When you work remotely, you have options for video conferencing. Here is what you need to know to get started:

Skype for Business

Skype for Business is King County’s standard solution for video conferencing and should meet your needs in most cases, especially for meetings of less than 250 attendees. We have a site which can answer many of your Skype questions: Skype for Business (SharePoint)

• Skype works well when communicating both internally and externally—just send an invitation.
• It’s a comprehensive voice, meeting, presentation and collaboration platform all in one.
• It’s our county standard for communication.
• Did you know Skype has many little-known but useful features, such as the ability to conduct polls or create unique meeting URLs? This helps prevent other County employees from just appearing if you’re having back-to-back meetings.
• If you have any issues using Skype, please open a ticket through the KCIT Customer Support Services portal at https://helpdesk.kingcounty.gov/ or call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).

We know that sometimes, Skype for Business may not meet your needs, so we have alternative solutions.

Teams Live Events

Teams Live Events are perfect for meetings with more than 250 people all the way up to 10,000 attendees.

• Here’s Microsoft guidance for how to set up a Teams Live Event
  • Submit a Helpdesk ticket and provide the following:
  • If your event needs to take place in less than five days, please let us know your request is urgent at the beginning of your ticket.
  • Let us know the date, time and duration of your meeting.
  • Tell us the name or names of people who can act as Producers can control your Q&A onscreen chat, choose which messages to post to your group and adjust what the audience sees, such as videos or materials to present.
  • Also let us know the name(s) of Presenters are the people who speak and present content.
  • Finally, indicate if you want your session recorded.
• Please note you need to submit a Helpdesk ticket for each Teams Live Event.
• KCIT will create the Teams Live Event for you and send you instructions for its use.

Zoom

Zoom is temporarily available due to unique business needs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. When the crisis eases up, we will evaluate whether Zoom will continue to be offered at the county.

• Zoom may be a viable alternative to using Skype or Teams Live under these circumstances:
  • Telemedicine
  • Live virtual trainings; and
  • Communicating with community partners who can’t use Skype
  • If you think you have one of these situations, please submit a Helpdesk ticket and explain your need. If appropriate, KCIT will assign a Zoom license to you and send instructions for use.
• Please note, once you have Zoom, you can create meetings on your own and don’t need to submit a Cherwell ticket for each subsequent meeting.
• To use Zoom safely, carefully follow the instructions KCIT sends you.

KCIT will cover the costs of Zoom licenses during social distancing restrictions. If we continue using Zoom after the first year, agencies will need to pay for the licenses starting in 2021 at a cost of $142 per person annually.