Cost Of Videoconferencing Leads To Web Alternatives

<B>Cost Of Videoconferencing Leads To Web Alternatives</B>

By Chris Davis

While traditional videoconferencing has proven too expensive and unwieldy to become much of a factor in many corporate meeting and group travel programs, videoconferencing vendors and Webconferencers alike are offering new products that enable meetings via the Web.

New Internet-based conferencing tools allow planners to display presentations and charts on the participants' desktop computer screens and may even prove to be a travel cost-cutting tool.

"We use Webconferencing almost every other day for sales and marketing, and it's saving us about $40,000 per month," said Mike Gearhart, marketing manager at San Diego-based technology firm CMstat Corp., which uses San Jose, Calif.-based Webconferencer WebEx Inc.'s products. "We can screen the needs of clients through WebEx, then fly out for a live closing presentation, instead of flying for all calls."

Though the mantra of the videoconferencing industry has been that technology would not cut the number of meetings or travel, the new technologies and lower prices may be changing that notion. "I'm not saying that anymore," said S. Ann Earon, president of Skillman, N.J.-based videoconferencing consultancy Telemarketing Resources International. "Air travel is getting worse in terms of cost and service, and planners are looking for a way to cut travel."

Earon sees a large untapped corporate market between planners who have accepted videoconferencing and are looking for ways to implement desktop and Webconferencing in their programs and those who have shunned the technology in the past. "The new products are noninvasive to computers and inexpensive," she said. "People who in the past have said they don't need video still want to capitalize on the ability to share data."

Bill Glazier, vice president of marketing for Mountain View, Calif.-based PlaceWare Inc., said that Deloitte & Touche recently saved $1.2 million avoiding flights for a major meeting. "Instead, they held a Webconference that cost about one-fortieth of that total and were pleased with the result," he said. "We're seeing a lot of corporate training road shows and even product launches replaced by Webconferencing, which is much more affordable. Glazier said corporate Webconferencing use likely will trickle down from the top levels. "The genesis of Webconferencing was for meetings of at least 50 attendees, but we're now seeing smaller meetings as it trickles down," he said.

Some suppliers are positioning the technology as a way to eliminate wasted time in meetings, thus improving content. "We all know it's not going to eliminate travel, but it should reduce unnecessary travel costs and support more successful meetings by clarifying the agenda and the objectives prior to traveling," said Felicity Wohltman, director of strategic marketing for WebEx.

Other unnecessary travel that could be reduced through Webconferencing, Wohltman said, is prior to sales meetings with clients, when salespeople determine the early qualifications of a potential customer before choosing to travel to meet in person. "I've worked at large corporations that have frozen all travel in their down periods," Wohltman said. "In those cases, much of the internal travel costs can be shifted to Webconferencing to make the necessary travel productive and efficient."

Still, Webconferencers are quick to dismiss comparisons between videoconferencing and their own products.

"Videoconferencing didn't help much," Wohltman said. "A lot of meeting content involves looking at documents or other material and not directly at other people's faces. With Webconferencing, you can display the documents or charts on the terminal screen and allow everyone to see the presentation. In that sense, videoconferencing is just a step up from the phone, so WebEx is a different experience."

The difference between videoconferencing and Webconferencing is simple, said Glazier, "People use their telephone and a Web browser every day, and if you can do that you can Webconference," he said. "Videoconferencing needed a dedicated room, $50,000 of hardware on both ends and a room assistant--just to see talking heads."

Videoconferencing companies, however, are providing desktop Web-based products of their own. San Jose, Calif.-based Polycom Inc. recently introduced its ViaVideo service, which includes a portable, pocket-size camera and transmitter that plugs into the computer without the need to open it and install a video card.

"The industry looked at desktop conferencing for a long time and basically stiff-armed it, because there were so many products that were introduced and failed," said Kim Kasee, vice president of marketing for Polycom's video division. "You would have to crack open the computer and stick a video card in, or there was poor quality and high price."

Products like ViaVideo will attract more corporate meeting departments to videoconferencing, Kasee said, even for smaller, lower-level events. "You'll see adoption of this technology by the large companies first, since they have the expansive IT departments that can deploy it in a systematic way," Kasee said.

Some meeting buyers who have embraced videoconferencing in the past haven't done the same with Webconferencing. "We have videoconferencing capability in all of our offices, and we have internal meetings with it all the time," said Barbara Griswold, director of meetings and special events at The Reader's Digest Association Inc. of Pleasantville, N.Y. "But we haven't looked at Webconferencing at all. It's just not something we've had an interest in."

Nevertheless, some Webconferencers can see the day when the technology is so prevalent in meetings departments that its use becomes part of integrated meetings policy. "I could definitely see a day when WebEx becomes a preferred supplier of a corporate travel program, just like a corporate travel agency or hotel chain," Wohltman said. "I don't know how many companies would write Webconferencing details into policy, but a lot are looking to manage travel and meetings at a lower cost and, through feedback, we know that's their primary motivation to get WebEx.