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DQ News: Choosing a Virtual Meeting Service for Your Small Business

In the past, unwieldy equipment and the absence of widespread broadband internet capacity put video conferencing out of reach for many businesses.  However, technological advances in just the past few years have made virtual meetings a viable option for even the smallest companies.  Even as the economy recovers, virtual meetings are expected to remain a popular alternative to business travel.

Because of the rise in popularity of virtual meetings, there has been an explosion of service providers.  The following points should be considered in choosing a virtual meeting service that meets the needs of your small business.

Ease of installation and set-up

Some virtual meeting services, such as GoToMeeting, require that the participants install a software program or browser plug-in.  If software must be downloaded, you must make certain that the appropriate parties have operating systems compatible with the software and verify that they have installed it prior to the meeting.

Many popular virtual meeting services, such as GoToWebinar, Adobe Connect, and WebEx Meeting, are entirely web-based, and do not require that any software be installed.  It is important to verify that the service will support your company’s operating system, however.  GoToWebinar supports instant virtual meetings for any Windows or Mac operating system.  Adobe Connect and WebEx also will support instant web conferencing on Linux operating systems, and WebEx will run on any smartphone mobile device.

Invitation Tools

A variety of invitation tools are offered by popular web conferencing services.  Many virtual meeting services, such as Infinite Conferencing, Adobe Connect, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, are integrated with Microsoft’s Outlook email application and will add a meeting’s details to participants’ Outlook calendars.  This feature is useful for businesses holding regular meetings with a large number of attendees.  Most services offer a variety of invitation options, including automated email templates, instant or planned webinars and meetings, and webinar registration pages.

Collaboration Tools

Virtual meeting services offer a variety of features allowing participants in a meeting to collaborate with ease.  Most services currently include screen-sharing capabilities enabling a presenter to share his desktop, certain documents, as well as chosen applications in a full-screen view and allow the presenter to highlight a specific portion of his screen.

Another common feature is the capability for multiple participants to act as presenters.  This tool is useful for businesses holding meetings in which it is important for various employees with expertise in different areas to participate in the presentation of the meeting.  AT&T Connect and IBM Lotus Live only will allow up to four presenters, while Watchitoo will allow up to 25 presenters.

Annotation and drawing tools, such as virtual pens, pencils, and sticky notes, allowing presenters to underscore or highlight certain points also are generally available, although some popular services, such as Zoho Meeting, do not offer them.  Whiteboard tools, enabling presenters to note ideas or develop outlines for projects are offered by some services, such as AT&T Connect, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Watchitoo, and Yugma.

Communication Tools

Almost all web conferencing services provide a built-in text chat tool, enabling participants in a meeting to communicate with specific people in the group or with the group as a whole.  Other standard communication tools are teleconferencing, a voice-calling feature enabling attendees to talk to each other during the meeting, as well as VoIP (Voice-over-Internet-Protocol), which allows participants to make telephone calls over the web.

Videoconferencing, although a commonly offered service, is less ubiquitous than the tools mentioned above.  It allows participants to broadcast video images of themselves, making the meeting seem like a more traditional in-person gathering.  Some virtual meeting services, such as Yuuguu, do not offer this service.

About the Author: Neville Luff is a marketing strategist for NewNet, a UK-based internet, hosting and networking solutions company. NewNet services include data centres, dedicated servers, business VOIP, web hosting and more. Follow NewNet on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/NewNetISP

Photo Credit: lumaxart

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