Going Virtual: Virtual Meetings and Training

Zoho Meeting is easy to set up and only requires a few steps before you begin your virtual meeting. After going to Zoho.com, the process to begin a meeting only requires entering a title, the start time, and the email address of your attendee(s).

Once the setup is complete, an email is sent to whomever has been invited. Included in the email is a hyperlink that leads to a website showing the host’s computer screen. A key feature to understand is that the attendees can only access this view when the meeting is scheduled to occur. They cannot access the host’s computer screen before or after the meeting.

Zoho Meeting is great for an on-the-fly meeting. For example, a host can quickly set up a meeting and invite one or more attendees after they have prepared their computer and the program. This feature is also nice if you want to add someone to a meeting who might have inadvertently been left off the attendee list.

As mentioned, Zoho is ideal for one-to-one meetings that are on-the-fly. Zoho is very simple to set up and the one-on-one meetings are free. This benefit is ideal for projects on which only two partners are working together, but in remote locations.

Another benefit of Zoho is that it has multiple ways to initiate a connection with attendees. These include email invitation where attendees receive a link; a web page initiation where attendees are provided a session ID; or through a session link URL that can be sent though Instant Messaging or Chat.

The chat box offered by Zoho can be used for a variety of purposes. It is typically used for questions, but can also be used if the attendee’s phone line has been disconnected and they want to alert the host. The chat box is interactive, so the host can easily respond to questions or comments within the same chat box. This feature is very similar to the well-known instant messaging.

Additionally, Zoho offers a variety of other services that can be integrated into Zoho Meeting. Other features include productivity and collaboration applications such as Zoho Docs, a document management tool, and Zoho Wiki, an online collaboration tool. There are also business applications such as Zoho Invoicing or Zoho Recruit.

Zoho is one of the simplest and lowest-cost options currently on the market for virtual meetings. It is ideal for last-minute, one-to-one meetings. The one-on-one meetings offered by Zoho are free; however, adding more people to a meeting adds some additional cost.

The security on this program is low. It should not be used for confidential or sensitive materials. You can set up a password in order to access your training but it is only behind the standard firewall; therefore, you would not want to discuss or share any confidential materials. The administrative and user skills required are both quite low. This means that administrators and users of the program only need to be comfortable surfing on the web to utilize Zoho.

One of the key drawbacks for Zoho is that the total number of participants for any meeting is limited to 25. Additionally, Zoho does not currently offer voice conferencing or session recording. These drawbacks are why Zoho is primarily recommended for on-the-fly meetings that are one-on-one.

Access the Zoho website here to explore further on your own.