1. RAINDANCE
IMPROVING
RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH
WEB CONFERENCING
The importance and value of relationships in the business
world cannot be overestimated. Business is built on rela-
tionships, whether internally with employees or externally
with customers, suppliers and others. Relationships do not
just happen — they are developed over time and with
effort, carefully constructed on the foundation of frequent,
meaningful and deliberate communication and interaction.
Without care and attention over time, relationships falter.
1. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
2. RAINDANCE
Companies spend billions on CRM products to ing the conversation, IDC concluded.
manage relationships and schedule meetings, Web conferencing overcomes the limita-
all to maintain and increase mindshare with tions of traditional methods of building and
important contacts. These meetings are an improving relationships over geographical dis-
integral part of building relationships. tances. By creating a virtual, multimedia
Meetings serve as a means for communication meeting environment, complete with integrat-
and collaboration, and are the vehicle for ed video, whiteboarding and application shar-
sharing ideas, conveying thoughts and solicit- ing, web conferencing offers many of the same
ing feedback. Whether the meeting called is a interactivity benefits once associated only with
formal gathering of senior management, an in-person meetings but does so without incur-
employee training session or a few staff mem- ring the time and expense associated with
bers getting together over coffee to brainstorm travel. Like e-mail, web conferencing can be
the next great product or service, meetings used easily at anytime, from any place and
are the foundation of business relationships without pre-scheduling. For example, with
and the basis for new relationships. The eco- Raindance Meeting Edition’s seamless integra-
nomic challenge faced by many companies tion with Microsoft Outlook makes starting up
today is how to improve business relation- a web conference is just as fast and easy as
ships while streamlining operations and sending an e-mail — but without e-mail’s
reducing costs. drawbacks. And web conferencing offers use-
As discovered by many companies that ful visual representation of ideas that's miss-
reexamined cost structures during recent tight ing from traditional audio conferencing.
economic times, web conferencing is the Once considered only as an alternative to
solution to this challenge. These organiza- large, preplanned “special” meetings, like a
tions discovered that they could reduce gathering of the corporate board of directors,
expenses related to corporate travel related to Organizational invest- web conferencing is now being deployed for
business meetings, meetings that serve as a ment in web confer- impromptu staff gatherings to review docu-
critical vehicle for communication and collab- encing solutions ments and status on projects, sales presenta-
oration. Indeed, the Washington Business should reach $1.15 tions with prospects and product rollout meet-
Journal estimated in 2002 that corporate billion by 2006, up ings to nurture existing relationships with
travel costs totaled $470 billion annually. from $513 million in channel partners. Those investing in web con-
Most companies simply cosider these large 2002. Forrester ferencing quickly realized that the technology
sums as yet another unavoidable cost of doing empowers frequent and meaningful interac-
Research expects
business, something like interest charges or tion among peers, customers and partners.
growth of more than
D&O insurance. The strong market demand for web conferenc-
75 percent per year
These companies also discovered the com- ing demonstrates the technology’s success
mon alternatives to in-person meetings to be
through 2008. and efficacy as a meeting alternative for
less than optimal. For instance, many regard building and improving relationships:
e-mail as impersonal. The frequency of e-mail In June, 2004, IDC reported that overall
use has diminished its effectiveness as a vehi- use of web conferencing is rising as more
cle for meaningful communication. Many con- organizations become familiar with it and
sider e-mail from outside of their organization appreciate its value. Organizational invest-
to be useless chatter that is better ignored — ment in web conferencing solutions should
spam. Indeed, in a June, 2004 study on reach $1.15 billion by 2006, up from $513
meeting productivity, IDC acknowledged e- million in 2002. Forrester Research expects
mail’s inherent limitations: It is not interac- growth of more than 75 percent per year
tive, often resulting in misinterpretation; it is through 2008.
