Web-based Collaboration Tools

by Deb Lockwood

Have you ever wanted to increase your productivity while reducing costs? Or conduct training without the travel expenses? Using an Internet connection, a personal computer, and some software, you can do just that.

My employer, CSG Systems, has offices in several locations in the United States. And our clients are scattered throughout the country. One of our corporate challenges has been how to deliver training to clients who do not reside in a major metropolitan area. Web-based collaboration tools offer us a timely and economical alternative.

Within the past few years I have had the opportunity to train several coworkers on our department’s tools and processes. Because I work in Denver and my coworkers are in Omaha, distance is an issue. I cannot roll my chair over to the person’s cubicle to demonstrate something. But with our collaboration tool, I can share my desktop with my coworkers and show them how to do something, or even better, have them take control and do it for themselves.

Features and providers

Most collaboration tools offer you the following:

• Web-based screen sharing
• Web conferencing
• Collaborative workspace including whiteboard and chat
• Video and audio components
• Class registration
• Session recording
• Meeting reports
• Polls and surveys

Over the past several years I’ve used three excellent collaboration tools: Live Meeting, WebEx, and GoToMeeting.

All three are available for free trial, and all offer comparable functionality. The pricing depends on your needs and varies greatly depending on how many licenses, meetings, and participants will be involved. One independent contractor I know spends over $200 a month for this type of tool. If you are pricing an enterprise-level tool, you can obviously spread the cost over more users.

I’ve attended several free training sessions hosted by WebEx and GoToMeeting to get a feel for how training is conducted online. However, my employer is a Microsoft-compliant shop so we chose Live Meeting, which integrates smoothly with the other Microsoft Office software applications, including Outlook.

And when I say smoothly, I do mean smooth as glass. To launch a Live Meeting collaborative session from Outlook, I have two options: schedule the meeting in advance or start an ad hoc meeting.

Long-distance mentoring

Recently I mentored a writer who was new to our company using Live Meeting sessions. We used a combination of meetings that I scheduled in Outlook and ad hoc meetings when we were talking about an issue and needed a visual.

When I downloaded the Live Meeting application, the installer automatically added a Live Meeting toolbar to my Outlook application. The following figure shows an example of this toolbar.

To give you an idea of how simple this collaboration tool is to use, here is the procedure for starting an impromptu meeting:

1. In Outlook, click the Meet Now button.
   The Meet Now e-mail message appears.
   

2. In the To field, type the attendee’s e-mail address.
3. Click Send.
   Outlook sends the invitation to the attendee and opens a Live Meeting session.
   

4. The attendee clicks the Meeting URL that is in the e-mail message, types the Meeting ID, and, if required, types the Meeting Key.
5. On the Live Meeting session desktop, select Share, Share Application.
   The Sharing - Live Meeting dialog box appears.
   

6. Select the Desktop option to share all applications, or select the application you want to share, and click OK.
   The Live Meeting desktop appears.
   

7. Click the Share Control button .
   The Give Control dialog box appears.
   

8. Select the participant’s name and click OK.
   The Give Control Sharing Paused message appears.
   

9. Click Yes.
   The participant has shared control of the desktop and can perform any action, including collaborating in shared documents.

Audio features

CSG has contracted with InterCall (www.intercall.com) to provide audio-conferencing services that integrate with our Live Meeting sessions. This works especially well with employees who telecommute, or who work at different locations. Live Meeting supports three providers: InterCall, MCI, and BT. (See the Live Meeting website for more details.)

You can also use voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) with most collaboration tools. But I’ve heard that there is some delay, so be sure to test the features before you buy.

Conclusion

At CSG we’ve found Live Meeting to be a cost-effective tool for training our employees and our clients. As CSG employees become more familiar with the tool, I expect that we will discover new ways to make use of the tool’s features.

Whether your business need is to present information to a client, to collaborate with a coworker, or to train someone, collaboration tools might just offer you the solution you’ve been looking for.

References

• Live Meeting: office.microsoft.com/en-us/livemeeting/FX101729061033.aspx
• WebEx: www.webex.com
• Go To Meeting: www.gotomeeting.com