Gartner Report on Software as a Service

Worldwide total software revenue for software as a service (SaaS) within the enterprise software markets is projected to surpass $5.1 billion in 2007, a 21 percent increase from 2006 revenue, according to Gartner, Inc. The market is poised for strong growth through 2011, when worldwide revenue will reach $11.5 billion. (Within e-learning and Web conferencing, SaaS accounts for more than 60 percent and 70 percent of total market revenue.)

“SaaS adoption is highest in applications that support simplified, common business processes or large, distributed virtual workforce teams,” said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner. “Ease of use, rapid deployment, limited upfront investment in capital and staffing, plus a reduction in software management responsibility all make SaaS a desirable alternative to many on-premises solutions, and they will continue to act as drivers of growth.”

“Major on-premises software vendors are re-architecting their application stacks to service-oriented architectures. Their customers will invest in migration for those processes that are complex or proprietary, but they also have an opportunity at this juncture to evaluate whether SaaS is an appropriate alternative for other aspects of their business,” Ms. Mertz said. “Small and midsize businesses that have insufficient resources to convert their applications will also find SaaS an attractive 21st-century solution to their legacy systems.”

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Cisco and Unified Communications

According to Barry O'Sullivan, SVP of the voice technology group at Cisco Systems, the core of UC is the network itself, which the company sees as the unifying force behind the convergence of IP telephony, e-mail, instant messaging, contact center applications and other technologies. (This is in-line with my Collaboration Predictions for 2006. So I'm 2 years off...)

"At Cisco, we believe we're entering the second phase of the Internet, which is all about collaboration. And the key underlying technology to collaboration is unified communications," O'Sullivan said during the Web conference.

The opportunity is huge and continuing to grow, he said, the total value of the UC opportunity this year alone is approximately $30B.

Cisco's approach to UC has to do with collaboration and collaboration is all about connecting people, no matter what device, operating system or telephone is used, he said. He stressed the importance standardization.

"Collaboration really demands openness, and that's really a very important part of our strategy. Our vision is all about collaboration -- empowering people to collaborate effectively, anytime, anywhere, from any device," O'Sullivan said.

Cisco is looking at the UC market from the perspective that the network (as a platform) could bring the heterogeneous world together, he said.

In developing UC products and services (the company's focus on services grew with the acquisition of WebEx in May 2007), Cisco is driving its engineers along four key design principles, Burton said.

1. Build UC services as a set of virtualized capabilities.
2. UC systems built on Cisco Services-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) for multiple layers of security to protect against viruses, trojans, malware, and protecting user identities and corporate data.
3. Simple and ease to use.
4. Technology needs to be open.

"We really focus on standards, so we build our UC system on SIP, on XML, on Web services," as well as a plethora of other standards, Burton said.

The end goal is a rich communications experience on any device, he said.

According to O'Sullivan, it's the network that makes that work and really drives a better application experience.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Blog

Cisco Buys Latigent

Cisco Systems has announced that it is buying Latigent, a maker of call center reporting software to strengthen its own software business. Financial terms have not been disclosed for this acquisition.

This is the fifth acquisition that Cisco has done in 2007.

• February: Reactivity ($135M) and Five Across ($ n/a)
• March: WebEx ($3.2B) and Utah Street Network ($ n/a)
• April: Ozon ($ n/a)
• May: Broadware Technologies ($ n/a)

Latigent makes software that converts call center data into reports so that executives and other staff can improve customer service or get insights from customer behavior.

Latigent’s software specializes in extracting data from Cisco and Avaya communications products. Cisco executives said the company plans to integrate Latigent's products into its own customer contact technology and eventually have those products communicate with CRM applications.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

AT&T Buys Interwise

As predicted, 2007 has been a year of consolidation for web collaboration companies/technologies.

Google and Marratech for undisclosed amount
Cisco and WebEx Communications for $3.2 billion

Now, AT&T acquires Interwise for $121M. Interwise has about 130 employees with $20M in sales revenue and based in Cambridge, MA.

AT&T said that it expects to retain the Interwise management team, which is headed by Frank Zvi, co-founder, president, and CEO of Interwise. The company's domestic and international operations also are expected to be retained, AT&T said.

Thanks,

David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Cisco's Agent Model for WebEx

Cisco is formalized a channel strategy to sell WebEx via an Agent Model starting next year. Keith Goodwin, SVP of Worldwide Channels at Cisco has been tasked with putting together the channel strategy to help scale WebEx globally.

