Emerging Tech: Web Conferencing; Let's Talk Online

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Web conferencing completely changed the way businesses communicate. Today it enables live meetings and conferences via the Internet. It is fast becoming the preferred means of communication for most organizations.

Enterprises are driven by the need to save time and money, speed up internal work processes, and they are demanding Web conferencing facilities. Web conferencing is set to become an essential mode of communication such as a phone and e-mail. Another driver of Web conferencing is the unprecedented growth in penetration of high bandwidth via cable modem and DSL connection.

Today companies can opt for either service based Web conferencing solutions or deploy their own conferencing infrastructure.

Service-Based Conferencing
Providers such as Meeting-Bridge and WebEx have offered Web conferencing as a service where users pay providers for each conference and call up meetings via a Web browser.

The providers supply the bandwidth, interface, and tools such as those for coordinating schedules, sending participation instructions, and checking browser settings for compatibility. They also offer technical support to participants. Using a service-based conference is more economical than buying a Web conferencing server. Third-party services also eliminate the need for companies to have their own personnel running, maintaining, and fixing the conferencing infrastructure. On the other hand, Web conferencing services pose a potential security risk because they bypass the normal security policies of a company.

Web Con Benefits

Time Saving: saving individual and organizational time, contributing directly to productivity
Better Coordination: more-effective teamwork among people working on the same project, but from different locations
Simplified Working: simplified access to others inside and outside of the organization with almost no advance notice
Better Quality: lower training costs and better access to training by more personnel
Cost Cutting: savings in both hard costs and soft costs, as Web conferencing is a cheaper way of accomplishing certain tasks
Enhanced Productivity: keeping staff in their primary office location where they are typically more productive

Server-Based Conferencing
In server-based system, companies operate their own Web conferencing systems. Companies that run their own conferencing servers use their own bandwidth for group meetings, which can be a problem for small businesses as server-based Web conferencing entails software licensing fees and large equipment costs.

Web conferencing application vendors are integrating instant messaging to deliver a unified interface for communication and collaboration. Leading Web conferencing provider, WebEx, has an optional integrated chat service within its conferencing platform. FaceTime has partnered with WebEx to deliver logging and archiving of chat sessions so that customers are able to maintain control and compliance over Web conferencing.

Meeting3D is another low cost Web conferencing tool with video included. Affordable for any kind of business, Meeting3D is an application, which is poised to catch up in the future. This solution allows unlimited meetings with videoconferencing, application sharing, and slide presentations. This virtual reality approach to online collaboration has not become popular yet, nor have the potential marketplaces materialized in front of the still limited offerings that have become available online.

Sonia Sharma
sonias@cybermedia.co.in