Collaborative: Mixed Media

By Khali Henderson

Posted: 08/2002

Mixed Media
Audio, Web and Video Collaboration
Converge at the Desktop

By Khali Henderson and Fred
Dawson

REAL-TIME
COMMUNICATION is part of a larger business trend toward increased communication,
collaboration and knowledge management, says Lewis Ward, senior research analyst
for Collaborative Strategies LLC. "Over time, we anticipate that
collaboration will no longer be an ancillary business function, but rather it
will be the new core competency that binds the business world," he notes in
his 2002 report on the industry.

Evidence of this migration may lie
in an increasing effort to combine the components of real-time communication —
data/Web conferencing, audio conferencing and video conferencing — into turnkey
service and CPE offers virtually usable out of the box by businesses large and
small. Some even take into account previous investments in legacy
video-conferencing equipment and calendaring software as well as user proclivity
for using instant messaging tools.

Ultimately, this integration will
extend to nonreal-time collaboration tools commonly used in supply-chain
management, customer relationship management and product design projects,
resulting in opportunities for channel partners to bundle service packages.

Genesys Meeting Center 2.0 integrates voice, Web and multipoint video.

Three-in-One

"With the convergence of audio,
video and data (Web) conferencing, there is a drive for collaboration vendors to
provide one easy-to-use interface that supports a single application solution
that seamlessly integrates all components," says David Coleman, managing
director at Collaborative Strategies. He notes the first vendors to deliver on
this promise with a quality experience will be positioned well.

Polycom Inc. has taken an aggressive
role in facilitating such integration through its June acquisition of MeetU
Inc., the Israel-based developer of Web collaboration software. "The
acquisition is significant to us on a couple of levels," says John Nye,
vice president and general manager of mixed media collaboration at Polycom.
"It gives us an entry point into the fastest area of growth in the
conference business, which is Web conferencing, and it allows us to use Web
conferencing as a portal into the rich media conferencing capabilities of
Polycom Office."

Polycom uses service providers, VARs
and large distributors as channels in the marketing of its turnkey Polycom
Office solution, which employs a multipoint control unit to supply CPE- and
application-specific voice and video conferencing connections to desktops,
meeting rooms and other locations across the enterprise. With the MeetU product
integrated into the Polycom Office bridging solution under the Polycom WebOffice
brand name, channels will be able to deliver a more complete collaboration
solution to end users, Nye says.

But, he makes clear, this is just
the beginning of what needs to be done to tie together the full power of
Web-hosted collaboration tools with the real-time communications power of Web
and teleconferencing. "I’d envision us providing some templates and tools
and facilitating integration of our conferencing solutions with applications
solutions like Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes," Nye explains.

PolyCom is in good company; its
challengers, however, are coming at the solution from the other direction —
adding video to an existing Web/audio conferencing combo. WebEx widely
acknowledged as the leading Web conferencing service provider, has been offering
an integrated product for two years. The IP-based desktop video is single-point
in the current version, but multipoint is expected to be available around the
end of the year, according to a company spokesperson. In addition, in April
WebEx launched a new version of its Web conferencing service, WebEx Meeting
Center, that incorporates expanded communications capabilities of the WebEX
network to handle any media type – applications, video, telephony, data streams
and 3D CAD objects.

Resellers such as AT&T Corp.
NTT, WorldCom, France Telecom and Telia actively are selling its integrated
service, the spokesperson says.

This summer two other audio/Web
conferencing specialists — Genesys Conferencing and First Virtual
Communications Inc. (FVC) — have added multipoint video to their solutions.

Through its acquisition of the Web
conferencing company Astound, Genesys added Web conferencing to its proven audio
conferencing capabilities and launched Genesys Meeting Center last October.
Since the addition, "we’re getting three times the corporate take rate on
our offerings," says Bill Silk, strategic account manager at Genesys.

In June, the company released an
upgrade. Genesys Meeting Center 2.0 (see screenshot below) adds multipoint video
and integration with Microsoft Outlook Calendar and MSN Messenger.

With 2.0, desktop video works with
any standard Web camera and PC with Internet access. Those without a Web camera
can view other participants’ real-time image. In addition, Outlook integration
allows users to schedule, invite and manage their meetings from within their
Outlook Calendar. Further, MSN messenger users can launch a virtual meeting from
an MSN conversation window and bring the people with whom they are chatting into
the meeting center.

"Existing Genesys Meeting
Center accounts — both direct and indirect channels — will automatically be
upgraded with the new 2.0 enhancements," says Meg Brancato, wholesale
channel marketing manager. "Those customers who want the desktop video
enhancement can easily add that feature to their existing monthly
subscription."

Genesys offers unlimited audio usage
for up to 15 participants for $39.95 per month. An additional $20 per month
includes access to video capabilities. Multipoint video is available for $10 per
video participant connected to the meeting.

In contrast, FVC is offering an
enterprise software license for its new Click to Meet Express and Click to Meet
3.0 integrated audio, Web and video conferencing solutions, which leverage the
company’s acquisition of multipoint audio and video technology from CUseeMe.

"We believe that Click to Meet
brings the best of conferencing together," says Bob Ramano, executive vice
president of sales and marketing for FVC. "That includes full data
collaboration, full video capability and full audio."

Ramano says the new offers are
targeted to interactive group meetings of five to 10 people and allow everyone
to be seen, heard and share documents.