not well-integrated into other tools; and it IDC also reported that with users seeing how
often fails to convey a sense of urgency. web conferencing can be used in the course of
Similarly, audio conferencing is a useful tool everyday business, web conferencing is “fast
but also has limitations. Because many peo- becoming something users do several times a
ple learn by seeing, there is a risk that half day as opposed to once or twice a week, and
the participants may have trouble understand- users find that their meetings have more con-
2. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
3. RAINDANCE
text, better focus and great participation rates.” Almost half clicks. During the web conference, the customer is able
of the companies IDC surveyed for the study plan to increase to see and interact with Company B’s representative,
web conferencing usage by 100% in the next six months. face-to-face. Company B’s representative takes the
While web conferencing may not replace every in-per- prospect through the presentation, adjusting pace and
son meeting, it is a proven, sensible alternative for many tweaking content by reading the prospect’s body lan-
day-to-day business meetings. It is also an emerging solu- guage. The day after the presentation, the prospect e-
tion for the growing number of mobile and remote workers mails the representative with product questions, and the
in today’s economy, empowering interactive communica- representative responds immediately by inviting the
tions among peers, customers and partners, anytime and prospect to an impromptu web conference. The prospect
regardless of location. Indeed, IDC stated that web confer- accepts, and the representative uses the web conferenc-
encing is now perceived “as a critical component of next- ing solution’s application sharing features to walk the
generation enterprise collaboration.” Web conferencing customer through the software itself, allowing the cus-
solutions like Raindance Meeting Edition are easy to use tomer to experience the answers directly. By watching the
and encourage spontaneous, meaningful collaboration prospect’s reactions during the conference, the represen-
through features and functionalities previously unavail- tative believes the prospect is satisfied, questions
able over the web, such as integrated video and audio, answered. They agree to talk in the following week, and
whiteboarding and application sharing. As a result, IDC Company B’s representative immediately schedules the
reports, e-mail and audio conferencing will no longer web conference through Outlook.
shoulder the bulk of collaboration: “Web conferencing will During the lengthy e-mail chain between Company A and
provide the visual interactivity that is critical for effective the prospect, Company B’s representative follows-up with
collaboration.” the prospect as promised, and they enter the multimedia
An example helps illustrate the business case and web conference with a few mouse clicks. Realizing that he
value proposition for web conferencing. Consider two com- needs technical support to answer the customer’s query, he
panies, A and B, competing for the same software sale promptly invites another staff member to the conference,
with a prospective customer. Using traditional methods of and resolves the issue within minutes. The prospect con-
communication, Company A approaches the sales cycle. cludes that the products of both Company A and Company
After several e-mails with presentation materials attached, B appear comparable, but that Company B is more efficient
Company A’s sales representative makes several phone and responsive, and decides to purchase from Company B.
calls to a prospective customer to coordinate and sched- Company A’s representative calls the next day, only to dis-
ule onsite appointments, realizing that the prospect large- cover that the sale is lost, and the customer is satisfied with
ly ignored the presentation documents, jumping immedi- both Company B’s product and support.
ately to the last page. To attend the first appointment of a
busy week of onsite sales meetings, the representative BUSINESS AND OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES IN
travels several hours to a one hour meeting with the IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS
prospect. After the meeting, while on the road visiting Trust is perhaps the most important element in lasting
other potential clients, the sales representative receives e- business relationships. If those in a business relationship
mails from the prospect with product questions that are not familiar and comfortable with each other, the
remain unanswered for 48 hours. During that time, the resulting interaction is often formal and complex. For
prospect begins to consider other solutions, including example, a company just starting a business relationship
Company B. Upon return from traveling days later, with a new partner may investigate qualifications, operat-
Company A’s representative answers the prospect’s ques- ing history and run a credit check to assess financial
tions by e-mail and follows-up by phone, but the prospect, wherewithal prior to a transaction. By contrast, after sever-
being busy, has not had an opportunity to apply the al years of successful and mutually beneficial transactions,
answers to the product. When the prospect later reviews friendly meetings and holiday cards, the company will like-
the answers, he still finds himself confused, and again e- ly overlook such formalities because the perceived risk in a
mails the Company A representative. It takes a few traded trusted relationship is low.
