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