Several converging signals point to 2011 and 2012 as the years when web conferencing usage will explode in smaller companies.
First signal: prices are decreasing. Whenever a technology that has achieved significant penetration in larger enterprises moves into smaller businesses, one common facet is lower prices. And at the moment we are seeing lower prices and a larger variety of product offerings than ever before. Continue reading
I’ll cover several breaking stories today. I think they present an interesting picture when looked at together.
Synergy Research Group published their report of Enterprise Communications & Collaboration Market Analysis covering end of year 2010. It found that the overall market grew to $22.3 billion and that the strongest market segment, posting a 35% increase year over year, was telepresence/videoconferencing. Continue reading
When I saw this breaking news in The Advocate about a new online charter school in Louisiana, it prompted me to look around for other uses of online web conferencing technology in K-12 education. Continue reading
The survey report cites cost and environmental impact (carbon footprint) as the two most important factors leading to these changes. This story was reported by David Jonas, writing for The Transnational, a multinational travel newsletter.
Overall, nearly all respondents said they expected their companies during the next 10 years to change how they conduct business “as a result of climate change.” About half of the survey sample said policies that encourage sustainable business travel already are in place. Another 25 percent said their companies are developing such policies or plan to do so. Continue reading
Customer preferences in online web conferencing may be moving away from standalone solutions, according to the results of a recent report from AMI-Partners, quoted by Mark Cox, writing for eChannelLine. The report states that
over 25% of U.S. small businesses, with under 100 employees, would deploy Unified Communications integrated with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings as paid services, if available from a single provider. Continue reading
The existing “Skype for Business” service will be enhanced with additional features for web conferencing and improved screen sharing. Hosts of Skype-based web conferences will be able to demonstrate software and display presentations from their desktops. The services provided by GoToMeeting will be embedded within the Skype for Business service offering, with packages and prices yet to be determined. Continue reading
Companies and organizations today use web conferencing in many aspects of their organizations-to conduct meetings, collaborate on projects, demonstrate products and services, and more. Learning to use web conferencing technology is pretty easy, but there is a lot more to training via web conference than just putting on a headset, dialing up an audio-conferencing bridge, and logging onto the application. Continue reading
Aimed primarily at non-profits, NGOs, and educational organizations, Socialbrite has just published its updated comparison of 15 top web conferencing services. They offer a close look at the features, pricing, and reputation of all the usual suspects — like GoToMeeting / GoToWebinar, Adobe Connect, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Office Live Meeting — plus some newer offerings — Yuuguu, Zoho Meeting — and some that are more familiar in the education and non-profit arenas — Elluminate, Infinite Conferencing.
Read the whole article. It’ll be useful even if you’re not representing a non-profit. Highly recommended.