voicemails and a lengthy e-mail chain over the span of In the business world, trust is given rarely, it must be
several days for Company A’s representative to clear things earned. Over time and after frequent positive interactions,
up with the prospective customer. trust serves as the cornerstone of a strong business rela-
Company B leverages web conferencing, and sched- tionship. Whether in the form of a loyal customer, faithful
ules an online, multimedia sales presentation with the employee or reliable channel partner, visionary companies
same prospect quickly and easily with a few mouse strive to build strong relationships because they are the
3. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
4. RAINDANCE
link to the future — tomorrow’s customers, tomorrow’s Frequency of meaningful interaction: Taking together
employees, tomorrow’s partners. the other challenges — distance, logistics and limitations
The challenges facing organizations that look to improve of traditional tools — facilitating frequent, meaningful
long-term relationships are many, but they all relate back interaction with customers, associates and partners
to economics: money, and the time value of money. becomes more difficult. The adage “out of sight, out of
Relationships require attention and interaction, which mind” often applies here.
translates into numerous meetings. Because organizations Failure to maintain these relationships adequately
have limited resources, they must plan carefully which results in lost customers, disgruntled employees, a broken
meetings to attend, which relationships to prioritize while supply chain or some other less than optimal outcome. For
others wait. The hectic pace and global nature of business instance, research shows that it costs five times as much
today amplifies the challenge, requiring account execu- to recruit a new customer than to retain an existing cus-
tives, project managers, channel managers and other pro- tomer. Coupled with the fact that customers today typical-
fessionals to service a number of different relationships on ly have a number of choices for any given product or serv-
an ongoing, daily basis. Some of the typical obstacles and ice, this explains why companies spend time and money
challenges sales organizations face in servicing relation- on CRM packages and maintaining good relations. And
ships include: failure is measured only by the perceptions of the other: A
Barriers of distance and geography: Business associ- company may believe that it is improving relations with
ates — customers, prospects, employees and partners — periodic e-mail blasts, but if the customer perceives the
may be located in different parts of the city, state, coun- company to be spamming his inbox — that the company’s
try or world. Account executives, for example, are expect- communication is frequent but not meaningful — the cus-
ed to service and be responsive to customers, regardless tomer’s perception will likely prevail. Put simply, it pays to
of their venue, even if it requires onsite travel. Working maintain relationships with appropriate and interactive
together on projects efficiently and effectively, and communication tools.
improving employee morale, with remote team members
is also important, but bringing remote members together WEB CONFERENCING AS A TOOL FOR
to meet in-person on a regular basis may be neither effi- IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS
cient nor cost effective. Similarly, maintaining important Today’s web conferencing solutions solve the challenges
supplier relationships can be difficult, particularly when facing organizations in improving relationships — physical
the supplier is located on the other side of the world. And distance, logistics, limitations of traditional communica-
it is obvious that as time spent traveling increases, the tions tools and frequency of interaction. Web conferencing
time available to service these relationships decreases. technologies bring people together online, empowering
Logistical issues: The typical account executive, chan- meaningful, interactive communications. By creating a vir-
nel manager and project leader must manage multiple tual, multimedia environment, complete with integrated
relationships simultaneously. Nonetheless, building and audio and video, web conferencing today is able to nurture
improving relationships often requires that communica- and build upon the same business relationships that once
tion and interaction to be immediate, resolving issues and demanded in-person meetings. Some of the benefits of
meeting deadlines promptly and satisfactorily. Regardless web conferencing include:
of the number of relationships managed, customers, Cost savings: By using web conferencing as an alterna-
employees and partners like to feel that they are impor- tive to appropriate face-to-face meetings, organizations
tant, and addressing their questions and issues quickly save on business travel-related expenditures. And the cost
and meaningfully helps in building and improving these savings increase as more users within the organization
relationships. leverage web conferencing instead of traditional travel.
Limitations of traditional communications tools: Time-related savings: Companies leveraging web confer-
Recognizing the time and money required for in-person encing save time in two different ways. First, because web
meetings, many companies rely on e-mail and audio con- conferencing obviates much of the need for meeting travel,
ferencing to interact with customers, employees and part- users have additional time to perform other job tasks,
ners. While convenient, e-mail and audio communica- increasing overall productivity. Second, because of the
tions are limited compared with traditional, in-person integrated nature of web conferencing solutions like
meetings which can result in misinterpretation. In other Raindance Meeting Edition, users also save time from hav-
words, e-mail and audio communication fail to deliver the ing to schedule meetings in advance or track down partici-
same meaningful interaction that is associated typically pants through multiple phone calls and e-mail threads.