The goal is to compensate partners for reselling WebEx on standard 12 month or 24 month terms. Cisco captures and recognized revenue for at least a year and the partner receives a fee based on the annual term. (This agency model is new to Cisco.)

"We're going to give partners the equivalent or more of the margin they might make on a product by giving partners 20 percent of the value of the contract for the first year upfront when the customer signs the contract." said Edison Peres, Cisco VP and chief go-to-market officer for Worldwide Channels(The WebEx agent program will only be made available to Cisco partners that are certified in unified communications products.)

Cisco is in the process of identifying partners to include in a pilot of the agent program, which likely will run for about six months, Goodwin said.

"As is typical with us, we want to pilot it, listen to the partners on how it works, and tune it before we scale it out to the rest of the partners," Goodwin said.

It will be very interesting to see how this model plays out. If you think about it, WebEx has always been a direct sales model and over the past 8 years, the company has launched itself into a dominant market leadership role without having to rely or leverage on a globally dispersed partner program. The fact that WebEx can now lean on an established and world class channel program is scary.

Convoq becomes Zingdom Communications

Convoq has decided to pursue different business ventures and will discontinue its web collaboration focus. Below is from Christopher Herot's personal blog. Christopher is co-founder of Convoq.

Convoq, Inc., the company Chuck Digate and I co-founded in 2002, has been renamed Zingdom Communications, Inc. to reflect our new direction and new product line. Chuck has moved on, but over the past five years the company built an extremely talented and cohesive engineering team that pioneered the use of Flash and AJAX in real-time audio, video, instant messaging, and other forms of real-time communications. Our first product, ASAP, put these resources to use in the context of corporate collaboration. Now we are organizing the company around a new opportunity in more personal, one-on-one communication, concentrating initially on the telephone.

Voice communications have evolved considerably since the days of The Phone Company. AT&T has been broken up and reassembled and the locus of innovation has shifted away from the traditional providers of local loops to a new wave of companies who offer services that offer new ways of connecting people to each other. In this new paradigm, connectivity itself has become a commodity, although voice can be transported over the Internet or a wireless connection in addition to the traditional copper, and it is supplemented by instant messaging, SMS, email, and video. The voice on the other end of the line can be a person or a robot. In this world, the issues become finding the right person, allowing that person to control his or her privacy, and providing context that helps a person decide whether to answer the phone and be prepared when the conversation begins.

With all the progress that has been made, real-time communications applications are still a challenge to construct and deploy. Unlike the typical web application which navigates from page to page, a communications app must deal with events at both ends of the conversation. It's not enough to wait for a screen refresh to reflect that the party at the other end has closed the connection, but building a fully interactive AJAX application is a lot of work. Our intention at Zingdom is to provide real-time voice communication through a compelling user experience, and to enable partners to provide that same level of experience in their applications without needing to become experts in either telephony or AJAX. I'll say more about where we came from and were we are going in future installments.

In the meantime, feel free to check out zing.dm.
http://herot.typepad.com/cherot/2007/08/convoq-becomes-.html

IBM Acquires WebDialogs

IBM has acquired WebDialogs, a web conferencing provider in MA, that has managed to stay in business since its inception in 1998 by offering its services to more established companies to resell under their own brand. Through the acquisition, IBM has rebranded WebDialogs to "Unyte," and will be part of the IBM Software Lotus division.

Financial terms have not been disclosed, which typically means that it is not an amount worth mentioning or touting on the Internet.

I suspect that acquisition was a reaction to Cisco acquiring WebEx this past May for $3.2 billion. IBM has had a foot in the web collaboration space for years now with its IBM SameTime application. SameTime is an on-premise solution that traditionally works well within the firewall but once you try to tunnel out, it's complicated and unreliable.

IBM's positioning is most likely around the fact that they can now offer SameTime to its large enterprise companies while marketing Unyte, a hosted solution, to smaller businesses. This is yet another example of a large enterprise software company trying to get a foothold into the Software as a Service (SaaS) space.

To remain competitive, companies are converging voice, video, and data into a unified communications platform. I understand IBM's collaboration strategy and as much as it is on point, it is difficult to execute strategy with products and applications that have a track record for being cumbersome, unreliable, and not widely accepted in the marketplace. (IBM SameTime has about a 5% market share while WebDialogs has less that 0.01% market share in the web conferencing space)


Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

WebEx and iPhone

WebEx has launched an iPhone compatible version of its PCNow on demand remote access service for wireless devices and desktops.

