Being open isn’t about how many meeting platforms a device supports. It’s about giving you the freedom to choose the hardware and software that work for you.

I recently came across a claim from a legacy hardware vendor that its devices are “open” simply because they support multiple meeting platforms. But when you look more closely at vendors that operate both hardware lines and proprietary meeting platforms, a double standard emerges: they ask third-party platforms to run on their hardware while keeping their own platform exclusive to their proprietary devices.

It got me thinking about how loosely our industry throws around the word “open,” and whether having a few pre-approved software options on locked hardware really counts as true openness. The more I thought about it, the more I felt we were counting options instead of asking the more important question: Do customers and end users have the genuine freedom and flexibility to choose the hardware and meeting platform that deliver the best experience for their meeting rooms?

Openness should work both ways

Our industry has made tremendous progress in giving organizations more choice, and Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom deserve credit for helping drive that change. All three give customers the flexibility to run native experiences across compatible meeting room devices from multiple manufacturers, creating a genuine ecosystem of hardware choice.

Neat has been part of that shift from the start. We launched with Zoom Rooms in 2019, added Microsoft Teams support in 2022, and announced support for Google Meet earlier this year. Today, organizations—including some of the world’s largest companies—are deploying Neat across Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. We’ve worked closely with our platform partners to meet their requirements and deliver the quality, reliability, and experiences their customers expect. Openness shouldn’t mean compromising those standards. It should mean giving different hardware manufacturers the opportunity to meet them.

Real choice goes beyond a platform list

Supporting more platforms is undoubtedly good for customers, but the number of logos on a compatibility chart tells only part of the story. Meaningful choice means selecting the software and hardware that best meet your needs, rather than letting one decision unnecessarily dictate the other. Meeting rooms are long-term investments. Organizations change, workplace strategies evolve, and technology requirements move with them. The platform you standardize on today may not suit every space or remain the right choice indefinitely.

A genuinely open ecosystem gives you more choice across both layers. You can choose your meeting platform and preferred hardware experience, without finding yourself trapped by a hardware decision as your needs evolve. For me, that’s a much more useful test of openness: How much freedom do you actually have?

Choice shouldn’t compromise the experience

Greater choice only works if you can trust the experience that comes with it. Adding support for another meeting platform shouldn’t mean fewer features or compromising expectations around quality, reliability, security, manageability, or ease of use.

Quite the opposite. When multiple manufacturers can meet a platform provider’s requirements and compete to deliver the best experience, everyone has an incentive to keep improving. Hardware companies can differentiate through better audio and video, simpler deployment, more thoughtful design, and smarter experiences, while platform providers can give customers greater choice without compromising the standards they expect.

That competition ultimately benefits the people using the technology. You shouldn’t have to accept a lesser experience in return for greater freedom. You should be able to choose the hardware and software combination you prefer, based on the quality of the experience itself. When vendors compete on experience, customers win.    

Open should be a philosophy, not a feature

Our industry will keep finding new ways to connect platforms, expand hardware choice, and give organizations greater flexibility. That progress benefits customers, and we should welcome it. But I think we should be more demanding of the word “open.”

Openness shouldn’t be a marketing tagline. It should be a philosophy that shapes the technology behind it. Who gets to participate? Who gets to compete? And does that opportunity extend beyond your own hardware and software ecosystem?

For Neat, openness means giving organizations meaningful choice while maintaining a high bar for the experience. It’s not a one-way invitation where vendors expect software platforms to adapt to their hardware while keeping their own platform exclusive to their proprietary devices. It means giving customers the flexibility to choose the hardware that best meets their needs.

We’re open to working with meeting platforms of all sizes. We recently announced support for Zoho Cliq, which is seeing growing adoption in India, and we’ll continue to welcome platforms that give customers more choice in how they meet and collaborate. Because ultimately, an open meeting room shouldn’t belong to a platform. It should belong to the people using it.

See our pioneering devices in action during a live product tour or book a one-on-one demo with a Neat specialist to discover what a more open meeting room can do.