6 Popular Collaboration Platforms for Your Office

For wireless presentation sharing. In this solution, the Enzo becomes an end point on the network that you log into from your computer or mobile device. Once you’ve connected, you work within the Enzo’s environment through web applications, meaning to can get access to a Dropbox account, web mail and a variety of other applications commonly used during meetings.

The Enzo solution fits a document sharing environment. By connecting a USB drive or accessing documents remotely, a user can present materials on the meeting-room display while participants can also gain access and have their personal devices mirror what’s happening on the screen.

A prime example of a hybrid solution. This system is designed to make it easier for participants in a meeting to share their information with the group on a large display or via projector. It doesn’t offer the ability for each user to manipulate or interact with content on any device other than their own, so if multiple people wanted to work on the same document, they couldn’t.

It does, however, support multiple devices being able to display simultaneously in the meeting room. In order to share information from a computer to the meeting-room screen, you need a USB dongle. That dongle has a button on it that allows you to click and share (hence the name) your screen with the meeting-room environment. For mobile app compatibility, there is also a more advanced system that will provide physically connected iPad capabilities.

A completely wireless presentation solution, with the ability for many people involved in a meeting to connect over a wireless network to the collaboration device. The moderator can pick and choose which local participants have the ability to share their content on the room’s display.

Up to four screens can be shared simultaneously, which can be beneficial, assuming your screen is large enough for all participants to see the content clearly and understand its purpose. This system also provides the ability for remote users to log in and view all the content being shared on the display in the meeting or classroom environment. Keep in mind, it’s a collaboration solution mainly for viewing and not interacting with content.

This wireless presentation solution offers connectivity for computers and mobile devices logging into a session over the wireless network or LAN. Users can share multiple screens simultaneously, with the exact number dependent on the number of available displays in the space. It also offers the ability for users to take control of the material on others’ devices.

This means the possibility of true collaboration because any user with permission can make changes or additions to a shared document. The system is reliant on network connectivity for all users because providing access to shared documents requires uploading them to a cloud.

While that might not seem like an issue in most instances, sometimes the simple ability to share materials simply, whether for presentation or collaboration, might be all the client wants. The Kramer solution does offer the sought-after ability to manipulate documents as a group, but keep in mind that in applications like Word, PowerPoint and Excel, there is still only one cursor to control. This means only one person at a time can do the actual editing.

This is a software solution that will run on a Windows-based computer. As opposed to purchasing a piece of hardware from a manufacturer, Solstice offers the ability to put the collaboration software on any device that is then connected to your network and a display.

Once this is configured and installed, the users will install the client software on to their devices, which will allow them to walk into any room where enabled displays are located, connect and begin to share documents on the display and collaborate with coworkers.

There is a variety of collaboration/conferencing solutions that offer users the ability to log in from anywhere in the world, interact with each other and present documents.

Some of the offerings include Acano, Cisco WebEx, Blue Jeans, Lifesize, Microsoft Skype for Business and Pexip. There are also popular applications like Adobe Connect, GoToMeeting, and now even Google Hangouts.

With these solutions, users log into an online environment — even if everyone is in the same room — to share documents or screens, videoconference, and more, depending on the platform. So they do a lot of what the room collaboration systems do, but with user well beyond the room itself. Could a client require both a room presentation/collaboration system and a web conferencing system? Sure.