This document discusses the problems caused by weak online conferencing solutions for businesses. It identifies four main problems: 1) poor audio quality, 2) unreliable systems, 3) solutions that are difficult to join and use, and 4) lack of support. It then discusses the risks and costs of weak conferencing to IT departments, including issues with security, administration, and support. Finally, it outlines the risks and costs to the rest of the business, including negative impacts to sales, support, marketing, and internal projects. The document advocates for investing in a higher quality online conferencing system to avoid these problems and costs.

1. WHAT?
CRACKLE.
DROP.
Conferences are a crucial part of any business. They are also an
enormous investment of time, money and resources. So how can
you help ensure your company conferences have a worthwhile
outcome?
Positive outcomes depend on two factors—the quality of the
facilities and the quality of the participants. This guide focuses on
the former of these factors: Online conference facilities.
First, consider your offline conferences. They don’t take place in
broom closets. They are held in conference rooms. So why do so
many companies conduct their online conferences in digital broom
closets? Inexpensive (or free) conferencing solutions all take a
major toll, and the ripples can be felt throughout the entire
business.
The Cost of Weak Online
Conferencing for IT and
Business.
Avoid the Digital Broom Closet
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2. THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY
WEAK ONLINE CONFERENCING
1. Poor Audio Quality
No single factor degrades the quality of an
online conference more than poor-quality
audio. In fact, a recent report from Redshift1
said that audio quality is the most important
feature for users. When voices are faint or
cutting out on conference calls, attendees
end up focusing more on trying to hear and
less on taking notes
2. Unreliable Systems
Your conferences run on and across
infrastructure: computing, server, and
network. But the weakest link in that
infrastructure is equivalent to how reliable a
system actually is. Inferior conferencing
systems lack total control. When a node in an
unreliable network goes down, another
vendor’s NOC must be called to track down
the failure—and we all know how expensive
redundancy and disaster recovery can be.
3. Difficult to Join, Difficult to Use
Low quality conferencing systems do not
excel in ease-of-use. Some provide a toll
free number, others do not. Conference IDs
are randomly assigned, required downloads
are blocked, and the convoluted steps for
joining a meeting are almost always
guaranteed to waste time. And when ad
hoc attendance is prohibited to the degree
that people without a reservation can’t join
(even if it’s the CEO), that’s a big problem.
4. Lack of Support
No one on your team should have to
troubleshoot conferencing system
problems at your meeting. When
something isn’t working, you need
someone to fix it immediately. Lower
quality conferencing services will simply
direct you to a user manual or FAQ page.
And that’s probably not the level of support
you’re looking for.
When it comes to innovation, low-cost conferencing
solutions use yesterday’s design specifications—
compromising audio quality, usability, and more.
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Consider the top 4 most
common problems (do any of
these sound familiar?).

3. THE RISKS AND COSTS TO IT
1. Security
Online conferencing is necessary in this day and age, but it does open the door for
major security risks. And with so much fraud, theft, and malicious software, your
conferencing system security must be vigilant. Subpar conferencing services provide
subpar security. When a platform is not able to provide you with everything you need to
know about the data center, network quality, firewalls, and DDoD infrastructure, your
company’s most sensitive information becomes vulnerable.
2. Administration
Managing the administrative duties of one conferencing system is doable. But when
companies rapidly switch from one low-quality system to another as a result of a bad
experience, this can quickly spiral out of control. With each system having its own rogue
infrastructure, you—or someone else on your IT team—will be stuck with the messy job
of managing multiple networks. And with substandard analytics and reporting, handling
billing, usage dashboards, and other key tools becomes a full-time job.
3. Support
When conferencing systems are weak, the buck stops at IT. Whether it’s problems with
an online conference, invitation emails not going out, issues with recordings, or any of
the other myriad snags, your department gets the call. And that means a direct hit on
other important IT work and internal SLAs.
Companies change between low-cost systems
constantly. Why not save IT the trouble and invest
in one that actually works?
The 3 most serious ways your IT
organization is directly affected:
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4. THE RISKS AND COSTS TO
THE REST OF THE BUSINESS
1. Sales and Support Suffer
Whether it’s prospects or customers,
your online conferencing capabilities
can make or break a relationship. When
live demos have latency or don’t render
correctly across the network, or audio
quality is low, deals quickly die. Likewise,
when an existing customer experiences
a slow online support system or if the
remote control functionality is weak or
non-existent, a customer can quickly be
lost.
2. Marketing
Upstream from Sales and Customer
Support, the impact of subpar
conferencing systems can be felt in
Marketing too. From lead-generating,
one-to-many, branded presentations to
gathering information about people,
preferences, and prospects, weak online
conferences can do a lot of harm. And
when integration of prospect data into
the CRM has to be done manually (as is
the case with low quality conference
systems), the time wasted is revenue
lost.
3. Internal Projects
Projects get done on time when
everyone’s on the same page—and low
cost conferencing solutions do not
provide the clarity or capabilities to
ensure that happens. Calendars can’t be
updated, collaborative documents can’t
be edited during conferences, and audio
quality is weak. Productivity tanks as
projects are delayed and
miscommunication leads to
unnecessary extra steps to compensate
for a system’s shortcomings.
The ripple doesn’t stop at IT—the entire
business feels the effects of low-quality
conferencing systems. Here are the 3
most significant, company-wide costs:
Low-quality conferencing
affects customer
acquisition, sales, project
management, customer
retention, marketing
efforts—the list goes on…
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5. RUN YOUR NUMBERS
What impact do conferencing systems
actually have on businesses? Ask others
in your field about these costs.
Criteria Sample Numbers
Fully burdened cost of people that attend a meeting: (SMEs, managers and executives)
Percentage of time they spend in meetings each month.
Cost of meeting attendance per employee
Total cost of unproductive meetings per employee per year
Number of employees that attend at least one meeting per day
Estimated percentage of unproductive meetings where conferencing technology was consid -
ered the problem.
TOTAL COST OF UNPRODUCTIVE MEETINGS
TOTAL ESTIMATED IMPACT OF WEAK CONFERENCING
$150,000
25%
$37,500
40%
$15,000
50
5%
$750,000
$37,500
Cost of Product
Estimated cost of lost sales per year
Estimate lost sales opportunities per year from poor conferencing
ESTIMATED IMPACT OF POOR CONFERENCING ON SALES
$1,000
1,000
$1,000,000
5%
$50,000
Sales Sample Numbers
In the above models, the total cost of weak conferencing per year is $87,500.
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6. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE OUTCOME
Your online conferencing system should be
driven by the single, overarching goal of
supporting a productive outcome. When
you have a system that is always reliable,
clear, and available, your online
conferencing is working the way it should
be working. If your current system doesn’t
pass this test, it’s time to re-evaluate the
actual cost of low quality conferencing.
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