kepping comms simple
Published January 18, 2008 at 10:21 pm · Filed under Comms / IT
Ubiquitous broadband, IP telephony, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and the emergence of telepresesence systems are opening up new possibilities in collaboration. But, as Tim Duffy explains to Business Info, bread and butter audio conferencing still dominates the market.
Changing working practices, always on internet access and growing interest in carbon reduction strategies mean that there has never been greater demand for collaboration services.
One of the companies profiting from this interest is audio and web conferencing specialist MeetingZone, which was set up by Steve Gandy and Tim Duffy in 2002 and now has 8,000 clients.
For the last three years, MeetingZone has grown by 67% per annum; in September, it was listed in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 of Britain’s fastest growing private technology companies; and in November it opened its first European office in Berlin, Germany.
Despite the buzz around telepresence systems and videoconferencing over IP, MeetingZone’s focus is on audio and web conferencing, which still make up the lion’s share of the $4.1 billion global market for collaboration services.
“We are focusing the company where the big market is and that’s audio and web conferencing for people who have a browser and a phone,” explained MeetingZone CEO Tim Duffy. “Videoconferencing is not the main market. Video is struggling to get real traction and has been for 20 years. It’s a minority part of the business.”
Audio-conferencing still makes up 80% of the collaboration services market, which is continuing to grow strongly - by 20-30% per annum in the UK - despite the ability of organisations to set-up and manage conferences themselves (using a PBX or in-house conference bridge). Duffy believes that the market for services is so healthy because an outsourced service remains much the simplest option.
“Big companies can put conference bridges on IP PBXs but they are not simple to manage and administrate so it’s very cost-effective to use a service provider. A lot of companies that have bought a bridge go back to a service provider because it’s easy. Service providers are more resilient. We spend a lot of time day-in-and-day-out making this work: it’s not trivial and there aren’t any shortcuts,” he explained.
New levels of convenience
From the start MeetingZone has made ease of use one of its main selling points. Its whole service is highly automated, so that it is possible to find MeetingZone on Google, open an account and use the service without once talking to a service agent.
In October MeetingZone launched a new Click to Conference service that takes automation to new levels of convenience by eliminating the need for conference participants to remember dial-in numbers and conference access codes. All they have to do is click on the link sent with the host’s invitation e-mail and the MeetingZone system will automatically call the individual and pull them into the conference. Invitations even integrate with Outlook, which automatically adds meeting dates to calendars and issues reminders.
“It’s small things like that, which make the service really easy to use,” commented Duffy. “We are not aware of anyone else who has done this in a mainstream conferencing product.”
Click to Conference is a key component of MeetingZone’s Conference Portal, which provides customers with all the tools needed to manage audio and web conferences, including the ability to see the entire conference, mute someone’s line, record the conference and replay it at a later date.
Web conferencing capabilities include MeetingZone Presenter for full data collaboration over the internet and MeetingZone Glance, which gives a view of the team leader’s screen, with the ability to pass control of the computer backwards and forwards.
Transparent billing
Another selling point of MeetingZone’s service is the real-time and transparent billing system. After every call, customers receive an email with details of the conference. Call history can be viewed online, enabling customers to see details of every conference they have made: how long it lasted; how much it cost; who the participants were; and even what number they dialled in on. There is also a hierarchical billing option so that conferences can be billed to different offices, departments or clients.
The ability to ‘self-manage’ one’s account via the MeetingZone portal, e.g. by viewing billing details, scheduling conferences, managing recordings etc., is another example of MeetingZone’s commitment to customer service, for which it was awarded a 2006 Frost and Sullivan Award for Customer Service Innovation, and a major reason for its continued success.
“We are succeeding because we are good at what we do and have really nice service offerings. We have a fantastic client list and have amazing power on the MeetingZone portal,” said Duffy. “And the whole collaboration market is going crazy. Everyone wants to find new ways to meet and collaborate effectively.”
If those ways are simple to set up and manage, all the better.
http://www.meetingzone.com/ 01844 205001
Tim Duffy, MeetingZone CEO: “The whole collaboration market is going crazy”