with face-to-face discussion. Users also save time because of improved communication
4. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
5. RAINDANCE
throughout the organization. “face-to-face element, even when we weren’t able to meet
Improved communication and collaboration: Web con- in-person,” stated Tommy Stinson.
ferencing allows meeting participants to share desktop SBI.Razorfish realized a number of benefits by adopting
resources, including documents and applications, with web conferencing — Raindance Meeting Edition — as an
one another in real-time. In conjunction with integrated organizational best practice, including improved quality
multimedia audio and multipoint video, meeting partici- assurance and increased staff efficiency. “You don't really
pants are able to work on the same documents together, understand the power of Raindance Meeting Edition until
minimizing miscommunications and errors that often you start using it. When you move from audio or e-mail to a
result from unwieldy e-mail chains where multiple people truly integrated web, video and audio solution, you start to
are editing the same document. This improved communi- wonder how you ever had the time and patience to do
cation and collaboration also results in quicker decision things any other way,” said Bob Lord.
times and better-informed decisions.
Positive perceptions: Companies that use web confer- DISPELLING THE MYTHS OF WEB
encing technologies are often perceived as modern, CONFERENCING
visionary, efficient and responsive. Customers prefer to The positive experiences enjoyed by companies like
transact with companies they perceive as efficient and SBI.Razorfish with Raindance Meeting Edition underscores
responsive. Employees prefer to work for organizations the value of web conferencing as a sensible, inexpensive
they perceive as visionary. Partners prefer to associate alternative to face-to-face meetings, dispelling mispercep-
with companies they perceive as modern. In the business tions of the past
world, perception matters. Ad hoc, small group gatherings benefit from web confer-
Increased job satisfaction: Leveraging the features of encing technologies: Large, formal meetings often give the
web conferencing, employees are more productive and get perception of being rigid, impersonal and cold. Building
more work done on any given day. They spend less time and nurturing relationships is performed more easily and
tracking down contacts, traveling to and from meetings and with greater effect in small, informal meetings.
making multiple rounds of edits to documents. Web con- Organizations researching and analyzing the productivity
ferencing also supports remote workers, telecommuters impacts of informal meetings, such as the World Bank, dis-
and other employees with alternative work arrangements. covered that informal meetings are often more productive
Despite market maturity and the technological advances than large, formal meetings. Supporting this conclusion,
of recent years, some misperceptions of web conferencing IDC’s June 2004 white paper on meeting productivity
still linger from the days of early adoption. For example, noted that companies need web conferencing solutions
some still view web conferencing as a complicated technol- that emulate informal, in-person meetings that happen
ogy that is limited to large, formal, preplanned gatherings during the ordinary course of the business day.
like large-scale marketing seminars. Others avoid web con- Today’s web conferencing solutions, like Raindance
ferencing on the belief that the technology is unreliable. Meeting Edition, are flexible and powerful collaborative
And still others believe that web conferencing is difficult to tools that facilitate informal, in-person gatherings through
deploy and complicated to use. virtual meeting rooms complete with integrated multipoint
Recent adopters of the latest web conferencing solu- video and audio.
tions, however, see the next-generations of these technolo- Web conferencing is an economical alternative to many
gies as an easy-to-use, convenient, intuitive and powerful face-to-face meetings: With the commoditization of broad-
tool that helps control costs and improve relationships. For band connectivity and traditional audio conferencing, web
example, consider SBI.Razorfish, the interactive consult- conferencing prices today are modest compared with the
ing team of the SBI Group, an international firm with more alternatives. As an estimate, the cost of a single, out-of-
than 900 consultants across 16 offices in North America town, overnight business trip for one person is greater than
and Europe. SBI.Razorfish could not always meet with the cost of a fully integrated multimedia web conferencing
clients in-person, and needed an integrated, multimedia solution for 10 users for an entire month.
