New Office 365 Web Conferencing Services
Office 365 Web Conferencing Update
Lync Online is great, but one of the major features holding it back is that it has never been able to robustly support major WebEx style meeting services. At first look, this would seem like an obvious early feature given all the other nifty gizmos Microsoft stuck in Lync Online, not true. It wasn’t until long after the product release that it is now finally starting to attempt to compete with services such as Cisco WebEx.
Lync Online is doing this through a new offering that allows for direct dial in over a traditional phone line (your PSTN), as well as a number of new business class conferencing features. A comparison to WebEx is displayed below and more product details are available here: Lync Online Web Conferencing
How does it compare?
|
Feature Offering |
Microsoft Lync Online |
WebEx™ Connect |
WebEx™ Meeting Center |
|
IM/Presence |
|||
|
Multi-party IM and presence |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Address book search |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Distribution lists |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
File transfer (inside firewall) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
PC-to-PC audio/video (A/V) (inside firewall) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Office integration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
File transfer (outside firewall) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
PC-to-PC A/V (outside firewall) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Skill search in SharePoint |
Yes |
|
|
|
Conferencing |
|||
|
Audio, video and web conferencing – concurrent |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Escalation to online meeting from IM |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Desktop sharing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Application sharing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
PowerPoint® upload |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Whiteboard |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Annotations |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Sharing from Office applications |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Lobby |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Easy join from Outlook® reminder |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Client-side recording and playback |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Integration with 3rd party audio conferencing (InterCall Reservationless-Plus®) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
VoIP / PSTN integration |
Yes |
|
|
|
Dial-in / Call back |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Mute and unmute |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Invite by phone |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Recording (including PSTN/VoIP mix) |
Yes |
|
|
|
Lock/unlock |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Expel |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
End conference |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Client |
|||
|
Web client |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Mac Messenger |
Yes |
|
|
|
Federation |
|||
|
Presence integration with Exchange and SharePoint Online |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
IM, presence, A/V federation with on-premise and federated tenants |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Security |
|||
|
IM media encryption |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Server-side IM archiving |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Anti-virus scanning for file transfers and meeting content |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
128-bit SSL encryption |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IM / Chat |
|||
|
Standard and custom notifications |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Phone presence |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Control who views presence |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Blocked or do not disturb states |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Profile Management |
|||
|
Contact information |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Launch meeting or IM from Business Care |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Contact search |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Profile picture |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Administration |
|||
|
Centralized provisioning |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Add users |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Update users |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Deactivate/Reactivate Users |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Interface in multiple languages |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Video |
|||
|
Plug-and-play USB web cam |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ne click to launch |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
1:1 video |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Multi-way video |
Yes |
|
Yes |
More Info On: Lync Online Web Conferencing