In these days of virtual companies, meeting with, and collaborating with either virtual employees, real employees, contractors, and/or all others in between poses challenges.

In other to resolve this problem, these two solutions represent the best options available today: HP Virtual Rooms and Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010

The flag bearer in collaboration, SharePoint 2010 in this latest iteration is much better, faster, and much easier to use.

SharePoint excels in both its customizability, allowing users to share ideas and knowledge, and in the richness of a passionate and extensive ecosystem. Going forward, SharePoint users and administrators can rely on tighter integration with Office 365, Microsoft Communications Services, and Microsoft Lync.

Furthermore, SharePoint is moving to the cloud.

 

HP Virtual Rooms

For the more immediate collab sessions, it is hard to beat HP Virtual Rooms.

It is simple to setup, use, and collaborate with small groups - under 25 persons -with. For a while back in August, I was unable to engage in traveling as I needed to. To my rescue came the recommendation (thanks, Andy L.!)to use Virtual Rooms, as my previous real-time collab product, HP SkyRoom was limited to intranet collaboration. I gave VR a go, and it’s been nirvana since.

I found it to be easier to use than Live Meeting, and much more cost-efficient.

I believe there is a free trial period too.

Honorable Mentions

• HP SkyRoom
• Microsoft LiveMeeting