Introduction
The 21st century has seen an exponential increase in the number of users of video conferencing software. The unprecedented growth in usage resulted from millions of people working remotely resulting from the occurrence of the coronavirus pandemic. Owners of Spinner Media Inc. have decided to leverage the use of videoconferencing to cut productivity losses and reduce travel costs by using video conferencing software internally for collaboration and sales demonstration with customers externally. This paper is a comparison of Zoom and Cisco WebEx, which are two of the most popular and used apps that the company is considering.
Analysis and Cost Comparison
There are many factors to consider when comparing videoconferencing software, such as cost, features, and user experience. In this comparison of Zoom and WebEx, it is advisable to focus on their cost of use and the plans offered. Singh and Aswathi (2020) found that Zoom is the most popular video conferencing app having over 200 million daily users. Zoom offers a free Basic plan and a paid Pro plan. The Basic plan allows unlimited 1-on-1 meetings, 40 minutes of group meetings, and 100 participants. The Pro plan starts at $14.99/month/host and allows unlimited group meetings, meeting recordings, and up to 500 participants.
WebEx, developed by Cisco, offers a variety of pricing options depending on the features you need. It allows users to create secure virtual workplaces for short-term projects to solve long-term problems (Singh and Aswathi 2020). Singh and Aswathi (2020) found that WebEx is preferred by major companies because of its ability to integrate with third-party applications like OneDrive, Google Cloud, and Salesforce’s cloud, gives it a bit of edge over other contenders and it is most preferred by major companies. WebEx offers a free Basic plan and a paid plus plan. The Basic plan allows 40 minutes of group meetings and 100 participants. The plus plan starts at $13.50/month/host and allows unlimited group meetings, meeting recordings, and up to 200 participants.
The pie chart below represents the total cost to be incurred annually on the use of either Zoom (blue) or Cisco WebEx (orange) as per the spreadsheet attached.
Aside from the cost component, the owners of Spinner Media should take into account such factors as whether a recording of meetings is provided, length of meetings recorded, storage provided, bandwidth configuration, and conferencing abilities offered by either Zoom or WebEx. Examining both WebEx and Zoom reveals that they both offer a variety of features, including the ability to host meetings with up to 100 participants, screen sharing, chat, and recording. However, Zoom offers a few additional features that may be appealing to businesses, including the ability to schedule meetings in advance, password protection, and waiting rooms.
Recommendations
Therefore, it is now possible to conclude on video conferencing software that is the better value for the owners of Spinner Media. When comparing the cost of WebEx and Zoom, the owners need to consider the features that are important to their business and fit their current needs and one that addresses the issue of online cyber security. The integration of computing and communication has led to numerous vulnerabilities (Sun et al., 2018). If they need all the bells and whistles that Zoom has to offer, then it may be worth the slightly higher price tag attached. However, if the owners do not need all those extra features, WebEx may be the better option.
References
Singh, R., & Awasthi, S. (2020). Updated comparative analysis on video conferencing platforms-zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, WebEx Teams and Gotomeetings. EasyChair Preprint, 4026, 1-9.
Sun, C., Hahn, A., & Liu, C. (2018). Cyber security of a power grid: State-of-the-art. International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 99, 45-56.