Collaboration Station
Integration has been on everyone’s lips lately, and we’re not talking about the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Desegregation of audio, Web and video conferencing into a single, IP-based user experience at the desktop (mostly) lies in the future, but the vision does present opportunities now for resellers offering conferencing services.
Expected uptake in the data collaboration space - from $544 million in 2003 to $2.2 billion by 2007, according to the Radicati Group - is good news for resellers that have seen their traditional audio margins decline.
“For resellers, margins are tightening. But as people have moved away from scheduled audio conferencing, Web conferencing plays a very complementary role: It keeps people on the phone longer and it drives revenue for everyone involved.”
Not only is Web conferencing becoming more widely adopted, but there is a wave of innovation pushing conferencing further along the media-blind path. The Radicati Group notes Web conferencing solutions have developed into highly interactive, real-time collaboration tools with integrated voice, video, data or text chat capabilities delivered over the Internet.
As one example, Global Crossing Ltd.’s Ready Access and Web meeting service is now integrated with Microsoft Outlook, so a user can click a button on the toolbar to schedule a meeting, and it will locate the optimal time to meet and automatically populate all the dial-in information into participants’ calendars. VoIP enhancements are slated for next year, and instant messaging and chat are in development.
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Resellers can privately brand the conferencing and the scheduler, and the carrier makes marketing collateral and a support team for training available. “This is turnkey,” says Kim Kenney, segment director for collaboration services at Global Crossing.
In another example, Netspoke in third quarter plans to add instant messaging and video to its Conferencing Hub, an integrated audio/Web conferencing solution that offers one set of controls through a portal for all media. “There’s more and more convergence of these technologies, and it just makes sense in the way that people work,” says Netspoke’s Scott D’Entremont, president, CEO and cofounder.
“We see IM as a big driver for adoption for this kind of technology, because as people add instant messaging as a way to communicate they know they’re going to reach people. Presence [detection] increases the likelihood of a successful connection.” It also allows them to do more with less. “It’s no longer an audio call. It’s people online who want to double check facts or remind a speaker of a concern without interrupting him,” says Scott Petrack, CTO for eDial Inc., which offers integrated solutions. “Or, if people are in 10 different locations, they can coach each other during a customer call. It’s integrated and very different from the old model, which was conference call, with shared documents. We perceive a real demand for integrated products.”
Video is in the mix with audio and Web conferencing. “All three of these technologies are coming together, and the idea is that they are now available as a single bundle,” says Netspoke’s D’Entremont. “It doesn’t make sense for companies to have three different providers, so integrated solutions are the next wave.”
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Arel Communications and Software Ltd. offers a platform for synchronized voice, twoway video and data delivered in real time over IP, with an application suite consisting of Spotlight Meeting, Spotlight Campus and Spotlight Webinar, which offer application sharing, slides, monitoring, questionings, instructional and evaluation- driven exchanges of information, whiteboarding, interactive video and more. The company offers a managed hosted version through resale partners such as PacificView Communications, an ASP. “The goal is a fluid, natural model for communicating that mimics and delivers the same kind of emphasis you have face-to-face - body language is very important,” says Michelle Blank, Arel’s CMO. “Rich media is all about having a communications tool.”
She notes two drivers for Arel’s solution: IP networks approaching near-ubiquity in the enterprise and a growing geographically dispersed workers - remote offices, telecommuters or road warriors.
Bringing video out of the board room and onto the desktop is a key driver to full conferencing integration. “Users want to have the means through one portal to do a conference call, they want to have the means to do it directly from their office, and something easily addressable from the PC,” says Polycom Inc.’s Maggie Smith, director of video communication product marketing. Partnering with Avaya Inc.
Polycom is using its viaVideo platform to combine audio, video and data collaboration from one viewpoint. “It’s almost a natural extension to add video,” Smith adds.
To that end, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Econium will help VCON Inc. provide custom solutions for businesses by integrating existing applications with Microsoft’s conferencing and collaboration tools and VCON’s video conferencing applications, for a custom interface that works with applications such as Outlook.
Despite the buzz, service providers must take care not to get ahead of user adoption. “You could say the end users are [driving convergence] and that the market is asking for some things, but you can also say the technology developments are drivers,” says Alan Greenberg, senior analyst and consultant at Wainhouse Research LLC.
Neil Barua, vice president of conferencing for Global Crossing, expresses a similar sentiment. “I think this industry has gotten caught up in making tools - bells and whistles,” he says. “For our customers, 80 percent are asking for simplification in the end-user experience, as opposed to creating new things. We’re looking closely at how to continue to innovate towards convergence but not get too far ahead of ourselves and the customer base.”
Simplicity is key, experts say. Integration can work to that goal, but also can muddy the waters. “The proliferation of video will depend upon it being much simpler and much less expensive and retaining a high level of quality without having to do a high-broadband digital stream, which is overkill for most meetings,” says Scott Walters, director of conferencing sales and development at NetworkIP, which offers prepaid conferencing. He adds that Microsoft’s entry into the market with LiveMeeting - with its support of audio and video - will have an impact on the industry.
In another high-profile rollout, MCI Inc. is offering IP access to its audio and video conferencing services. Participants can use either IP- or non-IP-based endpoints to join, over the public Internet, a private IP network or ISDN. Customers with native IP connections will not be charged for “meet me” IP voice or video transport.
Jay Saur, product manager for video at MCI, says “the time was finally right” and cites customer demand for IP transport for their IPenabled endpoints. For now, the move simply broadens the highways that can get customers to MCI, but over time IP support will facilitate more feature capabilities and integration for customers.
For resellers, keeping an eye on evolving integrated solutions can help them differentiate themselves in a crowded market. “Resellers need to have just about every tool they can under their belt,” says Plum. “It’s going to be a challenging 24 months for them.”
Analyst Greenberg says there is no one right path, but multiple viable approaches and vendors in the market. “There are so many applications and needs, you want to find the right solution for what your company does, so you may not even want to standardize on one vendor,” he says. “So I see there being a continued bevy of these offerings, and there will be some shaking out from a natural evolution where Web conferencing buyers are maturing and are more confident about what they want, but it’s still open for resellers and service providers to succeed.”
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Arel Communications and Software Ltd. www.arel.net |