solution to present materials, share information and build Web conferencing technologies offer reliable, on-
stronger client relationships remotely. To meet these chal- demand meeting venues: For any technology to be accept-
lenges, SBI.Razorfish adopted web conferencing, ultimate- ed as corporate practice, it must be reliable and perform
ly choosing Raindance Meeting Edition as the collaboration well, whenever it is needed. Like a telephone, when you
platform. With integrated multimedia web conferencing, pick up the handset to make a call, you expect to hear the
Raindance helps SBI.Razorfish improve both client rela- dial tone. Web conferencing is no different. Whenever a
tionships and internal team relationships, adding the user needs to hold a meeting, web conferencing must be
5. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
6. RAINDANCE
available. Whether the user planned the meet- acceptance if it is perceived as complex or
ing a week in advance or just moments earlier is difficult to use. For example, some web con-
not relevant. Additionally, the web conferencing ferencing solutions require that users login
solution should not experience performance to a designated URL and use complicated
degradation with increases in the number of interfaces to organize and conduct meet-
users. For instance, Gartner indicated that ings. Raindance’s Meeting Edition takes a
WebEx performance “can be uneven, although different approach, offering an integrated
WebEx maintains its own high-traffic network.” desktop web conferencing tool that starts up
This is in large part because WebEx uses a meetings with a few clicks of the mouse.
“mono-server” approach: A single server bears Raindance Meeting Edition is also user-
the burden of delivering all functionalities. friendly and intuitive, employing a graphical
For example, when iN DEMAND — the world’s interface that navigates like Windows XP,
leading provider of video-on-demand (VOD) making it easy for anyone familiar with
and pay-per-view (PPV) programming — Windows. By contrast, in a May 2004 study,
chose Raindance Meeting Edition over Gartner noted that WebEx’s “interface can
WebEx, the company specifically evaluated be complex.”
the performance difference. iN DEMAND Indeed, SBI.Razorfish agreed with Gartner’s
required application sharing — 20GB stream- assessment of WebEx. Prior to selecting
ing video files — for multiple users simultane- Ease-of-use was Raindance, the company tried WebEx, but con-
ously, and discovered that other products per- also important to cluded that the WebEx platform’s rigid struc-
formed poorly under the heavy loads. iN DEMAND, who ture and complex interface “prevented the staff
Raindance maximizes performance reliabil- chose Raindance from really taking advantage of it,” stated
ity and minimizes degradation through its Meeting Edition David Katz, project manager for SBI.Razorfish.
SwitchTower technology, which hosts each over WebEx, “WebEx's solution is less than ideal for a num-
functionality (e.g., audio, video, application Arkadin and ber of reasons, but mostly because the collabo-
sharing) on different servers. By housing func- Microsoft ration and application-sharing features are far
tionalities separately, no single server carries LiveMeeting, as well less flexible and easy to use than Raindance
the full burden of a given meeting, thus as some “mom and Meeting Edition. When my team gets started on
increasing overall performance relative to a pop” products. something and an issue comes up that we want
solution that uses a single “mono-server” other people to weigh in on, we want to be able
approach. The SwitchTower approach also to address that immediately.”
improves overall system “uptime” — Ease-of-use was also important to iN
Raindance boasts an impressive 99.99% sys- DEMAND, who chose Raindance Meeting
tems uptime that includes both planned main- Edition over WebEx, Arkadin and Microsoft
tenance and unexpected downtime. LiveMeeting, as well as some “mom and pop”
The most powerful and feature-rich web products. Brian Boyd, iN DEMAND’s senior
conferencing solutions may also be the sim- director of strategy, acknowledged that the
plest and most intuitive to use: Today’s web company wanted a powerful tool with a lot of
conferencing solutions, like Raindance different features, “but the tool itself had to
Meeting Edition, offer powerful features that be very easy-to-use. In other words, it had to
emulate face-to-face meetings. With integrat- be easy enough to that someone who is not
ed multimedia audio and multipoint video, tech-savvy or a tech expert to use — anyone
meeting participants are able to read one who can use Windows should be able to use
another’s body language and expressions, as the tool’s features right away without getting
well as assess vocal tone. Combined seamless- confused and frustrated.”
ly with desktop sharing of documents and
applications, Raindance Meeting Edition is a APPLIED BEST PRACTICES:
viable collaboration platform and alternative to IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS
face-to-face meetings. iN DEMAND is the world’s largest provider of
Regardless of the powerful and useful VOD and PPV programming with television
features offered by a web conferencing solu- premieres of first-run movies, concerts and
tion, however, the product will not gain sports events. iN DEMAND is available on
6. RAINDANCE | IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCING
