NEWS & VIEWS: "We plan to offer attractive price points"

As organizations expand geographically and communication barriers disappear
due to technology, enterprises require communications solutions that help them
remain competitive. However high costs, and low employee adoption are typically
associated with these investments, preventing many businesses from justifying
the purchase of an online meeting solution.

Citrix Online recently launched GoToMeeting to meet the corporates' needs
at affordable rates. HR Shiever, spoke to VOICE&DATA about the product and
its potential among Indian corporates.

What is GoToMeeting about?

GoToMetting is an ad hoc collaboration tool that can enable executives to have a
meeting on the spur across locations. The main difference between a
teleconference and GoToMeeting tool is that it enables the exchange of images so
that it allows executives to share last minute changes in presentations or any
other details that need to be discussed urgently.

HR Shiever

The most important feature of the tool is that it allows for impromptu
meetings, meetings that have not been planned ahead across locations.

Why have collaborative tools not taken off in India yet?

There are collaborative tools in the market but the problem lies in pricing.
Till now pricing has been a deterrent in the off take of this set of tools.
However we plan to offer attractive price points. Our price points will actually
make corporates re-evaluate such decisions.

How would such a tool benefit an organization?

The ability of individuals from sales, marketing, finance, IT, and executive
management to benefit from the value of online meetings provides a powerful
advantage.

During a cold call, a sales person can conduct an impromptu PowerPoint
presentation with the prospective customer. During a scheduled online meeting, a
sales representative can conduct a live demonstration of the product to a
prospective client.

A remote team can review and alter important presentation then schedule a
subsequent online meeting to conduct a trial of the presentation. Another
scenario is where remote employees can collaborate on a document or spreadsheet
with staff located at the central office during a scheduled weekly meeting.

Such deployment will effectively increase productivity, reduce operational
costs, simplify meeting set-up, and maximize an organization's ROI.

What kind of access media is required for this tool?

GoToMeeting can be accessed over multiple media. It deploys bandwidth efficient
technology with screen-saving and compression techniques that ensure minimum
bandwidth consumption.

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal