How Legacy Conference Calling Services Like PGI and InterCall Are Getting Bumped Off the Value Curve

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1 White Paper How Legacy Conference Calling Services Like PGI and InterCall Are Getting Bumped Off the Value Curve Contents Introduction....2 Redefining the Value Curve in Audio Conferencing....2 Traditional services....2 What is a value curve?....3 Enter the new providers....3 Where Legacy Services Live on the Value Curve....4 Old tech, older features....4 High costs + basic features = a bad deal....4 High costs + good features = still a bad deal....4 The New Era of Audio Conferencing: What is Valuable?....5 What does an amazing User Experience look and feel like?....5 Price for performance....5 Who s Creating Value in this Space?....6 Conclusion: Out with the Old....6 About Ziff Davis B2B Ziff Davis B2B is a leading provider of research to technology buyers and high-quality leads to IT vendors. As part of the Ziff Davis family, Ziff Davis B2B has access to over 50 million in-market technology buyers every month and supports the company s core mission of enabling technology buyers to make more informed business decisions. Copyright 2013 Ziff Davis B2B. All rights reserved. Contact Ziff Davis B2B 100 California Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, CA Tel: Fax: marty_fettig@ziffdavis.com

2 Introduction Conference calls facilitate collaboration in today s highly mobile, distributed workforces and ensure that everyone, from employees who are telecommuting to partners around the world, remain fully engaged and up-to-speed on critical projects. Audio conferencing: Maintains vocal and communication nuances often lost in text Reintroduces personal connections often lost in environments dominated by social media and messaging technologies Allows for rapid, synchronous exchanges of information Reduces the need for business travel The audio conferencing market is evolving, and traditional enterprise players are struggling to deliver the features, affordability, and ease-of-use that modern businesses demand. A recent Frost and Sullivan analysis of the North American audio conferencing market predicts that the market will remain quite dynamic, driven by new value-added features introduced by market participants, new transport infrastructure and new pricing models. But just what are these new features and why do they matter for businesses? The Frost and Sullivan report found that new features are largely being ignored by businesses with 80.4% of work meetings running as audio-only conferences. So what s causing the disconnect? More importantly, how can both SMBs and large enterprises benefit from this shifting market? And what are the differentiating features that will define a new generation of conferencing tools? This paper will answer these questions and explore the major shortcomings of traditional conferencing services. It will also introduce readers to new solutions that provide high-quality calls more easily and less expensively. Redefining the Value Curve in Audio Conferencing Traditional Services Telecommunications providers and traditional audio conferencing services like Executive Conferencing, AccuConference and BT MeetMe haven t changed much in the last several decades. Users dial in to a conference bridge, wait for a moderator to open the call, and then talk, listen or simply tune out. The basic function of voice communication between multiple parties is served, but there are better ways that make live communication via audio conference much easier and more valuable to a business. ziffdavis.com 2 of 6

3 What is a value curve? Blue Ocean Strategy, a leading consultancy in market innovation and disruption, defines a value curve as the following: A value curve, also called a strategic profile, is the graphic depiction of a company s strategy. It captures a company s relative performance across the key competitive factors of an industry including price. A new breed of providers is delivering higher quality and improved usability while reducing complexity and eliminating outdated pricing models. Eliminate Shifting Values - Audio Conferencing Improve/enhance Unnecessarily distracting and expensive add-ons like video and web conferencing Simplicity of billing, subscriptions, and upgrades User empowerment Service utilization UI/UX quality Ease of use Reduce Create Cost Social and Cloud Integration Enter the New Providers New audio conferencing providers are embracing Superior HD Audio Quality Support for computers, phones and mobile devices User-friendly interfaces Advanced features Social integration Self-service conferencing Powerful smartphone apps ziffdavis.com 3 of 6