The iPhone users can access desktop PC files, desktop search tools, Microsoft Outlook corporate mail, contacts, tasks and appointments from their handsets via the phone's Safari browser. The service also comes with SkypeOut functionality which allows users to make outbound calls even if their mobiles are not supported by the Skype mobile client.

WebEx's European vice president, Bert van der Zwan, argued that the service may encourage the adoption of the iPhone among enterprises when it reaches the UK later in the year.

"The iPhone has raised a number of security concerns with employers in relation to staff running and accessing business systems - limiting adoption by businesses. "We are introducing changes so that users can access emails as well as contacts, appointments and desktop PC files whilst on the move, via our secure MediaTone network."

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Keeping an Eye on Google

Personally, I love tracking Google and seeing what new ventures they are pursuing. Word is that Google is looking to increase its prescense in the Chinese market. (China happens to be the fastest growing internet market in the world.)

Well-know search site like Sina.com and Soso.com are already Google partners. Talks about an acquisition of Baidu, NetEase.com, or Sohu.com are never ending but most likely never going to happen. The market cap of these top 3 search sites are in the billions and might not be worth the hefty investment...

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

The Skinny on FreeConferenceCall.com

Is the audio service really free? Well, it depends on how you look at it and more importantly that you are aware of what you are actually getting...or not getting. Technically, FreeConferenceCall.com does not charge you anything. You will never get a bill from them. Who actually pays for the calls are the callers you have invited to call your number! Essentially, FreeConferenceCall.com is just free US Toll calling, meaning all callers pay their own long distance charges.

How does FreeConferenceCall.com make money? By "routing" callers to specific local exchange carriers (LEC's) that are charging wireless carriers very high rates to "bridge" the cell calls to landlines. The higher the rate being charged, the more calls routed that way. In exchange for the favorable routing, the expensive local exchange carriers collect huge fees from the carriers and kick back a portion of the profits back to FreeConferenceCall.com Since most conference calls last at least an hour, more and more minutes accrue, while the LEC's rake in money, siphoning dollars from the carriers. Another way FreeConferenceCall.com generates revenue is through their "SIMPLE" audio plans, NOW all clearly listed as 1-800 toll-free numbers and not just US Toll numbers.

What are the costs involved in a FreeConferenceCall™?

Only normal long distance charges by each caller's carrier apply. There will be no bill or charges from FreeConferenceCall.com for this service.

It's also a bit of a pain to have to re-register your account every 120 days to keep your toll number active. If you forget to renew, you lose your number and have to re-register. Also keep in mind that the provided number is a US Toll number and does not support international calls even though their site states:

Can international callers participate?

Anyone who can dial a US telephone number should be able to dial a FreeConferenceCall™ number. (Does sound like much confidence behind that statement.)

Just be aware of what you are getting or not getting and let the callers who call you know that they will be billed long distance charges and what out for the court battle!

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Genesys Delisted from NASDAQ

Genesys Conferencing announced that its American Depositary Shares (ADS) will discontinue trading on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Mobility Issues for Remote Workers

As companies continue to hire top talent, they also realize the need to allow top talent to work from remote or home office locations. Supporting remote workers is huge challenge that IT organizations are trying to figure out. Many remote workers have individual preferences setup, are not always logged onto the corporate network, or have special security and firewall configurations which make remote support difficult.

What is an IT organization to do to effectively resolve IT issues for remote workers?

Some companies have their remote workers FedEx computers back to the home office. Not only is this expensive but it creates lost productivity hours for the remote workers and potentially missed deadlines. Other companies try to resolve issues over the phone but not all remote workers are tech saavy enough to follow technical instructions over the phone. This method is not only time consuming and inefficient but creates much frustration for both parties.

Solution...

Leverage remote support technologies that are easy to use, cost effective and firewall friendly where the requirement is simply a browser and an internet connection. No dependencies on VPN connections, on the network or not, special setups. WebEx Remote Support, Remote Access or Systems Management all are excellent solutions.

In a recent study by IDC, they forecast that the mobile worker population in the U.S. will reach 113.5 million by 2008, up from 98.5 million only three years ago. Worldwide, it's expected to be closer to 878 million mobile and remote workers by the end of the decade!

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

"Traffic Pumping" on Conference Call Lines

Sprint Nextel Corp. has joined the other telecom companies who have also sued independent phone operators and Internet calling services for alleged “traffic pumping.”

Sprint Nextel’s complaints are virtually identical to filings by AT&T. and Qwest Communications. The carrier said that local exchange companies have been partnering with companies that offer free conference or international calls and adult chat lines.

