform keeps getting better year after year and remains a top contender for best internet-meeting software.
But should you choose WebEx over any other platform?
Here’s our updated review to help you make the right choice for your business.
WebEx – The Basics
At its core, we love WebEx Meeting Center for its usability.
The platform is built from the ground up to ensure it combines an easy-to-use design with the features businesses expect.
Considering its long history (the platform debuted in 1996), it’s had plenty of time to work out the kinks.
Meeting Center is web-based, which means you’re doing everything from your browser.
That’s an enormous plus for people adverse to installing anything extra on their machines.
Plus, it keeps system resources free for other tasks and allows you to take a meeting away from your normal device.
Other WebEx features include:
Screen Sharing: WebEx allows you to share your screen in real-time with anyone actively engaged in your meeting. It’s perfect for giving hands-on demonstrations.
File Sharing: WebEx meeting center offers the relatively unique ability to not only share files for viewing but also for download.
Markup: Beyond sharing your screen, WebEx Meeting Center also allows for annotation and drawing across both your screen and files you’re sharing.
When you need to get your point across, markup is the answer.
Social Broadcasting: WebEx has joined the modern world and added Facebook Live integration.
Easily broadcast any meeting to social followers.
It’s perfect for coordinating large presentations without explaining WebEx Meeting Center.
Audio Options: Meeting attendees can participate using VoIP, their own phone line, or their internet connection and computer.
The versatility makes sure people without internet can still participate.
Screen Recording: While you’re sharing your screen and marking up documents you’ll have the ability to record an entire meeting and share it for download later on.
Never deal with a missed meeting again.
Third-party Invites: Meeting Center supports third-party integration with popular business tools.
For example, you can create and send out meeting invites directly from Microsoft Office.
Likewise, you can also initiate a conference from within the app.
The full-featured Meeting Center has the essential business needs covered, and throws in a few extras like file sharing, just for good measure.
Whats Exciting About WebEx Meeting
Mobile: The business world lives on mobile devices, and since our last review WebEx has changed to reflect that fact.
Mobile apps for iOS and Android allow you to host or join a meeting no matter where you are.
Calendar Scheduling: The platform offers calendar integration across your chosen calendar platform – Google, Outlook, Office 365, etc.
Your meetings automatically appear and remind you when they’re close.
Meetings at Scale: WebEx offers the ability to host meetings with hundreds of active participants and even more viewers.
We’re fans of the ability to share content with thousands at once; even if not everyone has access to markup and other features.
Full-Scale Integration: As we mentioned before, WebEx’s history gives it a huge leg up.
Plug-ins with third-party apps allow initiating meetings like mentioned above, while integration with other video apps, like Skype, let people join WebEx meetings through their platform of choice.
WebEx Cons: What We Don’t Like
While WebEx brings much to the table, we’re not sold on everything about the platform.
The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking into account what we think could change.
Our only real complaint about WebEx comes from its pricing tier model.
While it’s expected to pay for quality, the pricing tiers of WebEx work best for large businesses.
Any business serious about growing and really utilizing video conferencing needs to look at the Enterprise tier.
But the Enterprise tier doesn’t have a listed price and instead is case-by-case through the sales department.
Large businesses need the flexibility and custom-oriented nature of the Enterprise tier, though smaller businesses would do better to have a one-size-fits-all solution with the option to upgrade later.
Smaller companies are too big for the other tiers but don’t quite need Enterprise level solutions.
WebEx: Buy or Avoid?
On the whole, we recommend investing in WebEx software. The features are there, the video quality is top-notch, and the integration is all you can ask for. Plus, it’s easy to use and works in a web-based format.
All in all, we’re giving it the green light.
Though businesses are effectively forced into the Enterprise tier, your company can still negotiate what you actually need and set yourself up long-term growth without having to change much about the application.
Summed up: Yes, go with WebEx.