4 Where Legacy Services Live on the Value Curve Old tech, older features Traditional providers have made improvements in audio quality and incremental improvements to the conference bridge itself such as integrations with Microsoft Exchange to improve scheduling. However, most of them don t offer a core user experience that improves, in any way, on those of the last few decades. One way legacy providers attempt to differentiate themselves is by bundling video conferencing with existing audio services. Video conferencing can be a useful tool at times, but the overhead in terms of expense, training and complexity often discourages the use of video conferencing tools. Typically, users simply need to talk quickly, reliably, and easily. In the context of the value curve, it isn t hard to see what can be eliminated: bundled services like video, which, as the Frost and Sullivan report explained, often go unused. New providers are focusing on call quality, usability and innovative services that increase the value they deliver. High costs + basic features = a bad deal The bottom line is that legacy audio conferencing services come at a higher cost with a smaller set of basic features than those provided by newer entrants into the market. Most traditional conferencing solutions include: A conference bridge (or bridges) with the choice of attended or unattended conference calls, at a much higher cost. A finite number of shared bridges, allocated within the business that are analogous to shared physical conference rooms. Call recording, usually a premium service. Basic reports on attendance and call length, but lacking detailed metrics such as who was present and for how long. High costs + good features = still a bad deal Even those legacy providers that have added new features that enhance the calling experience (e.g., web-based indicators for who is speaking), the value still isn t there. Many of these services force buyers to purchase minute-based plans and oversubscribe to avoid per-minute overages or underuse a service to keep costs down, further degrading the potential value of legacy audio conferencing services. The New Era of Audio Conferencing: What is Valuable? Clearly, legacy services are lacking in usability, cost and features. So where do modern services excel? ziffdavis.com 4 of 6

5 What does an amazing User Experience look and feel like? Leading firms enable the least savvy of users to easily schedule and initiate calls, by sharing a link or clicking a Start a new conference button. They frequently give users the convenience of importing addresses from existing services and social networks, and send participants conference information automatically. Best-in-class services provide online dashboards and mobile apps to show who s speaking at any given time. Again, implementations differ by provider, but usually include visual cues, images or avatars, and can even surface social media information about the speaker. Callers never have to ask who is speaking, fumble with introductions, or wonder if some unauthorized person is eavesdropping on sensitive information. Quality is another differentiator. With internet-enabled devices and reasonable bandwidth, callers can also expect extraordinary HD clarity and quality from best-in-class services. Price for performance A critical factor for many organizations is affordability. The cost and flexibility of subscriptions should encourage maximum utilization rather than limit rollout to just a few users. Audio conferencing can be transformative for organizations, but only if it is widely adopted. In audio conferencing, most traditional providers sell a base number of minutes and then charge for additional time spent on conference calls. This practice leads to a few troubling outcomes: Businesses looking to cut costs reduce their base number of minutes or discourage excessive use of conferencing to avoid overage charges. In essence, businesses ask their employees to communicate less. Businesses oversubscribe to a larger number of base minutes than they need to avoid exorbitant overage charges. Variable costs are difficult to track and assign to appropriate cost centers; too often the costs end up looking like overruns in IT budget lines. New providers generally offer flat fees per employee for unlimited use of the service, dramatically improving accountability and budget planning. ziffdavis.com 5 of 6

6 Who s Creating Value in this Space A growing number of providers are delivering on the promise of modern audio conferencing: UberConference delivers an extremely friendly interface, strong integrations, including LinkedIn and Twitter for social profiles, Evernote and Box for document sharing, and Google Apps for user management. The combination of innovative features and low-cost flexible subscriptions, places UberConference clearly on the new value curve of audio conferencing. Significant recent capital investments ensure that UberConference will remain a leader among the new crop of audio conferencing providers. Join.me, offered by the popular service provider LogMeIn, requires a software download, which is sometimes restricted in corporate environments. This service also shares a simple user interface and flexible subscriptions. Although its interface doesn t show who s talking, entry to meetings is simple and quick. Turbobridge is one of the more established players among modern conferencing providers. While not quite as polished as UberConference or Join.me, it is affordable, relatively easy to use and makes setting up virtual bridges quite simple. Conclusion: Out with the Old New innovative providers are disrupting this sleepy industry. Bundling additional services hasn t addressed the fundamental problems associated with legacy conferencing and provides little incentive for end users to communicate together regularly. Users often find that bundled video conferencing can be distracting, interfere with impromptu meetings and are too bandwidth intensive. What organizations need is a solution for core conferencing frustrations, enabling them to meet and communicate more productively and efficiently. A new breed of conferencing solutions now exist that meet these needs through contemporary user experiences and in a surprisingly affordable way. ziffdavis.com 6 of 6