Travel is expensive time-consuming, so unless you know how to teleport, you might want to try taking your business travel to the virtual domain. Linda Castellini looks into Web conferencing.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates claims that his company will save nearly $40 million in travel expenses this year using its Web conferencing tool, Live Meeting. But small businesses can also benefit from these increasingly sophisticated online services.
Face to face meetings are a staple of business and will always remain so. We all complain about meetings and the time they waste, but secretly we value them and the crucial element of social interaction they bring to working life. As a five-year veteran of online and remote working, believe me when I say that I miss actually talking to people in the flesh, no matter how irritating they are. But the world is changing in many ways, and the global workforce increasingly needs to face up to the coming reality of Web-based collaborative working.
Online working doesn't appeal to everyone. More than 30 minutes of email a day drives many workers to distraction. But a highly positive combination of savings in time and money, plus a gain in convenience and the let's do it now factor, mean that relatively mature technologies such as Web conferencing are set to grow and users will learn to love the benefits they deliver. It is going to happen, not only because business travel is increasingly time-consuming and expensive in both financial and environmental terms, but because the nature of business is changing. It's much more about communication and knowledge-sharing than ever before. The tools are ready, the infrastructure is ready, and the more people that get involved the greater the benefits will be.
You're going to love this
Web conferencing systems have been around for years. As is far too frequent with many developing technologies, they were rolled out and touted as the next big thing before the software or the networks were ready, and many early users were turned off. Finally, the advent of adequately fast, always on Internet communications and a good choice of functioning software mean that Web meetings have become a real alternative.
Unlike other technologies used to replace face to face meetings telephone, email and Instant Messaging (IM) for example Web conferencing allows for layered, multimedia communication, combining the visual and the aural, and encouraging active participation. Because of its layered nature and the fact that it is a synchronous, real-time form of communication, Web conferencing offers the ability to do much of what can be done in a face to face meeting. Don't forget, though, that technology is never the master, but only the slave. It's what you do with it that matters, so Web conferencing will suit businesses that need to frequently share, update, review, and consolidate standard format business data with a number of colleagues and partners across a range of geographic locations.
There are many kinds of Web conferencing tools. The trick is to research the capabilities of the technologies available, and to choose a system that helps you with tasks that really matter to your business and that deliver tangible benefits. At its most complex, participants join a meeting set up by a leader or presenter and accessed on a PC via a browser-type interface. During the conference, participants can share applications, see and edit the presenter's multimedia usually in the form of presentation slides, including integrated video and audio take part in Instant Messaging, participate in web tours (whereby the leader exhibits a series of Web pages), and interact using a virtual "white board." Additional interactive features allow participants to ask questions and vote anonymously. More expensive systems allow the presenter, and sometimes other participants, to mark up slides and pictures with drawing tools or to sketch out new ideas. Presenters can use a remote mouse pointer to guide their audience.
Also common are application-sharing features that allow presenters to provide one to one help on software and other applications. Some services offer Voice-over-IP and video (talk and send video through the Internet), but most Web conferencing sessions are accompanied by a simple audio conference call as most packaged services are U.S.or Europe-based, the audio part of the system needs to be set up locally, and many systems allow participants to provide their own audio channels. The most useful systems also record the session and make it available via playback. Presenters can 'broadcast' any supported software application running on their PC (such as a database or spreadsheet), complete with mouse movements. They can also share or take control of another person's application or desktop to provide assistance or work jointly.
At its simplest, a Web conference of sorts can be held between up to four people using free software such as Skype or Gmail Internet chat, supported by simultaneous IM whilst looking at the same Web page (to which all parties may or may not have editing rights) or by file-sharing using the IM file-sending facility. Free chat rooms can also serve as very basic 'meeting rooms' on a non-corporate level. With so many systems to choose from, it's up to the purchaser to make sure that a system serves their needs and is operable from the host country.
A system to suit
The systems work by integrating with users' existing applications such as spreadsheets, email and calendars such integration is usually Windows-based, although there are some systems that can handle Apple Mac OSX or above. Some systems require users to install software, some don't the Genysys Meeting Center model works via the Web. It should be easy to distribute a full meeting transcript including the agenda, a participant list, meeting notes, the presentation, and all chatting and polling information after the meeting, as well as creating recordings for later download. Web conferences need a certain amount of bandwidth to work smoothly, and broadband is definitely best. If you plan to engage in real-time video, a fast connection of at least 1 megabit per second (available in Jordan from JD12 per month, plus connection and line rental fees) will be a must and even then expect regular freezing and jerkiness.
So why aren't more people using it? Though Web-conferencing tools are spreading, companies aren't taking full advantage of the potential benefits, analysts say, because products have been seen as too complicated, too expensive and too unreliable. But that's changing as the technology improves. The worldwide market for Web conferencing services is expanding rapidly and is expected to be worth about 1.5 billion ($2.6 billion) by 2009, according to Frost & Sullivan, a UK-based consulting and market research firm.
Pricing has also been a barrier not so much total cost, but pricing packages. Recently, vendors have come up with more user-friendly pricing models. Microsoft's Live Meeting offers a 'named-user' license. Annually, companies pay around $300 (less with a volume discount) for each employee, plus a $3,000 fee for each group license. A cheaper version is also available. Microsoft says 80% of its new customers are choosing the named-user alternative.
In contrast, GoToMeeting by Citrix Systems offers an 'all-you-can-meet' rate. Companies buy a license for each meeting leader instead of one for each attendee. The leader can arrange an unlimited number of meetings with no per-minute charge. Companies pay around $50 a month for each meeting license, which can accommodate up to 25 attendees (large-group licenses are also available). GoToMeeting Corporate is designed for organizations requiring central reporting and administration of multiple accounts. The corporate version provides a minimum of five user accounts, with a maximum of 200 attendees at each meeting.
Most established corporate Web conference providers such as WebEx and Genysys offer a subscription model, whereby an organization must purchase an annual contract and license a set number of 'seats' to use at any time, anywhere in the world with Internet access, (from $50 per license per month). This isn't cheap, so companies choosing this route need to know that they'll feel the benefit, but it's flexible.
Less expensive options also include U.S.-based ASAP from Convoq, which offers up to 15 participants to meet as often as they like for an annual fee of around $500 only the meeting leader needs the licensed software and to be registered with the company in the U.S., and voice can be handled with VoIP. Organizations with a dedicated technical staff can buy and install their own Web conferencing software and servers.
Data security is also an issue for some companies, although it's generally acknowledged that the Internet can be as secure as other data transmissions systems if a modicum of thought and common sense is applied.
Security may be as basic as a PIN number and password entered on login, but this is inadequate for sensitive data and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, providing a high level of data security, is needed.
Web conferencing may save the company much in terms of time and money, but employees may be losing valuable perks and the opportunity for expenses-paid travel. Dumping any system on them without adequate explanation and training is likely to see them giving up at the first hurdle, unwilling to engage with the system and discover its benefits.
© Jordan Business 2006