“Make no mistake—this is not just a billing dispute among phone companies,” said Kent Nakamura, VP of telecom management for Sprint Nextel. He described the situation as “a continued pattern of illegal arbitrage on the part of certain companies—a scheme that attempts to pick our pockets and threatens our customers’ access to unlimited long-distance service.”

Sprint Nextel also said that some operators have within the past year “adopted significantly higher access charges—up to 13 cents per minute—for every minute of every call a Sprint Nextel customer makes to the RLEC’s local calling area. That’s about 26 times the access charges typically charged by other local phone companies.”

This is still a very interesting situation for companies like Citrix since their GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar utilities leverage freeconferencecall.com services, one of the companies that AT&T, Quest, Nextel are going after.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferenincg Expert

International Opportunities for Web Conferencing

The web conferencing market continues to grow at an accelerated rate. According to Frost & Sullivan, the web conferencing market, which was valued at $725M in 2005, is forecasted to reach almost $3B in 2011, a compound annual growth rate of about 25.9%. (Data Source: Frost & Sullivan) Much of the global market capture will be from Small and Mid-sized Businesses and the international markets.

Competition in the US is becoming more and more competitive and pervasive in every sales opportunity. Web conferencing companies need to focus on product differentiation, verticalized solutions, integrated applications, and an aggressive international strategy coupled with a first-to-market mentality will be key success factors for long-term success.

Web conferencing in China is beginning to emerge as an enabling technology and the web conferencing growth potential is enormous. China represents less than 5% of the World’s Total Web Conferencing Revenue while the USA accounts for about 82%, slightly down from the year before. It is evident that the international marketplace presents both opportunities and challenges for web conferencing companies.

Sales Strategies

In every sales engagement, you can take a variety of different approaches but in general they can be categorized as Direct, Indirect, Divisional, and Containment. Understanding the differences and when to use them will increase your win ratio dramatically.

The most common strategy is the Direct Strategy. It's the easiest because you simply try to overpower your competition by a 3 to 1 ratio, such as, product superiority, reputation, current customer base, etc. The crux with this strategy is that you need to objectively ask yourself, "Is my product clearly superior and if so, can I sustain its superiority?" Often times what you might think as superior is not the case in the eyes of the customer. The key is to understand that the customer's thoughts, ideas, perceptions of your product are what is critical, not yours. Typically, this is a features-based sales opportunity.

An Indirect Strategy is about changing the ground rules of the decision-making process and altering the buying criteria. A great way of using an Indirect Strategy is to get the customer to focus on the long-term not just on the immediate short-term. If you can broaden your customer's perspective on the scope of their needs and engage with the right decision makers, you'll win. An example is to not compare your product and the competition's one to one. If you do this, you are taking a Direct Strategy and unless you have a clear 3 to 1 advantage from your customer's perspective, you'll probably lose on price alone. With an Indirect Strategy you need to change the ground rules by demonstrating the importance of other things like training, technical support, financial stability, anything that gets the customer to think, "Yeah, that is important, I should have thought about that, I think I'm going to add that in." The more creative differentiation you can create, the better.

The third strategy is the Divisional Strategy. It's the old, "Divide and Conquer," mentality. Just get your foot in the door and build from there. The key with this strategy is to accept that you are not trying to completely displace the competition. You simply want to peacefully co-exists with them by providing the customer with something that the competition cannot. It you deliver on that little something, you'll earn trust and credibility to grow the account. For some companies, this strategy is about becoming a niche player, having a narrow focus and excelling at it. When you think about Root Beer, you probably think about A&W Root Beer. A&W competes in the soda market against Coke and Pepsi, which represent the bulk of the market share. A&W is a small player in the soda market but they are #1 in the root beer niche. They will never come out with a competing cola product because that's a Direct Strategy and they do not have a clear 3:1 advantage. They cannot change the ground rules with an Indirect Strategy since soda is soda. With a Divisional Strategy, A&W captured a toe hold in the soda market and expanded their presence with a Cream Soda and Squirt, two other soda drinks that Coke and Pepsi do not focus on.

The fourth strategy is the Containment Strategy. The objective is to gain a "no decision" from the customer. A no decision is a win because you keep the competition from winning. Again, it's all about postponing a decision, not changing the buying decision as in the Indirect Strategy. Microsoft is one of the best at containment with their products. They will have a huge announcement stating that a newer operating system or a newer product with advanced capabilities will be launched in the future...normally in about 12-18 months. Their goal is to generate buzz, market awareness, and ultimately stale the customer from doing anything until they see the newer version or newer product. Microsoft Vista, Longhorn, even the XBOX 360 sound familiar?

