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Web Conferencing: A Boon to Businesss
It is Sunday evening and you are preparing again to go on a
business trip. Monday morning the alarm goes off at 4:00 am, you
drag your body and your briefcase to your car, drive to the
airport, wait in a long line, get on a plane, get off a plane,
and find your way to your client's office. When you finally get
home Monday night, you have spent more time traveling than
meeting and you have dozens of emails and several important phone
calls to return.
According to leading web conferencing service providers, the
typical sales cycle can be cut two to three weeks with web
conferencing. Providing a virtual conference room environment,
web conferencing eliminates the need to travel, linking
geographically disperse workgroups and telecommuters. The return
on investment for web conferencing can be measured not only in
dollars and cents, but also in personnel efficiency, knowledge
distribution and increased sales opportunities.
The ability to virtually link workgroups and project teams
enables real-time collaboration, a task that once required
lengthy email threads or face-to-face meetings.
Web conferencing enables businesses to:
- Reduce operating costs
- Minimize unnecessary travel
- Close sales and negotiate contracts faster
- Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of
communication
- Deliver clear, concise and consistent training
- Encourage real-time collaboration between distant and local
co-workers
- Engage in greater levels of communication with clients and
business partners
Since its inception, web conferencing usage has expanded to a
number of business applications such as daily sales and marketing
efforts, interaction with co-workers and customers, corporate
presentations and training initiatives. Financial corporations
use web conferencing for internal meetings, customer briefings,
employee training, client consultations and investment workshops.
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies use Web conferencing for
product promotion and marketing, sales presentations and
demonstrations, and product training and development. Educational
institutions use web conferencing for project teams and student
workshops. And, government agencies rely on web conferencing for
training and inter-agency communication.
Most organizations use outsourced web conferencing. Why?
Because of the quickly changing technology, businesses opt not to
invest in what could soon be obsolete. In addition, on a
day-to-day basis, it is more cost effective to have web
conferencing outsourced. Additional reasons include:
- Leading edge functionality provides greater levels of
security, moderator control, and participant options.
- Your people can now focus on your core business, not
support systems.
- The external company makes the investment in new features
so that your fixed costs are reduced and your overall
expenditures are lowered.
- With no capital expense, new technology can be implemented
with minimal impact to the bottom line.
When beginning the search for a web conferencing solution,
start with setting your objectives and determining the features
you require. Here are a few basic questions that should be
answered:
- How many participants do you anticipate attending your
online meetings or events?
- Will the number of participants remain consistent from
meeting to meeting or will the number change?
- How many meetings will be conducted each week, month,
quarter? Will usage fluctuate depending on the time of the
year?
- What type of content will be presented (Power Point slides,
software applications, web-based applications, documents, or
spreadsheets)?
- What degree of interactivity do you require (Q&A,
polling/voting, application sharing, text chatting, live video,
file sharing, etc.)?
- Do you want your own software or a hosted solution?
- How much technical support or event management support do
you require?
- What is your monthly budget?
- Are there any special security requirements?
Once you have determined your requirements, screen a number of
vendors. Visit their web site, review live demos, and seek client
testimonials. Here are few suggestions for choosing a vendor:
Select a pricing model. Determine whether you want to
pay-per-use (you pay only for the time you and your attendees
spend in web conferences) or pay-per-seat (you pay a flat monthly
fee for a certain number of "seats"). Pay-per-use pricing is the
better conservative choice for most companies learning to how to
use web conferencing for their business. You avoid set up charges
and you don't have to monitor the number of concurrent users in
order to avoid overage charges. You can always start with a
pay-per-use plan and switch to a pay-per-seat plan once there is
a clear, long-term financial advantage.
Get the features you need. Some web conferencing solutions
only support online presentations while others offer
full-featured packages that include polling, chatting,
application-sharing, white boarding and group web surfing. Make
sure that the product meets your needs.
Check into customer support levels. Is training and ongoing
support available? What hours? Is there an extra fee? Is there a
telephone number available so that you can contact a support
person or is only email support offered? What are their support
hours? Call each vendor's customer service number and see if you
get a live person vs. a menu or voice mail. You don't want to be
in a situation where an attendee has technical problems joining a
critical meeting and not be able to contact a live person
immediately.
Consider security requirements. Depending on the audience and
the information being sharing, security may be a concern. Most
solutions are secure enough and do not store meeting data any
place except on the presenter's PC. Participants only see a
graphical representation of the data through a standard web
browser. Some services provide pass code authorization, basic
encryption, and the ability to lock and unlock the meeting.
So, the next time Sunday night comes around and you are faced
with another week of travel, email trails, difficulty in
scheduling training and long lead times in closing sales and
negotiating contracts, do yourself a favor and look into web
conferencing for your business.
About The Author
Denise Bridgens has more than 20 years experience in product
marketing and product management for communications and is the
founder of Argo Navis IT. Argo Navis IT is a value added reseller
of Premiere Conferencing services and is their exclusive Minority
Women Business Enterprise partner. Premiere Conferencing has
consistently led the industry in developing the most advanced
conferencing solutions, fulfilling today's business-critical
communications needs and delivering the highest levels of
security and reliability. Argo Navis IT is headquartered in
Morristown, NJ and is opening an office in a HUB zone shortly.
The company contributes 10% of profits annually to battered
women's shelters. To learn more about Argo Navis IT, visit their
web site at www.argonavisit.com
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