The Click to Meet auto-installing
browser plug-in delivers a range of tools, including document, spreadsheet and
presentation delivery; collaborative Web browsing; text chat, real-time
applications sharing; and multipoint audio and video. Each tool is delivered
through what FVC calls a Web conferencing "skin" that allows each
participant to chose a custom view — presentation centered, video centered or a
mixed view (see screenshot).

The system allows for video to be
viewed at up to 30 frames per second on a PC with no additional hardware. The
Web plug-in supports a full-screen video skin that has multiple
picture-in-picture video options.

Uniquely, the Click to Meet Web
interface and plug-ins interoperate with other standards-based IP video and
audio equipment as well as ISDN and ATM conferencing equipment through a
gateway. This means that conference room PCs can control room-based conferencing
systems, adding new collaborative capabilities to room-based meetings and
involving remote participants from their desktops.

The enterprise license lists at
approximately $1,500 per port for Click to Meet Express and $2,500 per port for
3.0, which adds directory and scheduling among other features. The service is
sold to enterprises exclusively through channel partners, which make about 30
percent to 40 percent margins, Ramano says.

In addition, service providers use
Click to Meet 3.0 as a platform for their own offerings. EDS, for example,
offers enterprises Click to Meet as a service as well as a license — giving
them the delivery option they prefer or, alternatively, a migration path from
service to software, Ramano says.

FVC’s Click to Meet solution delivers a range of tools for confrencing.

Blending In

Ward says some companies have a
unified offer, but what may be different is the off-the-shelf nature of the
Genesys and FVC releases. FVC’s integration with existing room-based systems is
a particularly significant development in that it adds the value of Web
conferencing to legacy video investment. On the other hand, the analyst is
unconvinced the addition of video to Web conferencing products is a market
driver. He says many providers have the capability to incorporate video and have
been providing it on a custom basis for some time. Low market demand for video
conferencing is the only reason they haven’t put a lot of development and
marketing muscle behind an integrated offer, he says. "Video has not been
very successful. It’s only getting toward primetime now."

In contrast, Ward says Web
conferencing is growing much faster. Collaborative Strategies analysis shows the
combined real-time communications market will be $6 billion by 2005 with Web
conferencing moving into the lead position in terms of revenue.

A Wainhouse Research SpotCheck
report on conferencing service providers also shows Web conferencing gaining on
video. Of the $596.8 million in conferencing revenue for first quarter 2002, 10
percent was video-based and 10 percent was Web-based, which the firm noted was
"up sharply from a year earlier."

Ward concedes video combined with
Web and audio conferencing might have some value in keeping participants engaged
or in niche uses where it’s important to demonstrate something.

Frost & Sullivan analyst David
Alexander agrees. Alexander says adding such capability will open the door to
new applications for the technology, such as distance learning and corporate
training.

With niche applications such as
these in mind, Genesys has incorporated a "quizzing" feature into 2.0.
The feature enables an instructor or trainer to instantly administer a test and
automatically receive graded results.

Wainhouse Research managing partner
Andrew W. Davis says looking at solutions like FVC’s Click to Meet piece by
piece is like not seeing the forest for the trees. "[Click to Meet] isn’t
about one-way, two-way or multipoint video. It isn’t about whiteboarding, app
sharing or remote presentations either," he writes in a review of the
product. "It’s about all of these combined into one application, one
flexible interface. [Click to Meet] is really a paradigm shift."

Blending of functionality does not
stop at the conferencing center but extends to other enterprise applications,
experts report.

"Enterprise users want a
collaboration solution that blends seamlessly with their existing work systems
and processes," says Andy Nilssen, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse
Research.

Citing one example, Nilssen says,
"By interfacing with Outlook and MSN Messenger, Genesys Meeting Center 2.0
takes a big step toward this integration and makes the adoption of a Web-based
conferencing tool very straightforward."

In another example, WebEx has a
branded offer called WebEx Training Center that incorporates features specific
to training environments and integrates with existing enterprise
content-management systems to access session data.

Timing is Everything

Integrated capabilities allow users
to break through barriers that separate what can be done collaboratively during
a real-time Web-based conference from what can be done using a nonreal-time
extended enterprise collaboration application.

Web-based solutions designed to
accommodate multienterprise collaboration on logistical applications like
supply-chain management, for example, require that people not be dependent
solely on peer-to-peer communications, notes John Motley, president and CEO of
LOG-NET Inc., a provider of such a solution. "Collaborating across all the
points of coordination in supply-chain management can’t depend on being able to
pull everybody together for a meeting every time an issue comes up," he
says. "We find we have to wean people away from depending on online
peer-to-peer contacts in order for them to make full use of the collaborative
capabilities of our system."

At the same time, the need for those
real-time communications and the ability to set up meetings on the fly is vital
to collaboration as well, Motley acknowledges. "Getting it all to work
together is the trick."

LOG-NET, which hosts logistics
execution software, works through various service providers such as Sprint
Corp., UUNet and Qwest Communications International Inc. to facilitate delivery
of its solution and its integration with real-time conferencing systems. Thus
LOG-NET becomes a value-added application that can be sold with conferencing as
a product suite through these carriers and their channels, Motley says.

"Putting together a community
of companies to set up end-to-end SCM collaboration is a complicated process
that requires the participation and cooperation of many entities," Motley
adds. "We do everything we can to facilitate that participation."