A very reliable person who works for one of the largest US brokerage firms, knowing that I have a position in Zoom, sent me the following:
Saul, You can take this for what it’s worth. My company sometimes has some fragmented technology and for video meetings and conference calls have been using some Zoom and some Edifire. Possibly others as well that I’m not aware of. My manager sent our team a message today saying that our old dial-in numbers for Edifire won’t work anymore because beginning next week we are going to use Zoom instead.
I have no idea why, whether that’s firm wide or what, but just thought I’d share that tidbit with you since I know you own some of their stock. I do not. Again no knowledge of the basis for their decision. Maybe they like it better, maybe they got a better deal, maybe they are just simplifying. All of the above or something else. Just don’t know so it’s hard to tell how significant it really is.
If it is company wide, it would really be a big deal for Zoom, as this is a big company.
If it is company wide, it would really be a big deal for Zoom, as this is a big company.
Saul, is there a way to find out whether it is company wide? Also, I just looked on Zoom’z website, and I did not see any brokerage firms identified as a customer (although FNRA is identified as one), although I don’t expect that they would list every customer.
(As a side note, I did see that The Motley Fool is identified as a customer).
Also, I just looked on Zoom’z website, and I did not see any brokerage firms identified as a customer (although FNRA is identified as one), although I don’t expect that they would list every customer.
Not every company wishes to be listed. When I was running my consulting business I made sure to ask for permission to list our customers in our advertising.
My sister, who is a VP at Fidelity, says they use Zoom among others. No idea if it is being implemented across the company but I’ll see her tomorrow and can find out more.
My current company is a Fortune 500 company. We exclusively use Cisco’s WebEx, although some frustrated souls have taken to using Zoom’s freebie account that enables meetings up to 40 minutes and with no more than 100 participants. The 100 participant thing isn’t an issue for any of us, and to be honest, the 40 minute limit is somewhat heartening. Most of us would switch to paid accounts if the company would approve, but there’s some site license thing going on between us and Cisco.
I also meet with several other companies, often with their meeting technology. This non-scientific poll sees Skype and WebEx as the two most popular choices. I’ve not been invited to a Zoom meeting that didn’t originate from one of those in-company frustrated souls I mentioned earlier.
Because the public-facing SSO shows that the Zoom app is available for login, I’m comfortable sharing that my company, Deloitte, is a Zoom customer. We also use WebEx and Skype.
Again, anecdotal, but I attended a firm update via WebEx about six months ago and it was an unmitigated disaster. They stated at the outset that audio was not working in conjunction with the slides, so they asked that all remote attendees use a separate conference line for audio. Therefore, I had to call-in with Phone A and follow slides with Phone B. It was pretty embarrassing for the hosts—-there were hundreds of employees on the line.
I doubt this problem is common, but I’ll never know since I haven’t used or been asked to use uses WebEx again.
Generally from an IT perspective, no mater how large your company, it is better to use a single solution company wide, as it takes down the overhead of managing it. There is always an overhead of managing anything that is advertised as working out of the box…
So if other solutions are being deprecated, the chosen solution is being pushed out.
There are many instances of multiple solutions running in parallel, but generally only for proof of concept and acceptance requirements, sooner or later a de facto solution emerges.
I also meet with several other companies, often with their meeting technology. This non-scientific poll sees Skype and WebEx as the two most popular choices. I’ve not been invited to a Zoom meeting that didn’t originate from one of those in-company frustrated souls I mentioned earlier.
Hi Smorg,
I guess that means that even growing at over 80%, Zoom has a lot of TAM to still grow into.
Saul
Zoom was used in isolated ways at Citi and at my current company. My current company has recently settled on WebEx as the company wide solution, however, and Zoom is no longer allowed.
My customers are all big banks, and most of them are using WebEx or Skype.
I frequently walk through the campus of Colorado School of Mines (student population of 6100 or so) in Golden, Colorado. A couple of weeks ago I noticed two junior faculty members outside sharing a phone. Curious, I approached just as the ended their call. One turned to the other and says, “Well, I guess we are officially ‘Zoomers’ now.” Following up with the CSM website it appears that it is their go to video conferencing method. https://its.mines.edu/zoom/
Next the biggest university in Colorado CU in Boulder- student population 33000. Yes. And CU also has a campus in Denver(additional students) as well as campuses in some other Colorado cities and towns. https://oit.colorado.edu/services/conferencing-services/web-…
Can’t help but think that most higher education institutions are also users. Wonder if someday I will be zooming with my sister who lives in another state just to catch up.
Wonder if someday I will be zooming with my sister who lives in another state just to catch up.
Hi Alex, you could do it now. You can get a free Zoom account and then invite your sister. I don’t use Zoom because I’m on a Mac and iPhone and thus use the built in free Apple service FaceTime, but we talk with our daughter who’s currently in Beijing, also on Mac, one or two times a week. Seeing her and talking face to face sure is comforting, and makes it so much more personal than a phone call.
Saul
