An excellent tool to conduct meetings/trainings on. Review on WebEx

<b><i>Personal Introduction: </i></b>

<b>WebEx</b> is an excellent service, relatively unknown to many of the internet users except for those who have utilized for attending/conducting meetings and/or trainings. I’ve had the privilege quite a few times in the past few years. WebEx is clearly the market leader in this niche market. It provides secure (over HTTPS and authenticated), real-time(using its technologies) global communication and collaboration services with integrated voice, data and video-conferencing communications. WebEx meeting services can be accessed using any net browser or telephone and is easily integrated into corporate web sites.

I have attended innumerous webinars and training sessions and have conducted quite a few training sessions for my colleagues using WebEx. Since I was using high-speed network in office, I couldn’t see smallest of glitches even for a second. However, I did see some slow loading when I attended a meeting using a 56K modem whilst in a motel room. If you are using slower connection, this may be a little too much for you.

<b>What is WebEx anyways? </b>

WebEx is aimed to make real-time global communications faster and easier. In their own words, <I>“WebEx provides multimedia business communications services that enable Web conferencing, video conferencing, and teleconferencing to save time and money in everything you do”</I>.

Using WebEx, you can

· Meet online with <b>WebEx Meeting Center</b>, which provides an easy-to-use interface for powerful on-line meetings and training across the enterprise.

· Support online with <b>WebEx Support Center</b>. Provide more support for less with WebEx Support Center Service.

· Stage events online with <b>WebEx OnStage</b>. Provide the excitement of a major event at a fraction of the cost.

· Train online with <b>WebEx Training Center</b>. Empower your business with a sophisticated and robust online training center.

<b>What are the technology features? </b>

WebEx has three basic elements to its technology platform:

· WebEx Interactive Services (WIS),

· The WebEx Multimedia Switching Platform (WMSP),

· The WebEx Interactive Network (WIN).

WebEx utilizes all/many of the following technologies for the communication purposes.

· Instant messaging/presence protocol (IMPP)

· XML (Used for interactive communications)

· H.323 - H.323 is another standard for IP based audio and video communications established by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).

· T.120 – Is a suite of networking protocol standards for multi-point data communications in real-time. T.120 is another critical specification established by the ITU.

WebEx also lets you record and play back using “WebEx Record & Playback”. It enables recording capabilities to capture any application, including presentations, software demos, and even WebEx meetings, with synchronized voice recording (in order to capture the audio portion, an additional telephone / soundcard adapter is required). These recordings are saved as a local file and can be placed on your LAN or on your website. Colleagues or customers can then view them at any time, given that they have the WbEx plug-in

<b>A brief history of WebEx</b>

Industry veterans Subrah S. Iyar (CEO) and Min Zhu (CTO) founded WebEx Communications, Inc. in 1996 with a vision of developing a network and platform technology architecture to enable services to make business easier. It has grown a lot to be the sole leader in its field. It is extremely successful so far, far ahead of its competitors.

<b> See it to believe it</b>

If you see a demo, you'll believe it. Make sure you have the pipe/bandwidth for the same(!!!!!).

You can see a live demo of the same at the following URL https://try.webex.com/mk/get/livedemo?TrackID=2

<b>My Final Thoughts: </b>

In this age of faster/cheaper communications, online meetings/training and video-conferencing will be the call of the day. Stored marketing stuff, demos and archived meetings will be very useful for sheer effectiveness, availability and the cost considerations. Given the network growth and the faster pipes available for individual/corporate level, tools like WebEx should be of immense use.

<i>References: </i>

https://webex.com

Hope you liked the review.

Please shower in your comments.

<b>

Have a nice day,

Inquizitor</b>