LogMeIn announced a major revamp of its GoToMeeting collaboration platform. The new, modernized GoToMeeting platform promises an improved, video-first experience for users as well as better tools for IT administrators and management.
LogMeIn acquired GoToMeeting back in 2016 and became one of the largest providers for video and web conferencing on the market. In 2018, LogMeIn acquired Jive Communications to further strengthen its position in the unified communications market. Today, LogMeIn is launching a modernized version of its GoToMeeting platform, and it has a lot new to offer.
The New GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting platform overhaul has been a long time coming and we can finally explore what it has to offer. The new platform is the result of IT leaders replacing outdated communication tools with unified communication suites. According to Mark Strassman, SVP and GM of UCC at LogMeIn, the new platform is largely built based on users’ feedback. Users wanted to see a more user-friendly UI with advanced features and that’s exactly what they got.
“Built By Our Users, For Our Users” — Mark Strassman
However, end-users are not the only ones who can enjoy the updates. The platform is also introducing robust tools for upper management and administrators. With these updates, GoToMeeting promises to deliver a flawless experience from start to finish for both IT leaders and end-users alike.
Collaboration companies continue to improve and add more features, so let us take a closer look at what the new GoToMeeting platform has to offer.
New GoToMeeting Features
The new GoToMeeting platform is designed to improve the meeting experience from start to finish. It includes changes to pre-meeting, in-meeting, and post-meeting experience.
Pre-Meeting
Pre-meeting improvements introduce QOL changes aimed to speed-up the meeting process.
Using The Hub, users can now enjoy a streamlined experience with a single interface connecting all information related to meetings. The Hub introduces always-on communication via chat, simplified scheduling, personalized meeting rooms, diagnostics, and more. With improved scheduling, users can host multiple personal meetings with branding, enjoy upgrades to calendar plugins and integrations with Office365, GSuite, Outlook, Slack, and more.
GoToMeeting now offers faster join times, and according to the company, joining a meeting session is now 65% faster. Users also have the ability to choose how they join, whether it’s through the new GoToMeeting desktop/mobile apps or a download-free web conference software.
In-Meeting
Users can now enjoy a beautiful, video-first design that makes video meetings more pleasurable than ever. Everything is fully centered and users can easily access all meeting features without sacrificing any video experience. The new design is sleek and intuitive allowing for a much more user-friendly experience.
Source: GoToMeeting
Fresh audio enhancements allow GoToMeeting to stay reliable, even in low-bandwidth scenarios. There’s also the built-in design consistency across all devices, allowing users to maintain the complete experience regardless of what device they’re using to meet.
Additionally, GoToMeeting provides users with real-time note-taking tools. Users can use the built-in Smart Notes tool to take time-stamped, transcribed notes, which are then saved and can easily be shared after the meeting.
Post-Meeting
The post-meeting experience is now empowered by AI. GoToMeeting offers AI-powered transcription which eases up the post-meeting experience and opens up more time to participate in the actual meeting. The system will also automatically generate AI-based items and recommendations alongside what users create.
Source: GoToMeeting
The new video-to-slide feature automatically captures presentation slides that can be downloaded in a PDF format. Notes, transcripts, and videos can be easily viewed, downloaded, and shared by all meeting attendees.
For management and IT administrators, the new meeting diagnostic reports let admins monitor video and audio quality, as well as identify and troubleshoot any issues that may arise during the meeting. GoToRoom’s experience has also been updated to reflect the new changes and maintain consistency across multiple platforms and devices.
More Features, Better Pricing
In addition to adding new features and designs, LogMeIn also significantly reduced the price of the GoToMeeting platform. The new monthly fees for 150 and 250-participant licenses were almost cut in half, roughly matching the prices of competitors such as Zoom and Cisco Webex.
GoToMeeting initially gained attraction as an alternative to Cisco Webex, but anecdotally, customers started switching as new vendors appeared on the market. The new pricing model should help LetMeIn retain and acquire some of those customers. With competitive pricing and a powerful, feature-packed product, GoToMeeting solidifies its position on the market.
LogMeIn Continues to Advance
Team collaboration providers continue to improve their offerings and LogMeIn is the latest one to follow the trend. The brand new GoToMeeting platform is built to be fast, easy, and reliable for both the everyday user and administrators.
Ever since the acquisition of Jive, we expected LogMeIn to step up their game and they’ve surely delivered with the latest updates to the GoToMeeting platform. Following the latest announcement, it’ll be interesting to see what else LogMeIn has up their sleeves.
One thing is for sure — as the competition continues to grow, end-users will be the ones enjoying all the new features at affordable monthly rates.
