Print this article

Comments

Email this article

Communication is no longer limited to the telephone or email. It has evolved into Web-based communications where technology has become more complex and is advancing at a rapid pace. Today most enterprises are enabling videoconferencing as a routine means to collaborate, making it possible for teams and workers to communicate and collaborate effectively through this means.

This new class of value-added online services has today become a powerful enabler for efficient communication between groups of distantly located people, without requiring huge investments in complex and expensive infrastructure.

Emerging Technology
Although videoconferencing as a technology has been in the market place for several years, it is only lately that it has come into its own with many local players as well as multinational companies fighting aggressively for market share. Earlier, there were hardly any takers in the Asia Pacific region but the number of local videoconferencing solutions that have mushroomed all over this region and the interest shown by leading MNCs clearly shows that the market has matured with the technology delivering a better output.

"Web-based collaboration services integrate tried-and-tested forms of collaboration such as webconferencing and instant messaging with newer technologies such as desktops, workspaces, wikis, and podcasts," says Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Dominic Dodd in a report titled Web-based collaboration services take online collaboration to the next level. "They form a core component of the growing Software as a Service (SaaS) market."

Frost & Sullivan says the Global Web-based Collaboration Services Market generated revenues of $682.7 mn in 2005, and estimates this to reach $2,644.5 mn in 2010.

Currently, webconferencing contributes a significant portion of these revenues. However, this is likely to change over the forecast period, as synchronous or real-time and asynchronous collaboration service technology increasingly merge due to the growing need for tools such as shared virtual workspaces and online collaborative authoring of documents, says the report released a few months ago.

Broadband penetration is fuelling this drive toward Web-based collaboration services. With start-ups coming up and globalization becoming the norm, there is an additional boost to the videoconferencing market.

Although larger enterprises would have the means to use complex technologies or just simply allow their executives to travel more often, it is the small and medium businesses (SMBs) which are being wooed by videoconferencing techniques.

"They represent a particularly attractive target group since they need to access and harness the power of collaboration services but are unable to invest substantial amounts in complex technology or the skills to support it. For large global businesses, the key driving force is the need to communicate effectively across company boundaries and firewalls. These organizations require practical and secure collaboration solutions that can sidestep the constraints imposed by local IT departments," the report adds.

While there is a number of large and small players in this market now, it is the solutions offered by major global software vendors and enterprise communication systems manufacturers that dominate the market. According to the report, this could limit growth opportunities for Internet-based business communications and collaboration services. Thus, the battle for the desktops of workers who need to collaborate is gathering pace, with Web-based collaboration services posing a distinct challenge to the prevailing dominance of on-premise software solutions of major manufacturers.

"Web-based collaboration service providers are well-placed to use Web 2.0 technologies such as mash-ups to rapidly develop and deploy new services to meet changing markets needs," says Frost & Sullivans Dodd. "This agility, coupled with the use of viral marketing to get across its message, will enable the growing band of companies in this space to compete effectively," he adds.

Multiple Selling Proposition
Undoubtedly, the Internet has changed the way we do business and the way we live. The all-pervasive power of the Internet has created a virtual world out there, and created hitherto unknown dimensions in communication have emerged. There was a time when the quality of videoconferencing technology was so low that there were no takersit never could replace telephone-based conferences nor could it ever replace face-to-face meetings. But now, with superior technology having invaded this domain, webconferencing and Web-based seminars have become quite a common place in the business environment.

Today, there is a much higher level of convergence, and videoconferences are being used right from tutoring K-12 students online to conducting top management meetingseven annual general meetings with participation from overseas board members.

While Web-based collaboration, videoconferencing, and seminars have become an effective way for companies to address an audience of say 50-100 people it is also an extremely effective method for communicating to a much smaller audienceespecially if its a project management team in software development where they run through all the finer details of the application or solution that is being collaboratively developed.

Page(s)   1  2  3  4