LotusLive Meetings has one of the most clear and easy to use conference call interfaces we tested. The reason they were not one of the higher ranking conference call services is because they lack some of the key interactive abilities that we are looking for. In addition to the lower ranking in interactive abilities we also docked their ranking in help and technical support because they were hard to contact.
With conference calling through LotusLive you can accommodate more participants into a single conference than other conference call services. The conference call service can hold 1999 participants in a single web conference. There is no time limit on the meeting, so you and your participants can get together for as long as it takes to accomplish your current tasks.
LotusLive makes it possible for conference call hosts and presenters to share documents fast and easily. The web conference program is capable of sharing an entire desktop with conference participants as well as transferring documents or files while still keeping the conference homepage on screen. Once something has been selected to share or transfer, participants will receive it in real time.
We were disappointed that LotusLive doesn’t provide a whiteboard feature. The web conferencing service allows users to write and draw on the background of their web conferencing window with a highlighter, but this feature definitely does not replace the tools and convenience a whiteboard provides. In addition to lacking the whiteboard feature, VoIP calling is only offered through Skype, which may be bothersome to some.
As we stated in the introduction, we feel that Lotus Live has one of the most well-designed conference calling interfaces that we have used. The top of the window is lined with icons and subtitles for the different functions and tools that they provide. It was very easy to differentiate the icons and to know which one would lead us to the tool we wanted. The right side of the page provides an area for video conferencing, virtual hand raising, chatting and a participant list. The interface is clean and organized, so it is easy to use and easy to locate the different features you are in need of.
To contact the help and technical support representative, LotusLive provides three options: phone, email or live chat. The first time we contacted them on the phone we hung up after 30 minutes of being on hold; the next few times we were connected to an operator within 10 to 15 minutes. The shortest amount of time we waited to speak to a representative was 12 minutes. Once we were connected to a representative we were able to receive answers to all of our queries regarding the service. The representatives were pleasant and patient in answering all the questions we had.
We believe that this program is still one of the top conference call services despite the missing features. LotusLive is well-designed and provides a great deal of quality so you can be assured your web conference is in good hands. Their customer service is not as impressive and needs to be improved in order for them to rank better. Nonetheless, this is still a viable option for conducting a conference call.
