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Malnizzle
Asked: 2010-03-31 11:21:23 +0800 CST

Internal Use Chat/Desktop Platform

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I did some looking, but I didn't see a SF question directly related to this.

I need to find a platform for internal/LAN use only for chat and desktop sharing. We got a lot people having to get up and walk over to another person's office for simple items, and we could save a lot of time collectivity if we had a solution where we had a client app similar to gchat or AIM, where one could right click a name and request a desktop sharing session (to or from).

This wouldn't be for product presentation or long training sessions, and wouldn't need more than 2 people in the session. We use GoToMeeting for this.

I've looked at TeamViewer, and they got the features I want (plus a lot more features that wouldn't help) and seem more geared to large enterprise support, and it is not exactly cheap.

Also looked at OCS some as well, but it seems heavy for what I am trying to do. I don't need anything relating to phone usage. If the general opinion says otherwise, I could talked back into OCS if I am wrong about weight of the product.

We use GoToAssist for remote support of clients (which I am a fan of), and I don't it fits here, correct me if I am wrong.

All the workstations are XP/7.

Thanks!

remote-desktop instant-messaging ms-office-communicator remote-access

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    At my old company we used Jabber. Our rollout was aided by a patch to jabberd that enabled the directory to be populated via LDAP and attached to our Active Directory, so that any new user would see everyone in the company (and have them sorted into their different department groups).

    We used Pidgin as the client, which also allowed people to connect to AIM/ICQ, etc.

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  2. I'd recommend any combination of: wikis, Jabber, and IRC. Some companies are also comfortable with the use of AIM/ICQ, which I find absolutely necessary to communicate with companies I do regular business with.

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  3. Your sense about OCS is pretty much right. We use it and use all the enterprise voice and conferencing and Live Meeting features and it is really great but it is also really big - a lot to manage if you don't need all that extra stuff.

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  4. I have to disagree with the sentiments about OCS. We have it installed and are using it only for chat and it requires almost no management. The only thing I have had to do with it in the last Year is renew the security certificate. The presence integration in Outlook and SharePoint is also quite nice.

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