Overview and specs
At a certain point, teams and companies outgrow used consumer-grade solutions for conferencing online. Products like Skype, Hangouts, and Facetime aren't meant for heavy usage, and often balk once you get an hour into a conversation. This is where solutions for the enterprise have filled an important gap.
Citrix's GoToMeeting is a video conferencing client available on desktop and mobile, as well as some wearable devices. Adobe has their Connect service, and Microsoft has Lync Server 2013 (prices vary for both), but GoToMeeting's closest competitor is Cisco's WebEx solution, which is slightly more expensive, with a very similar set of features.
GoToMeeting is free for up to three attendees, $39/month (about £30/AU$55) billed annually for up to 25 attendees, and $56/month (about £40/AU$70) billed annually) for up to 100 attendees.
WebEx on the other hand has the same free-for-three offer, but costs $19 per month/annually (about £12/AU$23 $24 (about £15/AU$29) for eight users , $39 (about £25/AU$47 per month/annually for up to 25 users and $69 (about about £44/AU$83) per month/annually for up to 100 users.
For larger teams, Citrix offers GoToWebinar, which prices at $79/month (about £50/AU$95) billed annually for up to 100 attendees, $319/month (about £203/AU$382) billed annually for up to 500 attendees, and $399/month (about £254/AU$478) billed annually for up to 1000 attendees.
For interactive training for teams Citrix offers GoToTraining, which prices at $119/month (about £76/AU$143) billed annually for up to 25 attendees, and $279/month (about £178/AU$334) billed annually for up to 200 attendees.
Those price-structured packages are not only per month, but per organizer - the account that manages and schedules events. Attendees who don't need to make accounts or sign up are sent a link to join a meeting, which happens through either a web browser, the GoToMeeting client, or by calling in to a toll-free number. Of course, GoToMeeting allows for the call audio to go through its client, thanks to VoIP integration.
Cisco may have name recognition, but Citrix competes through feature parity and being better on your bottom line. With an in-app text chat room, screen sharing, and their always evolving labs features, Citrix, which acquired this platform in 2003, is continuing to adapt video conferencing to today's technology. Functional across a diverse array of devices, GoToMeeting is a solution very much worth considering.
Specs and features
Reviewing GoToMeeting, I was able to test the platform on a wide range of devices, a standard in the industry designed to leave no team member with an excuse for missing out. It didn't matter which web browser I used, GoToMeeting was built around Flash, and now supports HTML5. While the market for this solution is based around PCs in the enterprise, I was able to present and attend meetings from both my Macbook Pro and my iOS devices.
Also, it's available on Android including any Android smartwatches that support Android Wear. Of all the options, the PC is the best for presenting, thanks to the white-board presentation app Sightboard, as well as an ever-expanding set of Labs features.
Starting a meeting and sending out invitations was a quick and easy process thanks to integration with Outlook and Google Calendar. After starting a meeting with a single click, GoToMeeting gave me a simple invitation to send out. Up to six computers, including my own as the presenter, are allowed to stream from their webcams simultaneously.
Over the years, having sat through stuttering Google Hangouts meetings and Skype calls that repeatedly freeze and lose image quality, I have to credit GoToMeeting for making a very strong case for a paid solution. In one of my tests, I had an hour long conference on GoToMeeting that went by without any snags or drops in quality.
While I was impressed with the A/V quality, GoToMeeting lets me share my screen with the attendees. If someone I was working with wanted to share their content, I could pass the presenter baton to them, and if someone had an idea for a change they wanted to make, I was able to give them remote access to my mouse and keyboard.
I was also able to test out GoToMeet.Me, their new product for personal GoToMeeting rooms. I filled in simple forms to create my profile page with a distinct vanity URL, http://bit.ly/1vLuJ58. Then I was able to place that in my email signature, so that my correspondents have an easy way to jump into a meeting room with me.
When I used the iOS client, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could stay on a call even after having locked my screens, just like when you're on a speakerphone call. A necessary feature for someone in a meeting while on the move. Additionally, GoToMeeting's one of the first products I've found that supports the brand new Handoff protocol introduced this fall in iOS 8 & OS X Yosemite, which allows attendees on the go to easily transfer their attendance from their device to their desktop.
Issues and verdict
As great as the screen-sharing feature is, it suffered from an all-or-nothing problem. The only option available was to share my entire screen, which is optimized for presenting a Powerpoint deck (a primary use case for video conferencing). If you're using any other kind of file, though, that same dynamic integration is missing.
Without a way to integrate files, other than sharing one's screen, I had a problem with available screen-space. I was juggling the audience's video streams, the GoToMeeting control panel, and tmy screen's contents underneath all of that. Since you can reduce the size of your audience video streams and the powerpoint, it can be made to work, especially with a large monitor, but a more streamlined solution would make for a better experience. Therefore, a decent sized monitor is recommended for presenters who want to keep an eyes on their audience, as a laptop won't quite do it justice.
Even though GoToMeeting's iOS app works very well, and they support the latest Apple protocols, their Mac client looks outdated. From the button & menu design to the lack of a full-screen option, it feels very much like something from the earlier days of OS X. That's not a problem on the PC, though, where all of the user elements are collected and organized in one window, making it a much more coherent and organized experience.
We liked
To borrow a phrase, GoToMeeting just works, and that's a fantastic feature. If you've used consumer grade solutions like Skype, you know that this isn't the easiest thing to do. My test calls showed very clear video and audio, and remote access for the keyboard and mouse on my presenter's computer was seamless. The ability to rearrange, shrink, or enlarge all of the video streams, based on preference, is also a nice touch.
We disliked
Having optimized for the most standard uses (PCs and slide decks) the other uses aren't at that same level of quality. The design of the OS X app needs to be brought to the same modern standards seen on their iOS app. One would hope that future versions will integrate that look, as the two platforms continue to share design ideas. Citrix has informed us that an upcoming version will modernize the OS X client, but this modern interface wasn't available in the version that I tested.
Verdict
Those looking for a video conferencing solution can't really go wrong with GoToMeeting. It's feature-rich, cheaper than its competition, and works without a hiccup. The flexible options for collaborating work well, and if you have a PC, there are a wealth of interesting things going on in their Labs section. The user interface holdovers on the Mac give it a slight learning curve, but since the market is mostly on PCs, every competitor in the industry has left Mac users out in the cold when looking for a native solution for web conferencing.
from www.techradar.com
