Web conferencing is becoming a popular online method of conducting meetings and increasing the efficiency of collaborative projects. But what exactly is a “Web conference?” To answer this and related questions, TMCnet turned to Benedict Tse, Chief Technology Officer at Packetel.

 

Packetel offers a variety of communications solutions for businesses and residential customers, including Web conferencing.

 

 

BT (News - Alert): Web conferencing allows you to conduct virtual meeting over the Web, eliminating the hassle and cost of travel. There are more ways to conduct virtual meeting than traditional meetings. For example, Web conferences can include a shared white board and real-time text chat.

 

 

BT: Web conferencing technology has evolved from voice alone to video conferencing, and now to video with multi-media tools. Web conferencing is now a media rich experience, and can be a lot more productive than traditional meetings.

 

 

BT: The available bandwidth to work places, homes and for mobile devices has increased dramatically during the past few years. This allows more creative way to conduct Web conferences. For example, participants can watch and listen in on conferences from their mobile devices. Businesspeople can now also work from home and still conduct media-rich meetings. Meetings can be set up in short notice.

 

 

BT: The primary requirements should be ease-of-use, bandwidth requirements/capabilities and software requirements. Web conferences sometimes are conducted with new prospects or customers who may not have the perfect setup for complicated Web conference sessions. Sometimes, a smooth web conferencing experience is more important than having extra features.

 

 

BT: Small business and enterprise customers often conduct media-rich meetings with multiple participants, whereas residential users tend to conduct simpler meetings using one-to-one desktop sharing. Small business and enterprise customers also tends to have more complicated firewall setup than residential users, so a solution that’s firewall friendly is a must.

 

 

BT: Our Web conferencing solution is very user-friendly, with everything integrated into a Web portal. Users can manage their meetings from any computers, using a fast interface that requires no software installation. This solution is ideal for product demos and first-time meetings with customers, among other potential applications.

 

 

BT: Packetel offers live customer support and a call center located on the West Coast for real-time and localized support. Signup is done online and we currently offer a 30 day free trial with no credit card information needed.