Knowing when and how to maneuver a sales cycle with these four sales strategies is key. Adapting and being able to quickly change from one strategy to another is also important. Throughout the entire sales cycle be cognizant of your current standing, the competitive landscape, and if you are talking to the decision makers.

An excellent read is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferecning Expert

Google Acquires Marratech

Google has quietly acquired Marratech, a video conferencing start-up company based in Sweden. Marratech was incorporated in 1998, has less than 20 employees and does about $1M in revenue. They were originally a spin-off from the Centre for Distance-Spanning Technology at he Lulea University of Technology.

On a personal level, I always thought WebEx might be a great acquisition target for Google but as it turns out, Cisco beat Google to the punch with a $3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx last month.

The Marratech solution is not web-based but desktop-based and has basic functionality like video, chat, whiteboard, etc. The solution includes a freely downloadable client and a server, called the Marratech Manager. The latter is available as a free server (limited to 5 users) and a licensed server.

The Google Blog stated that the acquisition was to enable Google employees, "Googlers," to share documents internally. Rather than Google building their own internal colloboration solution, they decided to buy Marratech.

Financial details have not been released as of yet.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Blog

Sales Sense...The 6th Sense

In my sales career, I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best sales reps. It's always interesting to examine the characteristics of the very top performers compared to the average performers. What is the secret formula? Is it product knowledge, sales experience, vertical market expertise, asking the "right" questions, or having a defined sales process? Perhaps a bit of all of them is important, however, I think the 6th Sense, Sales Sense, is the differentiator between the very top performers and everyone else.

What is Sales Sense?

Sales Sense is having a sense of SELF. Understand who you are, what's important to you, what your goals are personally and professionally. Having a sense of self is critical since the projection of yourself is what buyers see and feel. Many people have often told me that people buy from people way before they buy a product, service, brand, or company.

Sales Sense is having a sense of OTHERS. Understand other people's feelings and listen to what they say as this will help you craft impactful value proposition statements and questions that draw out information as to what is truly important. Understanding how people think, process information, evaluate risk, and if they are in a position to buy. Often times, sales reps jump the gun and ask for the business much too soon, only getting a firm, "We are not ready yet." Having a sense of others enables the best sales reps to know when to close because they know that a "Yes," will follow. Realistically, any sales reps can trial close since it's not very hard to ask trial close questions, it's knowing to ask and knowing when all the right pieces are in place. You know this by having a sense of others.

Sales Sense is having a sense of SITUATION. This is all about paying attention to the little details and not overlooking anything. Everything the prospect says is for a reason so listen. It's your job to advance the sales process forward with subtle control...by asking questions. The more questions you ask, the more two way communication you get. Concentrate on the situation not how big your commission check will be if you close the deal. Focus on the situation, things you missed, potential risks, competition.

If you have Sales Sense, you will win your sales engagements and become a top sales performer.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

GoToWebinar's Limitations

GoToWebinar, an extension of GoToMeeting, has gained some buzz in the market, mainly because it's so cheap. Kind of makes you wonder 1) How Citrix is making money from it? 2) How good or reliable is the solution? The old adage, "You pay for what you get," certainly rings true with all the GoTo products and GoToWebinar is nothing short of this.

Example 1. When sending out email invitations to a webinar, the coordinator needs to manually forward the registration details and invites. Citrix recommends that you Bcc: all email addresses for added privacy. What if you forget to do this? Well, everyone just inherited a email marketing list that you spent years building.

Example 2: GoToWebinar lacks a custom registration page so the coordinator cannot track registration in stages: Pending, Rejected, Approved, Updated, etc.

Example 3: GoToWebinar forces you to use their outsourced 3rd party solution, FreeConferenceCall.com (Click here to read details about Cingular, Sprint, ATT battling this Citrix partner.) (Article 2) GoToWebinar does not offer Audio Broadcasting, Integrated VoIP, or dial-out to attendee capabilities. These three telco giants are looking to block all Citrix audio users from using FreeConferenceCall.com Do you want to be caught up in the chaos? Who do you think is going to win this battle?

Example 4: Speaking of block. GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting are notorious for "blocked URL's." Companies will block the GoTo URL's so their employees cannot join GoTo session, mainly because these GoTo sessions are not backed by any 3rd party security certifications which means companies run the risk of computer viruses, worms, trojans, etc.

