What is web-conferencing?

One key area of examination is the necessity of meetings, and if possible options that now exist to eliminate travel expenses and the significant loss of time involved.

An examination of many meetings held in business will produce a common theme, of the ubiquitous PowerPoint presentation, sharing a document for review, internal or external training, or examination of a balance sheet. Each sharing a common theme of being something that could be done remotely, removing the ‘soft’ costs of travel, parking and the more important consideration of time lost through these non-balance sheet activities.

An example would be the requirement to carry out training on a new business function for staff in a remote office. With the congestion that exists in many cities this would result in travel time of an hour or more per employee attending even with the availability of easy parking. A round trip of two hours per employee is not an unreasonable estimate, multiplied per employee, per meeting, this cost to the company escalates very quickly over the course of a year.

An alternative is to consider the use of a web collaboration tool to carry out these meetings. Even for an ad hoc ‘spur of the moment’ meeting, solutions such as Bizconference can be deployed and initiated instantly, allowing for greater and improved communication within all business functions for less per month than is conceivable to spend on a single business commute.

At its simplest level a web meeting allows a presenter to share whatever is being viewed on a computer screen with another person remotely. This can be one to one, or one to many. Either a single window on the screen can be shown, an entire screen or a smaller rectangle of only the pertinent information, though this can change during the course of a meeting; e.g. the meeting opens with a PowerPoint presentation, then a review of an Excel spreadsheet showing costs, a Project plan and finally review of a contract. All of this is shown in real time, whatever is being viewed on the presenter’s screen being shared through an internet browser window on the attendees computer screen. No software being required by the attendee with the exception of a browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Initiating a meeting is as simple as either sending a person, or group of people an email invite with an embedded hyperlink to the virtual meeting room.

Sales presentations for virtually any product or service can utilize the features available in a web meeting to facilitate one-on-one or group presentations and at a significantly reduced expense. For example: A manufacturer has just made major enhancements to a new product line. Rather than sending a rep across the country and absorbing the expense of airfare and hotel stays, the firm can conduct an online introductory webinar presentation. Invitations are sent out via email, perhaps even offering a door prize to one attendee as an incentive for attendance. On the given day and time, the attendees simply use their Internet browser to go to a unique web site meeting room and dial into a unique telephone conference number and the company can present the product to all the attendees complete with any demonstration materials they have available through the company's computer. Additionally the company can poll the attendees with questions and allow the attendees to ask questions. The attendees can even be sent files directly over the connection or directed to a web site form to place an order. Airports, taxis, traffic jams, breath mints, coat & tie - NOT REQUIRED.

With the latest generations of Web meeting software, collaboration is now possible, instead of the meeting being a technology based ‘show and tell’, it is now possible for presentation control to be passed from the presenter to an attendee, the attendee now sharing their screen with those at the meeting. This is especially invaluable as a tool in the support of people remotely as a difficulty can be seen in real time by someone who understands the issue rather than a telephone only conversation.

For example: An accountant reviewing tax returns or a client company's use of software such as Quickbooks. During a web meeting the accountant and the client can view, discuss and change line items in the clients spreadsheet or software in real-time by a feature called screen-saharing, which allow a remote party to view another's computer screen. Additionally the accountant has saved time by not driving across town for an 'in-person' meeting and the meeting can be set-up and held within moments of a phone call inquiry to the convenience of both parties.

For repeated meetings such as training course, or new hire orientation these meetings can be recorded, for both the shared computer screen and voice conversation. As a Macromedia Flash file, these can be saved and placed on an intranet available to employees in the case of a training course, or an external website, for sales presentations or product training.

As can be seen, immense cost savings can be achieved by eliminating many, if not all requirements to travel and the creation of a more ‘real time’ company. If the example of a marketing or sales professional is taken, a traditional approach to a new client may be an initial telephone conversation, at which time an appointment is set to have a meeting to present that company’s products or services and discuss potential business. This entails time consumed on both sides to find an available time, then the round trip travel time with inherent loss of productivity during that time. A web meeting during the initial telephone call makes both the sales person more productive with time and speeds the sales process by eliminating the wait time until the initial meeting.

By using a hosted software as service model with a fixed monthly fee, the overhead on an internal IT department is removed, freeing them to focus on business essential functions. Likewise as the web meeting vendor is responsible for service availability, maintenance, support and upgrades there is no down time or annual maintenance fees, allowing a company to budget a known monthly cost with no hidden fees. This allows for easy budget management and analysis of return on investment for activities.