When you think of online meetings and web-based conference calls, Skype for Business and/or GoToMeeting probably come to mind, but a few weeks ago Amazon Web Services (AWS) decided to get in the game with their new platform known as Chime. With their strong position as a leader in cloud computing, AWS is taking swings at the established players in this space as it strives to become the go to enterprise software for video calling, voice calling, chat and real-time screen sharing.
One of the main advantages of Chime is the fact that it was built from the ground up with mobile users in mind and is available on Windows, Mac, android and iOS. Unlike the legacy video conferencing programs, Chime allows users to seamlessly transition from one device to the next – this means you can start a web call from your desktop and then continue your call on your mobile device even though you’re leaving the office. Another great feature of Chime is their integrated chat feature, which not only allows meeting participants to talk to one another while the video conference is ongoing, but it also allows for easy file sharing between participants from within the platform. This helps eliminate the need for people to toggle between email and the meeting to try and share updated information, etc.
However, despite these benefits, AWS understands that they may have an uphill battle when it comes to getting businesses to switch from their current platform to Chime. To that end, AWS has teamed up with Level 3 Communications and Vonage to help promote their new offering in 2017. But we wouldn’t be surprised if this is just the start of a more broad-based roll out of enhanced business applications by Amazon, and we’re interested to see how the competition responds – especially since LogMeIn, the parent company to GoToMeeting, saw their stock fall more than 8.66% following Amazon’s announcement of Chime.