Quinlan Eddy, CEO of StarAnalytics, switched from GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar to WebEx because his company had recurring issues where the companies they were trying to meet online with blocked the GoTo URL's. In one instance with Citibank, Citibank simply told them they were no longer interested in seeing the demo. Lost revenue???

Example 5: If you want to record your webinar, GoToWebinar requires that you have an input device like a microphone connected to your computer and then configured to the GoToWebinar audio settings. (I'm already getting lost with what this all means and how to set it up...) Click here for the full list of instructions. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just click "Record," and your webinar would be recorded?

Another thing to consider during the GoToWebinar recording. You are required to have 1 GB of available storage, download a G2M2 recording codec, and are expected to wait 45 minutes for a 60 minute recording to "convert." Citrix recommends that you do nothing on your computer during this 45 minute conversion since the recording/conversion process requires lots of CPU.

Example 6: GoToWebinar CANNOT support the following:

• Lead source tracking ID's
• Automated lead scoring
• Integration into CRM marketing campaigns
• Online calendar of events
• Custom enrollment email messages
• Production services
• Custom animations in PowerPoint
• Virtual whiteboard
• Video streaming
• Integrated VoIP
• File transfer
• Real-time communications as everything relies on their Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server

At the end of the day, with all the GoTo Products, you pay for what you get. If you are willing to risk a failed event, perhaps lost business, damaged reputation, it might be a viable solution. Otherwise, if you are like most companies who are looking to minimize their investment risk and want to do all the right things, go with a market leader, a trusted and proven solution.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Cisco Buys WebEx (Podcast)

Cisco to Acquire WebEx: Enabling Collaboration in the SMB Market

March 15, 2007 - CDO Charles Giancarlo speaks on acquisition: The combination of Cisco and WebEx will deliver compelling solutions accelerating this next wave of business communications.

Listen to the podcast

Cisco Acquires WebEx

Earlier this week, Cisco (CSCO) entered a definitive agreement to acquire WebEx (WEBX) for $3.2 billion cash buy out. WebEx CEO Subrah Iyar must have had his negotiation hat on as he delivered a hefty 25% premium on the deal for all WebEx shareholders. It's interesting to me that Cisco is buying WebEx for $3.2 billion when WebEx's 2006 revenue was $380M. The numbers just don't add up unless there is some significant strategic valuations in play...the WebEx Connect Strategy perhaps???

WebEx will operate as an independent business unit with Subrah Iyar reporting to Charlie Giancalo, Cisco Chief Development Officer and President of Cisco-Linksys. Download Charles_Giancarlo_bio_3.2.07.pdf

More details on the story

PC Now 3.0 for Mobile Devices

Imagine having the ability to access your PC from either another remote PC or your mobile device, such as your cell phone!

Key Capabilities of PC Now 3.0:

• You can run any application and access the entire desktop
• You can access your email, files, folders and your computer's network resources
• You can transfer files to and from your remote computer
• You can print a document on the remote computer to your local printer without having to install any applications or print drivers

Key Benefits of PC Now 3.0:

• Avoid commuting and rush hour traffic by working from home
• Demonstrate software products without having to install them onsite
• Travel without taking your laptop - especially useful with the additional security these days
• Check your office email and schedules from an airport kiosk
• Forgot to copy a document or presentation to your laptop before a business trip? Just copy it across using WebEx PCNow.

Multiple Security Layers of PC Now 3.0:

• No need to open any ports in your firewall
• End to end SSL encrypted
• Two levels of authentication
• Unique phone authentication for very high security
• You can protect your privacy
• Blank the screen of the remote computer so no one can see what you are doing
• Lock the keyboard and mouse of the remote computer so no one else can interrupt it
• Logout or screen-lock the remote computer after your session is complete- WebEx PCNow will let you log back in
• You control what folders are setup for remote access and any access can be further protected by a unique password.

PC Now 3.0 is significantly easier to use then VPN or Microsoft Remote Desktop. There is no dependency of computers having to be on "the network" and there are no restrictions on what version of Windows you are running. VPN can be costly, time consuming to setup, require special configurations on the firewall, and are still very manual based.

Try PC Now!!! ($12.95 per month per PC)

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

SMB Predictions for 2007

The other day I was talking to a small business owner of an advertising agency in New York City with about 35 employees. We got into a lengthy conversation about how his company differentiates itself from all the other New York ad agencies, what some of the common marketing mistakes typical businesses make and what he wants people to think about when they hear his company's name.

What I found interesting is that even though his company is "small" and private, he views his company as an industry giant, as a company that is no different than an Omnicom Group.

