Web Conferencing EmbracedWeb Conferencing Embraced

NEC's server business unit spends $2,000 a month for 30 concurrent licenses to use the services of Raindance Communications Inc., part of a 150-license agreement for the entire company. Csaplar's staff uses the service for internal meetings, but it's customer qualifications--during which he and his sales team show prospects product features--that deliver the most value.

"Almost every Webcast I do is money in the bank," says Csaplar, who estimates he's doing 10 customer Webcasts a week. "If it saves me one trip a quarter, it's paid for itself." Customers love it because they get a clear understanding of NEC's technology without having to host the vendor on-site, he adds. "By the time we're done with the Webcast, the customer understands the technology, the pricing, and the competition, and we understand the customer's business and needs," he says. Without Webcasts, "we'd be lost on how to communicate with the customer without spending a lot of money."

Global environmental engineering firm Black & Veatch Corp., which uses Raindance's service, has been able to cut what it charges its customers thanks to the role Raindance has played in reducing travel costs, but the company is more excited about using Web conferencing as a strategic component of its global knowledge-management and collaboration strategy, says Michael Lamb, director of E-business and Internet services.

Black & Veatch uses Raindance to distribute best practices, and it holds monthly Web conferences, during which its offices share expertise. That has cut weeks off the time it takes to get best practices out to all of the offices. The company also uses the tool for application sharing, with participants passing control of computer-aided design drawings back and forth.

Once they get past the travel-reduction benefits and the rudimentary use of Web conferencing to conduct virtual meetings, all companies can find more-sophisticated ways to leverage the technology. But in a tight economy, with travel growing more uncertain with every international development, most businesses are happy simply to have a new way of doing business.

"People are very accepting of this," NEC's Csaplar says. "I don't see us ever going back to the heavy travel thing." Instead, they've replaced it with a welcome dose of collaboration.

Illustration by Rich Lillash