In an age of constant growth and tremendous technological advancement, there is a compelling need for enhanced communications, faster decision-making, higher productivity and the deployment of new technologies that reduce travelling costs.
Net conferencing changes the way in which people use the Internet to communicate. It is designed to enhance communication to large or small groups by adding a visual component to virtual meetings. Not only does it enable meetings without travel, presentations without meetings and training without delay, but most importantly, it can be deployed seamlessly throughout any large organisation.
By using the power of the Internet, presentations can be brought to meeting participants - without anyone having to travel. All they have to do is log-on to a pre-determined Web site to view the materials. Net conferencing solves problems that organisations face every day, such as wanting to avoid the expense and hassle of travel and the need to deliver time-sensitive information without scheduling multiple people across multiple geographies for a single meeting.
Online meetings allow anyone with a Web browser to share information in real-time. Audio is added to PowerPoint content to put rich, multimedia presentations within the grasp of the average user. This tangible solution gives the meeting host complete control over the interactive capabilities of the participants. The host can limit their capabilities, or give them the same controls.
Unfortunately, even organisations with the infrastructure to link their communications on a national level do not typically have this technology available. Due to limited bandwidth and a lack of infrastructure, companies are not able to deploy these technologies. Where it does exist, the experience is either one of two things - expensive and somewhat oddly futuristic (you go to the video conferencing room and plan meetings carefully), or cheap and basically unusable.
Worldwide, audio conferencing is the fastest growing technology, with a 40% growth rate year-on-year, while video conferencing is close behind with a growth rate of 25% every year. In SA, however, Web conferencing grows at a rate of less than 1%, due to the restraining bandwidth costs.
Net conferencing features include application sharing, traceable live polls, editable vector-based whiteboards and file transfer. Recorded meetings are now indexed and searchable, along with presentations stored in the content library. Now anyone can instantly access live meetings, presentations and rich content (including video, audio, documents, animations, graphics and voice over IP) without lengthy downloads or extensive configuration.
Various conferencing options are currently available to ensure a company`s specific needs are met. These include:
* Reserved Net Conference - a feature-rich tool that allows a person to create a call that is suited to the needs of their company. It is designed to enhance communication to groups of people, either large or small, by adding a visual component. One can demonstrate applications right from one`s PC or take participants on a live tour of a Web site.
Reserved Net Conferencing also offers additional meeting management capabilities, allowing you to:
* Load your handouts onto the Internet so participants can download them at any time, including those individuals who weren`t able to join your presentation
* Record your conference so that participants who were unable to attend can watch and listen to a replay of your presentation over the Internet at their convenience, 24 hours a day for up to 10 days
* Instant Net Conference allows you to create a Net conference within seconds and without a reservation. Instant Net Conference is used when questions arise on conference calls, or when pulling together a small group for a presentation. With Instant Net Conference a person is able to create presentations, edit documents and collaborate in real-time. It`s an ideal way to increasing efficiency by conducting daily tasks without having to e-mail documents back and forth.
Instant Net Conferencing has a variety of features, which allows you to share a presentation, application or a Web browser by loading this onto the screen and making it possible for all the participants to view and edit it.
* Net Replay is available for Reserved Net Conferences and ensures the important presentation is heard and seen by everyone that needs to be reached, even those unable to attend your live meeting. During the Net Conference, data and audio portions of the meeting can be recorded and synchronised and then made available via the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Net conferencing is gaining a lot of traction as companies use it to streamline costs and communicate more efficiently. While many solutions focus solely on adding value to live meetings, there is a significant opportunity for companies to achieve even greater value from solutions that provide the ability to archive and search content from previous sessions and to maintain persistent online meeting areas for regular use.
Today we have reached a point where video conferencing over 3G has arrived, meaning that mobile group meetings can be held via cellphone. In South African terms, video conferencing came into being in 1991, with the installation of the first unit at Unisa, and today 80% of the top 500 companies in the country use it. The key issue is that locally we do not have to wait for the future to come - the technology is already here.
Although video conferencing on the Internet is currently being requested from many service providers, they cannot deliver on those expectations right now. Apart from restrictions on marketing, this kind of service limitations imposed on by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is an unfortunate interplay between unrealistically high expectations on the side of the user and the restrictions of networks and technology.
Regarded by many as the "sleeper" application for the Internet, video conferencing does, nonetheless, hold a lot of promise. The problem is that we are still a long way from attaining the kind of bandwidth that we need for a pleasurable conferencing experience. Until a local backbone network can be offered cheaply and effectively, there is little hope in this equation.
Internet bandwidth in SA is a type of value-added service, and everything revolves around access to resources that are primarily located offshore (North America and Europe). This is where the Internet is a cost-effective resource - in information access and shared international bandwidth. Local businesses simply could not afford point-to-point connections for every international data requirement.
For the Internet to become a true alternative to point-to-point dedicated wide area networking, several things have to happen in SA. These include better local content (to redress the current imbalance between local and international activities), telecommunications deregulation and - perhaps - fewer assumptions about the Internet being all things to all people.
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