"Yes I'm a small business but I have the same challenges and concerns as the big guys. I worry about internet security, bad New York weather, and believe it or not...I even worry about federal regulations. In fact, because I'm small businesses I need to address these things even more so because it could put me out of business! One federal penalty, for whatever reason, and I might not be able to recover from it financially. One computer virus could infect the network, infect customer data and equate to lost business. I can't afford that so I need to be proactive and forward thinking."

The conversation sparked my predictions for 2007 for Small Businesses:

1. Internet Security for the real life example listed above
2. Remote communications: wireless internet connections, smartphones, voip, Blackberries. Work smarter and more efficiently.
3. Web Collaboration Technologies like WebEx to increase corporate productivity, shorten sales cycles, increase market reach, improve customer retention and satisfaction while reducing travel time and cost. Do more with less.
4. Asset Utilization and Optimization. Leverage new technologies with strong integration capabilities. Reduce the number of siloed environments, create a seamless and standard platform where back end systems can communicate with one another.
5. Invest in SaaS technologies: zero implementation and deployment costs, minimal IT resources, not tied to a corporate VPN or corporate network since it's 100% web-based, global access, automatic updates, quick ROI, low risk.

It should be an interesting year for small businesses. Following a few of the predictions could be the difference between a good small company and a great soon to be industry leader.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Best of Elearning! 2006 Awards

WebEx once again came out on top in the e-learning world capturing the two top industry awards by ELearning Magazine's Best of Elearning! 2006 Awards. WebEx won for Best Virtual Classroom and Best Web Seminar Solution.

Elearning! readers cited WebEx Training Center's reliability, performance, and ease of use as key components. Other big pluses were:

• Seamless integration with multiple learning management systems (LMS)

• Outstanding customer support

• Superior overall quality

WebEx Training Center enables users to instantly deliver interactive online training to employees, partners and customers anywhere, anytime through a standard web browser. Capabilities like Hands-On Lab, Break-Out Sessions, Integrated E-Commerce, Test Library, set Training Center apart from all other solutions.

WebEx Meeting Center was named the Best Web Seminar Solution and recognized for its superior customer service, ease of use and comprehensive set of features to help users present efficient, effective presentations. With WebEx Meeting Center, users can present information, share applications, and collaborate on projects with customers and co-workers around the globe.

Like all WebEx solutions, Training Center and Meeting Center leverage the WebEx MediaTone Network for the highest level of reliability, availability, performance and security. Read what the Credit Suisse Analysts had to say about MediaTone.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Forbes Fast 25 for 5 years!!!

Demonstrating significant annualized growth, WebEx (Nasdaq: WEBX), the leader in on-demand applications for collaborative business on the web, has made the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies list for the fifth year in a row. Only two other companies, both WebEx customers, have made this prestigious list five years running.

“Our continued success showcases the strength of the on-demand delivery model and the broad demand for our web collaboration services,” said Subrah Iyar, CEO, WebEx. “For 2007 we are focused on going deeper with our web collaboration suite and wider with our new WebEx Connect on-demand platform and partner ecosystem.”

The 25 technology companies were chosen based on revenue growth over a five-year period. To be eligible for the list, a company must have at least $25 million in sales, 10% annual sales growth for five consecutive years, profitability over the past 12 months and 10% estimated annual profit growth for the next three to five years.

The complete 2007 list is available on the Forbes.com site at: www.forbes.com/2007/01/25/fastest-growing-stocks-tech_cz_pmjr_0125fasttech_land.html

(Data and content provided by Colin Smith)

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Credit Suisse Initiates Coverage

The well respected Credit Suisse initiated coverage on WebEx (WEBX) with a neutral rating and a $50 price target.

Research Analysts, Jason Maynard and Bryan McGrath agree that, "WebEx is the premier player in the Web conferencing and collaboration market. In our opinion, the company boasts a vastly superior technology delivery platform and a pure On demand model."

Key advantages for WebEx:

• Tremendous market growth opportunities
• Pure On Demand Model
• Differentiated Technology Platform

" The WebEx MediaTone Network was built on more than $180 million in R&D investment, runs on 37 global clusters, and delivers five 9s reliability. This piece of technology would be extremely difficult to replicate and thus has a significant strategic asset value."

Other investment firms such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, now have their eyes on WebEx...

Thanks,

David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Another Adobe Flaw!!!

