What SMBs Need to Consider When Choosing a Cloud-based Service. Visit us at http://www.readytalk.com/

1. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER
NOVEMBER 2012
Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an
Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
What SMBs Need to Consider When Choosing a Cloud-based Service
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2. Six Steps to Successfully
Selecting an Audio and Web
Conferencing Provider
What SMBs Need to Consider When Choosing a Cloud-based Service
2
By Andy Mazer
As SMBs strive to grow and meet customer 54 percent of IT professionals said improv-
demands, agility, speed and effective decision ing employee collaboration was an important
making are critical. The ability to collaborate in driver for deploying unified communications.2
meaningful ways, especially with a growing mobile Vendors of collaboration tools offer an over-
workforce, separates the leaders from the laggards. whelming smorgasbord of solutions, from simple
Today’s digitally savvy workers expect to be able audio conferencing to high-end telepresence
to set up small conferences at a moment’s notice systems. SMBs often cobble together disparate
ABOUT THE AUTHOR or schedule webinars to share information with tools from a variety of vendors, trying to cre-
dozens — or hundreds — of colleagues, partners, ate a solution that works for most of their end
Since 2004, Andrew Mazer or customers. Business and technology managers users. Too often, however, SMBs end up creating
has worked as site editor and at small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) should a situation in which users are frustrated and IT
senior writer on numerous be considering their options and seeking ways to pays too much for the services it uses. SMBs
TechWeb-sponsored projects. allow employees to collaborate effectively, without need to find an easy and affordable way to
As an information technology overwhelming the IT department. enable their employees to collaborate.
journalist, he has written about Collaboration is clearly a priority for com- Fortunately, the former generation of
subjects including virtualiza- panies of all sizes, ranking first among 14 expensive and difficult to administer on-premise
tion, storage, consolidation, projects in the Information Week Global 2012 solutions is being replaced by SaaS offerings.
cloud computing and opti- CIO survey. In fact, 39 percent of executives These cloud-based conferencing solutions can
mizing IT infrastructures. who responded said they planned to make cut costs, dramatically reduce the burden on IT
In addition to writing case a major investment in collaboration technol- administrators, and deliver a greatly improved
studies, white papers and ogy this year. 1 And in another recent survey, user experience.
feature stories, he has designed
numerous surveys and written
reports on wide-ranging tech- 1. “Global CIO 2012,” InformationWeek Reports, March, 2012. http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8690/IT-Business-Strategy/
research-global-cio-2012.html
nology themes. 2. “State of Unified Communications,” InformationWeek Reports, November, 2011. http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/9/8548/
IP-Telephony-Unified-Communications/research-unified-communications.html

3. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER | Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
Companies who are using public cloud options should provide the level of security
services are generally impressed—81 percent that’s required for a specific event as well as
of the technology professionals who are using the ability to generate leads and insight after
cloud-based applications say they are better or an event.
equal to in-house options3. But not all cloud- Most SMBs will want at least several
based conferencing vendors are the same. IT valuable features, such as the ability to share
administrators charged with selecting a con- desktops and applications, use annotation
ferencing service provider should be aware of tools to make a point, manage meeting par-
the factors that can determine whether events ticipants, and record and post conferences for
meet expectations or chronically disappoint. later viewing. Most companies will expect their
conferencing vendor to have advanced security
The Needs of SMBs in place, so they can be confident that event
Out of a desire to save money, some SMBs have content is protected.
encouraged their employees to use free audio Of course, vendor pricing is especially
or web conferencing tools. However, free tools important to SMBs. Businesses need to make
come with a cost — they lack the high quality sure their conferencing vendor offers flex-
audio and video standards that most businesses ible pricing options, including subscription
demand, as well as important features like plans that significantly reduce per-minute or
robust registration and data security, the abil- per-user rates. Most importantly, the vendor
ity to record and archive events, and integration should commit to making sure your company
with other collaborative applications, such as is always receiving the best possible rates based
Microsoft Outlook Express and Salesforce.com. on usage.
Most importantly, free services lack respon- One feature that IT administrators often
sive customer support to assist users and ensure overlook when selecting a conference vendor is
events go smoothly. In fact, free online services the ability to provide customized billing to indi-
3 make no promises about reliability or perfor- vidual user groups. If the vendor provides only
mance and are especially subject to network a single bill with a customer’s total usage fees,
outages and unexpected technical snafus. then the IT department will likely be saddled
with the tedious chore of figuring out how
much to charge its business units.
“The personal attention we got from IT managers often believe that the safest
choice is going with one of the largest ven-
ReadyTalk was especially helpful during those first years. dors. However, the biggest players lack the
They really helped us get to the point where everybody personalized training and customer service that
often spells the difference between success and
knew how to use the service and what to expect.”
failure. For this white paper, we spoke with
Denver-based ReadyTalk, which specializes in
— Larry Bollick, CIO, Aquent attractively-priced, user-friendly services backed
up by attentive personal training and support.
As with any service, you get what you pay Let’s look at six key considerations for
for. With free conferencing, no one is paying for ensuring that your organization selects the
service-level agreements (SLAs), so a business’ conferencing vendor that best meets its needs.
reputation is on the line every time it gambles
on a free service for a scheduled event. Easy Implementation and Transition
SMBs should seek out a leading-edge, The last thing an IT manager wants when intro-
cloud-based conferencing vendor with services ducing a new service is complications. Because
that are well matched to their needs. Audio and web conferencing and online events are initi-
web conferencing should have the innovative ated and managed by a company’s end users,
features, but not be overly complex or cumber- it is critical that the technology be easy to learn
some to operate. Meetings should be easy to and use. Yet many conferencing vendors pro-
schedule and launch, and flexible registration vide only a library of pre-canned training videos
3. “Global CIO 2012,” InformationWeek Reports, March, 2012. http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8690/IT-Business-Strategy/
research-global-cio-2012.html

4. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER | Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
and a help desk with long wait times to support and what to expect,” says Larry Bollick, CIO of
stymied users. the leading staffing firm Aquent.
ReadyTalk holds to a different philosophy. Of course, there are no extra fees for ser-
From basic audio conferencing to web confer- vice, support or training. ReadyTalk provides
encing to large webinars, ReadyTalk designs its refreshers, extra training and one-off training
services to deliver the optimal end-user expe- whenever a client requests it. This personal
rience. This commitment starts with a close commitment to its customers’ success is one of
partnership with IT administrators, who are ReadyTalk’s key differentiators.
assigned a dedicated transition manager.
Keeping in touch by phone, email, even Impact on Infrastructure
onsite visits if required, the ReadyTalk transition When introducing a new service, any IT organiza-
manager is a single point of contact who will tion is naturally concerned about the impact on
tailor a transition plan to meet the needs of the its infrastructure. ReadyTalk designed its audio
IT manager and his or her end users, answer and web conferencing services to have virtually
questions that arise, and arrange for training no effect on IT environments. Audio and webinar
users on a convenient schedule that meets their conferencing will work seamlessly with whatever
needs. ReadyTalk knows that IT professionals network connections your company has.
need to solve problems and get answers quickly, “ReadyTalk webinars use minimum system
so their account managers provide a direct line overhead and bandwidth. ReadyTalk is simply
of access. easier to use and less taxing on our infrastructure
To enable both local and remote end users than using streaming video services. So that’s the
to get up to speed quickly, ReadyTalk provides direction we’re going,” says Michael Tuchmann,
a transition guide for clients with step-by-step IT specialist at the Illinois Educational Association.
instructions, as well as an extensive set of From a software perspective, ReadyTalk
recorded training modules. has designed its conferencing solutions to sup-
4 “The personal attention we got from port a broad range of browsers and operating
ReadyTalk was especially helpful during those systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
first years. They really helped us get to the point Custom apps for the iPad and (in the near
where everybody knew how to use the service future) the iPhone, are free at the App Store,
AQUENT DEPENDS ON READYTALK’S SWISS ARMY KNIFE
When the Boston-based staffing company Aquent turned to ReadyTalk, it was looking for a
single vendor to support events ranging from small audio conferences to large webinars. The
large company that had been providing its conferencing services had poor customer service,
especially when problems arose.
“I recall the time that our former provider switched our usual conferencing phone number
without warning and all our worldwide offices dialed into another customer’s call,” says Larry
Bollick, CIO of Aquent. “That would never happen with ReadyTalk—they answer the phone
quickly, address issues knowledgeably, and are invariably pleasant to deal with.”
Aquent employees continually use ReadyTalk audio and web conferencing services, launching
ad hoc meetings on a moment’s notice directly from their desktops. “Using ReadyTalk for both
small conferences and larger webinars is an advantage because our employees are familiar with
the platform. And because we do all our conferencing with a single vendor, we receive excellent
pricing,” says Bollick.
Aquent also uses ReadyTalk to record and store training presentations, which employees can
access at their convenience. Presenters simply launch a conference session and record their audio
and screen actions.
“ReadyTalk is sort of a Swiss Army knife of conferencing tools,” says Bollick. “We no longer
need their customer care as much as we used to, but we know they will go the extra mile for us
if we need it.”

5. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER | Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
enabling mobile users to join conferences “Security is important to us, and ReadyTalk’s
wherever they are. ability to use additional codes for specific events
ReadyTalk’s interactive application is Flash- avoids the possibility of people inadvertently or
based (a Java version is available as a fall-back), so intentionally joining an event they shouldn’t be
there’s no need for individual users to download at,” says Tuchmann.
or maintain specific versions of these add-ons.
“One of the great things about using
ReadyTalk is that it’s essentially a cloud-based
service. We didn’t need a switch onsite or any SIX CONSIDERATIONS
infrastructure to support conferencing,” says FOR SELECTING A
Bollick. “There’s negligible impact on our IT infra- CONFERENCING SOLUTION
structure using ReadyTalk.”
• Easy implementation and transition
Robust and Flexible Security • mpact on infrastructure
I
Any business that uses SaaS conferencing to • Robust and flexible security
discuss, share, and store business knowledge
• Easy-to-use, full feature set
should be concerned about security. Not only
• Service reliability and quality
do you need to ensure that only authorized
people attend online meetings and audio con- • Easy to access and knowledgeable
customer support
ferences, but also you must be confident that
confidential data, such as recorded meetings, is
securely stored.
To deliver the most robust security possible, Similarly, chairpersons and co-presenters
ReadyTalk contracts with carefully vetted U.S.- not only can control how content is displayed
based providers to host its conferencing services at webinar events, but also can disconnect par-
5 in ISO 9001:2000 certified data centers. These ticipants, lock conferences, gather registration
leading-edge facilities use multiple layers of information and view lists of all attendees. IT
security including 256-bit Advanced Encryption administrators can flexibly control overall settings
Standard (AES) disk encryption, video surveil- to determine whether users can retain slides
lance, software and network monitoring, and from a conference, record audio or video, or
physical access logging. The data centers also share applications and desktops.
operate on multiple city power grids, battery The bottom line is that ReadyTalk provides
systems, and diesel backup to protect against comprehensive security in storing and sharing
prolonged power outages. conference data, as well as the flexibility to tailor
ReadyTalk uses a range of safety features access and privileges according to your com-
including secured controls, encryption, unique pany’s needs.
meeting IDs, and passwords to protect user
accounts from security breaches. All network Easy-to-Use, Full Feature Set
paths from the data center to individual par- ReadyTalk audio and web conferencing ser-
ticipants are encrypted with a unique session vices have all the features users need, yet
key to ensure privacy and message integrity. are easy to learn. Once a company employee
ReadyTalk supports both 128-bit AES and 256- establishes his or her credentials, ReadyTalk
bit AES encryption, depending on the user’s remembers them, so there’s no need to repeatedly
browser capabilities. type passwords.
Because security needs vary widely, depend- Starting and joining meetings is simple, since
ing on company policies, the content of a ReadyTalk integrates with end users’ workflows.
conference, and people’s roles, ReadyTalk has A “Quick Launch” icon in every user’s desktop
engineered its services to accommodate a flexible tray enables anyone to start a meeting instantly.
menu of options. For example, chairpersons can The ReadyTalk Scheduler for Outlook makes
require participants to pre-register with specific it easy to schedule events or start on-demand
information (i.e., company name, phone number, meetings directly from Microsoft Outlook.
email), as well as require a one-time security code The Outlook calendaring feature lets users
in addition to the normal meeting access code. schedule ad hoc or recurring meetings and send

6. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER | Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
invites to all participants. A simple click of a link addressing, and the ReadyTalk customer care
automatically connects invitees’ computers to the team will conscientiously follow-up.
web conference and their phones to the audio
portion of the event. For scheduled conferences, Service Reliability and Quality
chairpersons can set registration requirements, IT administrators demand that their conferenc-
defaulting to a name or a few fields for internal ing solutions be reliable and high-quality. With
events, or impose added security for meetings 99.9 percent uptime for both web and audio con-
with a wider set of participants. ferencing, ReadyTalk is among the most reliable
“ReadyTalk provides conference chairper- conferencing vendors.
A tier 1 network of audio bridges with echo
cancellation ensures users will experience crys-
“ReadyTalk webinars use minimum tal clear sound during conferences. ReadyTalk’s
redundant global bridging infrastructure and active
system overhead and bandwidth. ReadyTalk is simply easier to
bandwidth management capabilities enable it to
use and less taxing on our infrastructure than using streaming deliver highly available, reliable services 24x7x365.
video services. So that’s the direction we’re going.” ReadyTalk’s back-end management means that
even conferences with hundreds of participants on
—Michael Tuchmann, IT Specialist, Illinois Educational Association an internal network will not create capacity problems.
Easy to Access and Knowledgeable
sons with some very handy tools,” says Bollick. Customer Support
“The ‘mute all’ button cuts everyone’s audio W ith an average hold time of less than
except the presenters, so you don’t hear music if 10 seconds, ReadyTalk’s North America-
someone is on hold or there are other distracting based customer care center relieves client
sounds. Plus, ReadyTalk enables chairpersons to IT organizations of having to troubleshoot
6 leave early or take another call without termi- common problems. ReadyTalk users never
nating a meeting. And, it’s easy to do things have to navigate automated voicemail
like record an event or ask for an operator at a systems; callers are quickly connected to a
moment’s notice.” ReadyTalk representative who is thoroughly
Often conference organizers want infor- trained on its products.
mation about who attended a meeting, so Cloud-based conferencing frees a company’s
ReadyTalk offers a range of useful reports. IT organization from managing a potentially com-
Standard meeting reports list conference plex infrastructure. But problems that users cannot
attendees and how long they were in confer- resolve with a quick phone call inevitably end up on
ence. With pre-registration meetings, ReadyTalk an IT administrator’s desk. That’s why it’s important
can identify those who showed up, along with to choose a provider with responsive and capable
the no-shows, as well as chat reports for each customer support.
attendee, and polling reports with each par- “Our ReadyTalk account manager really
ticipant’s response (which is useful to align keeps on top of all the issues that concern us.
people with insights like purchasing time- Unlike with our previous provider, I don’t have
frames). Reports can also capture custom fields. to call ReadyTalk to find out if there’s a better
For marketing campaigns, ReadyTalk pro- pricing plan for us. I know ReadyTalk will guar-
vides unique URLs that can be used to track antee us the best possible rates,“ says Tuchmann.
the locations from which users enter a meeting ReadyTalk believes that great customer care
(such as from Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.). is critical to business success. It’s part of the
Reports are also available through ReadyTalk’s company’s culture and mission statement. And
public API and other integrations, so data can its value is revealed in the many customer sur-
automatically be pulled into third-party systems. veys that state ReadyTalk’s customer care is one
ReadyTalk is constantly enhancing its con- of its best attributes.
ferencing services and pays particular attention “When you call ReadyTalk customer care, you
to customer feedback and requests. Conference never have to negotiate a maze of voicemail menus,”
chairpersons have the option to complete post- says Bollick. “An actual human being promptly
event surveys to identify any issues that need answers our calls, which is a big bonus these days.”

7. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER | Six Steps to Successfully Selecting an Audio and Web Conferencing Provider
Choosing the Right Vendor ReadyTalk was built on the vision of
Because organizations depend so heavily on providing quality, affordable audio and web
conferencing and webinars, your provider conferencing to small and medium-sized
effectively becomes your business partner. businesses, backed up by the most responsive
That’s why it’s critical to choose a vendor who and personalized customer care in the industry.
can deliver not just the conferencing technol- Call ReadyTalk to find out how your IT organi-
ogy you require, but the personal service, ease zation can reduce the administrative burden
of use, security and pricing your IT depart- of providing conferencing services by part-
ment needs to ensure success at every level nering with a company that’s committed to
of your organization. your success. ■
7
ABOUT READYTALK
Hosting a webinar shouldn’t be rocket science. Audio and web conferences aren’t brain surgery. And
customer care shouldn’t consist of a system of beeps and prompts. It should be user friendly, reliable and
supported by a team of professionals, which is exactly what ReadyTalk delivers.
From small virtual meetings to large web events, ReadyTalk provides audio and web conferencing services
that are affordable and easy to use, so you can focus on the substance of the meeting, not the technology
behind it. And, when you do call with a question, ReadyTalk’s goal is for you to end the conversation
thinking, “Wow that was good customer service,” and tell someone else.
© 2012 UBM TechWeb, a division of UBM LLC. All Rights Reserved.

8. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER
NOVEMBER 2012
Six Steps to Successful Audio
Conferencing and Webinars
What SMBs Need to Consider When Choosing a Cloud-based Service
Brought to you by

9. A UBM TECHWEB WHITE PAPER
NOVEMBER 2012
Six Steps to Successful Audio
Conferencing and Webinars
What SMBs Need to Consider When Choosing a Cloud-based Service
Brought to you by