Elizabeth Herrell
As more businesses reduce travel, many companies are considering audio and
data conferencing as a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings. Audio
conferencing commands more than 70 per cent of the $3 billion conferencing
market, but data conferencing is expected to rapidly grow over the next five
years, outpacing audio conferencing growth, as demand for multimedia
conferencing increases. Real-time data collaboration allows conference attendees
to share presentations, collaborate over whiteboards and even hold submeetings
while the main meeting is in progress. Improvements in technology,
reservationless systems and easy-to-use interfaces result in more business users
replacing travel with multimedia conferences. However, vendor products are not
equal, and there is a wide disparity among available vendor solutions.
Companies need to carefully evaluate products, including their capability to
deliver fully integrated voice and data conferences, provide multiple security
levels and offer intuitive user interfaces and attractive pricing, before
signing up for services.
Two main obstacles to conferencing, high price for data collaboration and
security issues, have held back many companies from adding data collaboration to
their conferences. Security may be as basic as password protection, but for
many, this is inadequate for their needs. Web collaboration for secure topics
should have Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption that provides a high level of
data security. For higher levels of security, the Web server needs to remain
behind the company’s firewall, and this needs to be arranged with service
providers or managed through an in-house conferencing system. The other
hindrance to data collaboration has typically been an expensive component of
conference services. Recent announcements by Genesys
Conferencing have dramatically lowered the cost of fully integrated
multimedia collaboration platforms to less than $40 per month for concurrent
users, up to 15 users (compared to $200 per port, per user), when packaged with
audio conferencing.
Companies should anticipate improvements in their conference vendor offerings
and regularly review their current usage to determine how they can most
effectively take advantage of vendor products and services. Video, streaming and
data collaboration create virtual conferencing rooms and serve as reasonable
alternatives to travel. Savings in reduced travel, increased productivity and
faster decisions more than offset fees for these services. Although in some
areas of the world cultural issues traditionally demand face-to-face meetings,
these requirements are being challenged as business looks for new ways to bring
global customers and employees together, safely and inexpensively.