Issues with Adobe applications are starting to become so common place it's scary. Again, why take on the much added risk with a solution that does not have any 3rd party security certifications? Though Adobe Connect and Adobe Acrobat are different solutions, the Connect solution is 100% dependent on Acrobat.

I previously mentioned that Adobe released a Security Bulletin in October of 2006 for Adobe Connect, which effected older versions of Breeze. Now problems have surfaced with newer versions of Adobe Acrobat. They released a patch for the recently discovered security flaw in their Acrobat software application to resolve the problems.

The company added that the flaw affected Acrobat Standard, Professional, and Elements in versions 7.08 and older. (Only a matter of time before these specific Acrobat issues manifest in Adobe Connect.)

Adobe further confirmed that the recently launched version 8.0 was not affected by this flaw and the users are not required to download any patch.

This flaw was related to a technique known as "cross-site scripting" which allowed hackers to mix malicious JavaScript with a link to a PDF file on a website. (Sounds like the same issues the older version on Connect had. Again, curious to see when the current version on Adobe Connect starts to see similar problems.)

Adobe Connect Security Problems
Adobe Connect History
Same Song and Dance

Thanks,

David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

SaaS Has Staying Power

The Software as a Service model is certainly here to stay. I think there is a misconception that SaaS is geared only for the CRM market. Sure SaaS has been successful in this space, as seen by a short list of CRM providers listed below, but we are seeing more and more successful SaaS-based companies emerge in other markets: supply chain, email marketing, recruiting, content management, etc.

SaaS has not been around as long as the traditional client-server model but over the last 5-7 years SaaS companies have made huge strides. WebEx, the leader in the online meeting market, now has close to 30,000 corporate customers and over 5 million users per month. Over 85,000 online WebEx meetings take place across 70 different countries per day! Salesforce.com has over 20,000 customers and about 400,000 subscribers. These numbers are not only impressive but will continue to grow.

The fact that many Fortune 1000 companies are also adopting SaaS technologies means that no longer is SaaS geared for only the small businesses. Large corporations can also benefits from the low start up costs, quick deployment times, and ease of use. Imagine being able to deploy a SaaS technology quickly and efficiently across a single business unit as a test piece and then rolling the technology out on an enterprise level once the technology proves itself out. Little financial investment, little IT resources during implementation, very low risk. Why not?

CRM:

• Salesforce.com
• Netsuite
• SugarCRM
• Pivotal
• Intacct
• RightNow
• Kinterra

Other SaaS Companies:

• WebEx: online web meetings and collaboration
• Taleo: talent/recruiting management solution
• ClickCommerce: supply chain
• OpSource: SaaS consultants
• Live Person: online customer interaction applications
• Sage Software:
• ExactTarget: email communications and marketing
• Clickability: web content management
• OpenAir: project-based management applications
• Vocus: corporate communications and PR
• Concur Technologies: expense management
• CrownPeak: website and content management
• Omniture: business optimization and web analytics solutions
• EmailLabs: email marketing solutions
• Intranets: document management and virtual web office solutions (Acquired by WebEx)
• DealerTrack: automotive retail solutions

SaaS has staying power and will not be going anywhere in the long term. It will continue to disrupt the traditional client-server model and revolutionize the way companies receive products and services in a real-time, cost-effective, scalable, and reliable manner.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Adobe Connect Security Breach

It's important to know that web collaboration solutions are not created equal. Example, no other company, except WebEx, has 3rd party security certifications like WebTrust and SAS-70 Type I & II. With that in mind, buyers need to be aware of the risks of using un-secure technologies that have not passed stringent requirements from 3rd party security certification firms.

Case in point: Adobe Connect, formerly Macromedia Breeze and previous to that, Presidia.

Adobe put out a security bulletin back in October 2006. If you did not get the bulletin as a user, here is the link you can click on: http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb06-16.html (Just follow the 10 Steps, hope that your private information was not disclosed on accident and hope that the directions make sense.)

Secunia provides real-time data on the latest security and vulnerability issues. Secunia viewed this Adobe Connect problem as "moderately critical" because of the exposure of sensitive and private information.

"A vulnerability has been reported in Macromedia Breeze, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose sensitive information.

The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error when parsing URLs and can be exploited to disclose the contents of arbitrary files on the system.

The vulnerability has been reported in all versions of 5.0 and 5.1."

Again, web collaboration solutions are not created equal. Buying the best technology minimizes your risk and will save you embarrassment at your job.

More on Adobe Connect:
Another Adobe Security Flaw
Adobe Connect Security Problems
Adobe Connect History
Same Song and Dance

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert