We’ve appraised the financial advantages of mobility and demonstrated practical productivity improvements. Point out to you that never before could one technology business investment yield so many harvests. In part 3 I’ll examine the desirable benefits of amalgamating the award winning Zultys VoIP phone system with their own in house Web Conferencing and collaboration module.
Briefly, what is Web Conferencing?
In essence, web based conferencing is a software application with collaborative facilities. But more than that, web based conferencing is a new communications medium unlike any other.
Web based conferencing technology may share qualities with other means of communication, such as teleconferencing and live video presentations. No silo’s here, we have a plethora of tools all blended into one easy to use application. Never has the power of the Internet been more emphasised than it has now by web based conferencing technology. The Internet allows people to prevail over the constraints of geography and connect with other people from the other side of the globe.
In-House vs. Hosted Web Conferencing
Hosted web conferencing has always been the trend ever since the technology emerged in the market. All in all, in a hosted web conferencing system, you approach your conferencing service over the Internet through a server hosted by your vendor.
Hosted web conferencing offers two pricing models – pay per use and pay per seat. In a pay per use basis, you’ll be billed for the amount of minutes used. Pay per seat on the other hand refers to a software user-license basis.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each model and they tend to make the selection task quite confusing. Add to that a whole gamut of other considerations which you’ll need to take into account and you have a nightmare in front of you. Price is not the only thing you need to pay attention to. You’ll also need to consider the features offered, usability and the reputation of the vendor.
But besides hosted servers, there is also a completely different side to web conferencing – one that doesn’t use an external server to conduct your online meetings. Such system is called in-house web conferencing.
The main difference between in-house web conferencing and hosted systems is that with in-house systems, you own it and you control it. Advancements in Unified Communications in the last 18 months have strengthened the financial reasons to migrate to in house units. Comparatively in house units enjoy fixed monthly costs opposed to its online contenders like WebEx, LogMeIn and GotoMeeting. The most prevalent reason business owners consider the in-house option is cost and tight integration into Unified Communications platforms.
Once off Cost means a fast ROI.
MX Meeting is the Zultys Unified Communications in-house web conferencing solution. Purchase price depends on the number of users and conference rooms. The MX Meeting provides capacity for up to 100 users sharing 20 individual conference rooms. You can also brand your own conference rooms and integrate it with your web sites by placing a “host Meeting” and “Join Meeting” buttons on any web page. Furthermore these buttons can be added to Windows based software or CRM applications.
Security
Here are several reasons why MX Meeting adds so much hidden value to Zultys Unified Communications. No firewall, antivirus products, locked down computers or unsupported platforms will keep your key meeting participants from joining.
Universal Attendance?Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux, Windows Mobile – Not all web conferencing is built equal
The amazing universal attendance technology enables anyone with a modern browser on any platform to join an MX Meeting. Windows, Mac and Linux are rarely all supported by MX meeting challengers.
Have you ever seen a grown man cry?
Well I nearly did the other day! Let me explain. I was speaking with a client recently who was complaining about having to constantly travel between Brisbane and Sydney for business meetings. Sometimes these meetings would last for only half an hour but he would waste a whole day traveling back and forth because the meetings involved several people all traveling from different locations.
I then casually suggested that he might consider web conferencing instead. He gave me the usual laundry list of objections including:
– too difficult to use;
– unreliable;
– too expensive;
– poor interaction with participants.
That’s when I introduced him to web conferencing.
After a quick demo he was speechless, but after using it for his next meeting he couldn’t say enough about it. He was convinced that my off-the-cuff suggestion had:
– Saved him over $11,000 a year in travel costs;
– Massively reduced his carbon footprint, helping the environment;
– Saved him a minimum of 200 hours a year of productive work time.