Web Video Conferencing

For every business organization, real time collaboration services satisfy most meeting needs. But with the business travel landscape continually altering, the business organization is experiencing drastic changes brought on by world and economic conditions as combined with technological advancements. One such advancement in technology is web video conferencing.

The Travel Industry Association of America conducted a recent survey on business travel scenarios and the impact of such technologies as web video conferencing. According to this survey, nearly three quarters of business air travelers interviewed believed that conducting meetings with colleagues and customers via Webcasting or web video conferencing and related tools is somewhat or much more efficient than traveling somewhere to meet face-to-face. However, the same survey mentioned that only 37 per cent of those interviewed actually agreed that the use of web video conferencing technology is more effective than in-person meetings as a way to met business goals.

So, if closing deals or fixing a large engagement gone sour requires a more personal touch than the real time virtual environment that web video conferencing provides, what then is the role of this new technological trend?

In actuality, web video conferencing can offer many ways of improving otherwise time-consuming and money-wasting organizational practices. For instance, web video conferencing can help you reduce costs and still manage to become more successful than you are now. For one, web video conferencing is ideal for project reviews. It can also successfully streamline employee training especially for regulatory compliance. Web video conferencing can also help during prospective employee interviews, contract negotiations, and keeping in touch with offshore resources.

The Big Three

When it comes to web video conferencing, the most visible industry giants are the pioneers – Macromedia, Microsoft, and WebEx Communications. With their web video conferencing software, meetings could be set up with ease, using each solution’s set of tools for managing conferences, as well as its collaboration and archive functions, audio and recording features, performance, and integration with enterprise apps.

All three products offer quite the same features in web video conferencing but their subsequent improvements have been noted to become increasingly disparate. For instance, each has made it easier for hosts to deliver presentations and for audience members not only to follow what’s going on during presentations but also to offer feedback. However, there are also some fundamental differences on how this particular solution is delivered.

WebEx Meeting Center provides clear demarcation between meeting content and management tools. This therefore allows participants to focus on content. Likewise, Macromedia Breeze Meeting Central 5 is a Flash-based web video conferencing software. It successfully employs Flash to create a customizable, intuitive user interface. Microsoft Office Live Meeting on the other integrates with Office applications, thus offering you with a familiar and streamlined user interface.