Online Conferencing Services

Cost Counts

Conference systems are priced much like cell phone plans--in other words, there's a lot of variety. Some vendors charge per minute or per participant; others impose a flat fee for conferences not exceeding a certain duration or number of participants. Still others require a monthly subscription.

We asked vendors for a cost based on annual number of conferences, number of users and conference length. LiveOffice charges a monthly fee (as low as $200 per month), then a per-minute, per-user rate. Netspoke charges per conference. Oracle bases its quote on unlimited minutes for the number of users in a given scenario. So dies WebEx Communications, which also lets you pay per minute.

Compare apples to apples: One product may go for half the competitor's price, but are you getting the same features? Check for teleconferencing options, which can affect cost dramatically. Oracle, for example, doesn't offer teleconferencing, whereas LiveOffice, Netspoke and WebEx do. Remember, rates are negotiable; customers with greater volume often cut better deals.

Functional ConsiderationsConsider how you'll be using the service. Your organization may run only Windows 2000 with Internet Explorer 6.0, for instance, but outside participants may use a Netscape browser or a Mac platform. Will that limit your functionality--some pages won't be rendered the same and there'll be no ActiveX support? Be sure the system supports all participants' browsers and OSs.

Unless you plan to use streaming media, bandwidth shouldn't be an issue. But look for vendors that let you reduce bandwidth consumption for streaming or screen-sharing to preserve what you need for base functionality.

Most conferencing systems offer a similar set of basic functions. But you can negotiate out some functions to reduce costs. If you don't need screen-sharing, for example, you may be able to shave a few cents off the per-minute charge by disabling it.

Speaking of screen-sharing, it's a powerful tool for demonstrating products. Remote access can be used to give a potential customer a trial run of your product--the customer can play with the user interface, try out features and learn about capabilities. Whiteboards are handy too, letting users scribble shapes, arrows and text. Some whiteboards let you underlay a graphic image so participants can make comments right over it, just like John Madden with his Telestrator.

Also worth considering are moderator capabilities. If you want the option of Q&A segments, choose a system that lets you prescreen the questions, so you can select the best ones or weed out redundant, offensive or irrelevant commentary--crucial for large, anonymous or public meetings. Moderators should be able to control who is speaking and who has control of the whiteboard and screen. Online polling is another handy capability--it gives the moderator the choice of broadcasting the poll results or keeping them confidential.Often, a combination of online and telephone conferencing is essential for making your point. Using a telephone instead of streaming media reduces bandwidth requirements and eliminates most voice QoS issues. But beware of the cost: We've seen up to 50 cents per minute for telephone conferencing, while online-only conferencing systems may charge less than half that. Chat rooms are an attractive alternative, but they don't allow for speech inflections and pauses in conversation.

Once you've made your point, do you want to save it for posterity? Conference-recording capabilities should extend to the contents of chat rooms, private instant messages, collaboration tools like whiteboard diagrams, and statistics, such as the roll call of participants and the times they entered or left the meeting. Some systems will let you replay conferences, but all pauses will be included. To eliminate those and other time killers, look for fast-forward and rewind capabilities in replays.

An alternative to live recording is a service that provides logs of all conversations and actions via e-mail, download or an online report center. If you must preserve meetings for months or years, look for a service that can download meeting contents.

Be sure the conference system you choose lets you comply with regulations. Financial institutions, for example, must observe privacy rules when archiving communications with clients and peers regarding accounts.

Keeping It SafeJust because your service provider uses HTTPS doesn't mean everything is encrypted. Make sure file transfers, streaming video and streaming audio are also encrypted.

Access-control capabilities must be clearly defined. If your conferences are only in-house, a participant may simply need a room ID number. For more complex conferencing, especially with outsiders, choose a system that lets you assign user names and passwords to each attendee.

Some systems require you to dial in to a telephone conferencing service for access to the online room. If you're opening conferences to unknown or out-of-network attendees, you should be able to disconnect any user who is misbehaving or experiencing connectivity problems disruptive to the meeting.

That power should be used to include as well as exclude. Be mindful of people with disabilities. Screen readers for the blind can't interpret images on whiteboards. People who rely on TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) can't use such services with streaming audio. Bottom line: Make sure the system you choose can meets the needs of all participants.

Michael J. DeMaria is an associate technology editor based at Network Computing's Real-World Labs at Syracuse University. Write to him at [email protected].

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