Web conferencing: business catalyst for Indian SMB

BANAGLORE, INDIA:, As per Frost and Sullivan, the market is gaining hugely from organizations' austerity drive which includes enhanced collaboration and reduction in travel costs. Revenues in Asia-Pacific rose 24.9 per cent in 2008 and are expected to grow a further 26.3 per cent this year, reaching a market size of US$123.1 million by end-2009.

Growth of the sector, which includes hosted services/SaaS (software-as-a-service) and on-premise Web conferencing software, is expected to peak over the next two years, clocking growth rates of 27 per cent in 2010 and 2011. 

A recent study by them found that the market - covering 13 APAC countries - earned revenues of US$97.4 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach US$391.8 million by end-2014, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 26.1 per cent (2009-2014).

Owing to the wide range of customers, Web conferencing has evolved to address the challenges of both very large enterprises to SMB’s and also small users. Thus providing, a straightforward first-rate and competitive service for small companies and large enterprises, and an integrated set of services that may comprise video, messaging, mobile integration, online Web meetings and audio conferencing integration. Owing to the wide range of customers, conferencing needs to evolve to address the challenges of both very large and small business users. 

The ease-of-use of SaaS services by Cisco-WebEx has proved to be a huge attraction, and this has led to the explosive rise of SaaS services in Asia-Pacific.

Growth drivers

Business conferences and decision-making options depend critically upon the availability of information at the right time. In order to save time, business meetings are increasingly being conducted over telecommunication networks with the help of online conferencing.

The drivers for this industry are:

Enhanced employee productivity as one spends less time traveling and out of office Maximum value out of each interaction through richer and more valuable communication

Improved productivity: Web-based conferencing can improve teamwork throughout a company, accelerate project turnaround and time to market, hasten decision-making, permit more selling in a shorter time period, eliminate certain sales and service calls, improve information-sharing and responsiveness, reduce sales cycles and contribute to more efficient business processes.

Lower expenses: Nearly all companies find that web-based videoconferencing dramatically lowers business-related travel expenses and time commitments. It can also reduce costs for financial reporting, for training and for the airing of companywide communications.

Deeper customer interactions: There is a lot of stress on customer experience in today’s business models. With this technology companies are able to hold face-to-face meetings with customers and business partners far more frequently, transmitting more information, keeping people up-to-date on company/product developments and solidifying customer relationships. 

Also fortunately, broadband is fast becoming all pervasive in India and looking ahead IP-based networks will play a critical role in advancing the broadband penetration in the country. Bandwidth availability and the price of bandwidth will also be driving adoption of videoconferencing. India is a growing economy and there is immense competition among the companies. Pressure to be more productive at lower costs, short time to market and being able to reach people are pertinent for the companies to gain competitive edge, and these requirements are driving adoption of web-conferencing in the country.

Technology trends in the market

One new emerging trend we have noticed is the emergence of Rich Media Conferencing. Rich-media conferencing is a powerful tool that a company can use to achieve effective interactive collaboration. An enterprise can invite a specialist or a subject-matter expert to a virtual meeting on short notice, regardless of the person's geographic location. Sales reps can offer more engaging online presentations and demonstrations, complete with video footage and actual demonstrations of the applications or services that they promote. While large enterprises can adopt a full suite of applications, SMBs can take advantage of the specific features that match their needs and budgets.

Gone are the days of extended travel, waiting in long airport security lines, travel delays, inflated travel budgets and lost productivity. As organizations become more diverse in business applications, acquisitions and mergers become more common and multi-national work forces become the standard, decision makers are looking for ways to make communicating among their knowledge workers easy.

With the emergence of the Internet and the evolution of network-centric business practices, many companies turned immediately to multimedia conferencing; others embraced applications that allowed groups to share documents and collaborate on projects in real time. Now, some companies, including a growing number of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), are combining these capabilities to create virtual meetings and work faster and more effectively.

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Impact of the slowdown on the market

The growth has definitely picked up rapidly, thanks to the economic slow down. But the economic crisis has made collaboration as one such solution that businesses think of adopting while evaluating for other options in this tough cash crunch scenario. 

Web conferencing offers a hosted service platform, which requires no server or additional hardware. Thus, there is no worry on the part of organizations in adopting it as they don't have to put in any extra expense. They just have to pay a monthly subscription fee, which can be paid according to the need.

We have seen a tremendous adoption even in sectors like manufacturing or retail who have limited usage of IT.

Key challenges faced by the players in India

As per Research and markets, the awareness about the benefits of Web conferencing among potential customers is still inadequate. There are vast prospects for web conferencing in India and is inexpensive for most companies and retail users. Nevertheless, there are a few bottlenecks in India such as response from major telecom companies to providing web conferencing as a value-added service has been slow. But with encouragement from various governmental agencies and once demand picks up these challenges will be overcome.

Future of Web Conferencing in India

The Web conferencing market is expected to grow significantly as it migrates from standalone conferencing to fully integrated suites of collaborative communications. While the adoption and usage of Web conferencing is expected to gain momentum over the next several years, the integration of discrete communication applications into unified communication/collaboration products will blur the lines between Web conferencing and other technologies, such as audio and videoconferencing, instant messaging, presence, VoIP, unified messaging, on-line shared workspaces, and document management solutions. 

The key drivers for Web-conferencing are-the last mile Internet connectivity and availability of good-quality 'dependable' Internet bandwidth (broadband), convenience and cost saving factor. The Web conferencing market in India is said to be maturing. With broadband availability increasing and prices dropping, the Web-conferencing market has reached an inflexion point

(The author is managing director for Cisco WebEx)