Collaborative: Mixed Media

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."