Stop the Web Conferencing Cost Clash

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April 14, 2003 (Computerworld) -- Web conferencing is creating a clash that pits departmental prerogatives against corporate cost savings. The departments need to retreat.
Defined as the ability to share documents, applications and even desktops, Web conferencing is a service outside the corporation, offered by the likes of WebEx, PlaceWare and Raindance. But as Web conferencing becomes a general business necessity, the argument that each department should be able to choose its own Web conferencing tool on an ad hoc basis is losing ground.
One reason is cost. At around $200 per seat per month, hosted Web conferencing can be expensive.
Another reason is technology. The T120 standard used by hosted services (based on P2P networking, and good for a small workgroup) doesn't scale when it comes to offering rich media.
This has left an opening for companies such as Pleasanton, Calif.-based Pixion. Rather than being exclusively a hosted service, Pixion software operates behind the enterprise firewall on Windows servers and integrates with your LDAP settings. Pixion claims that its server can accommodate up to 4,000 unique users concurrently. It uses a capture-frame technology that's recognized by the server, which then discerns who is to get which information or connection. In essence, you have a smart, secure server delivering Web conferencing functions at a cost of $6,625 for 10 seats per year.
That compares with $24,000 for an equivalent hosted service.
You'd think that something that much cheaper would be a shoo-in. But the challenge is in persuading marketing, sales, engineering and other departments to give up parts of the budget allocated to their own Web conferencing favorites. That's no easy task.
While I'm not sure Web conferencing should become a C-level management decision, it certainly needs some attention from IT managers.
If document- and application-sharing, Web pages, live annotation and whiteboarding are routine tools for your company's employees, then it's time to move Web conferencing decisions to a higher level. That means confronting corporate fiefdoms that still insist on buying IT a la carte.
Of course, other Web conferencing services have value. (WebEx is great for one-to-one sessions, Java-based PlaceWare is fine for one-to-many, and Raindance has supporters who commonly exchange and work on code.) And small or midsize companies may not see significant cost savings in adopting Pixion or its competitors.
But for the chief financial officer hoping to cut costs and for the CIO eager to promote company standardization, it's time to turn Web conferencing over to the enterprise.
Pimm Fox is a freelance writer in San Francisco. Contact him at pimmfox@pacbell.net.

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