Internet Web ConferencingIn today's tight and uncertain economy, Internet web conferencing provides companies with a means to organize staff training and interactions in a manner that allows them to avoid time-consuming and expensive travel costs. According to Cheryl Jenkins, enterprise solutions manager at Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc., Spartanburg, S.C., one of the biggest benefits of Internet web conferencing is reducing the travel cost. "There are definitely tremendous savings," she disclosed. With Internet web conferencing, conference calls are no longer as basics. In fact, Internet web conferencing adds many layers of data and features that make a typical conference call as interactive and as effective as possible. Internet web conferencing allows various ways to arrange an online meeting, ranging from a single presenter, such as a CEO delivering a live video and audio talk to far-flung office locations, to several presenters numbering even up to a hundred. Internet web conferencing has made it possible for you to sit at your computer while simultaneously sharing, marking up, and discussing drawings, documents, and applications with other members of your team. Additionally, some firms use Internet web conferencing for staff training. "We have regular technical conferences, and one of our divisions can use it to communicate with 25 to 45 offices worldwide in one session," says Mike Lamb, director of e-business and Internet services at Black & Veatch, Overland Park, Kan. He further stated that "in sharing best practices, all of the offices see live how an application is done within that design. We use for pure collaboration, to reduce travel and to encourage standard practices across the enterprise." Choosing the Right Internet Web Conferencing System As with most new tools of information technology, Internet web conferencing presents you with a number of choices which could serve to confuse you and other users who are basically new to the said technology. There are various choices to sort out, including an array of options, as well as costs, technical support, and reliability issues. To prevent this kind of issue from springing up, companies are bent on establishing standards which they would adopt for their entire offices. Lockwood Greene, for instance, has tasked Jenkins over a year ago with setting a standard for the firm. She says that increasing the use of Internet web conferencing tools is part of Lockwood Greene's IT strategy. "Our whole focus is to stabilize the technology that we have purchased and roll it out through the company," she says. As a result of this new thrust in Internet web conferencing, Jenkins states that the company's 17 domestic and 10 international offices which used to manage things with a hodgepodge of tools, began using a set of tools and services from just a handful of market-dominant major vendors.
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