Web Conferencing: How to Collaborate without Busting the Budget

In tough economic times, the business trip is often the first thing to go. Corporate sales meetings and training junkets in warm, sunny locations are postponed, and visits to out-of-town customers curtailed. Corporate travel may be on lockdown, but that doesn’t mean organizations have to give up the productivity value of face-to-face communications. Web conferencing allows organizations to effectively collaborate in real time, while keeping a lid on travel expenses.

“Web conferencing can add leagues of productivity to audio-only conference calls, that workhorse of business communications,” said Laurent Dinard, senior product manager at ShoreTel. “Web conferencing lets people collaborate better because they can see presentations and documents while simultaneously discussing the details. Corporate education departments can use Web conferencing as part of a blended learning program, and IT help desks can provide technical support using the remote-control capabilities in many Web conferencing solutions.”

Meet your match in conferencing solutions

As Web conferencing explodes in popularity, different purchasing options are available, including hosted services and in-house solutions. For many organizations, the advantages of audio and Web conferencing capabilities tightly integrated with a unified communication (UC) system include flexibility and efficiency, since conferencing services can be readily accessed through other communications features.

Plus, with an on-premise solution, organizations can eliminate the recurring monthly charges of hosted Web services, and leverage their own network trunking services, rather than paying premium charges from service providers. With Web conferencing integrated into a UC system, organizations can easily support collaboration and virtual meetings both internally, and with other businesses.

To evaluate Web conferencing needs, organizations must start by understanding how much is currently spent on audio and Web conferencing. Audio conferencing costs are typically easy to determine, as they’re often a line item in the telecom budget. Bear in mind that with only the upfront acquisition costs and low ongoing maintenance of an in-house solution, organizations eliminate recurring costs and typically see a return on investment (ROI) within six to nine months. By taking advantage of a leasing or other financing program, savings can be immediate.

Define the Technical Requirements

An effective Web conferencing solution must meet some key technical requirements, including:

  • Calendar integration with Microsoft Outlook. This enables users to schedule an audio or Web conference from inside a Microsoft Outlook appointment by simply responding “Yes” to a conference. The system automatically assigns access codes and pastes details into the meeting invitation. All in just a couple of mouse clicks.
  • Conference control. The Web conferencing solution must give users control over their conferences, including the ability to set up one-time and recurring calls, and to have leader-required or leaderless calls. Conference leaders must be able to mute, drop and hold parties, either individually or as a whole. Another helpful feature, particularly when a key participant doesn’t show, is the ability to dial-out and add additional parties to the Web conference.
  • Reservation capacity. Understanding business requirements for conferences helps organizations size the reservation capacity of an in-house system. The system also must enable users to make port reservations to ensure available capacity for critical meetings.
  • Document and application sharing. Participants must be able to share documents and presentations, and record sessions as necessary. Different levels of application sharing are often useful. These may range from sharing a window to sharing an entire desktop, or collaboratively editing a document. Document and application security is also critical during these sessions, and options for passwords and SSL encryption must be included, depending on the sensitivity of the content.
  • Integration with Microsoft Active Directory. For organizations using Microsoft, a Web conferencing solution must integrate with Microsoft Active Directory so that individuals can log on to the Web conferencing system with their Windows credentials and eliminate the need for multiple passwords.
  • Ease of installation and management. Key to a quick ROI is a conferencing system that is easy to install and manage. Many Web conferencing products add complexity to the network, and require the assistance of a professional systems integrator to install. “With ShoreTel, the person managing the ShoreTel system can easily add Web conferencing without needing additional skill sets or training,” said Dinard.

Make all ends meet with ShoreTel Converged Conferencing

An effective conferencing solution keeps workers productive, and fosters successful collaboration between employees, customers and business partners, regardless of their location. By taking advantage of Web-based collaboration tools, employees can benefit from the interactive dynamics of a meeting without the hassles and cost of travel. Learn how the rich conferencing and collaboration capabilities of ShoreTel Converged Conferencing can help your organization successfully bring together a meeting of the minds, whenever it’s necessary.