EBC 6260
A Integrated System Networks/Enterprise

Group Project: - Web Conferencing and Business Impacts

prepared by
Aqueel khoja mohsin ali
Raja Pethanasamy shihab ahmed

list of Figures

Figure 1: Adobe Connect Features 6 Figure 2: Host Server Internals 6 Figure 3: Adobe Connect Architecture 8 Figure 4: XCON Standards 9 Figure 5: Top web conferencing solutions 9

Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Introduction 3 Technical Aspects of Web Conferencing 6 i) Web conferencing 6 ii) Technical Features of web conferencing 7 iii) How web conferencing works 7 iv) Server Architecture 8 v) Issues with web conferencing 7 vi) Standards in web conferencing 8 How companies are using the web conference 9 a) Identify and Describe Issues 12 b) Web conferencing advantages 8 c) Challenges of webconferencing 8 d) Web conferencing advantages 8 Businsess impacts of web conferencing 8 a) Businsess impacts of web conferencing 8 b) Collobaration and Process Management Survey Results 8 c) Business Case Studies 8 a)Seagate Case study 8 b)Vodafone Case Study 8 c)University of Notre Case Study 8 d)Cost Savings from web conferencing 8 e)Top web conferencing solutions for Enterprise 8 Conclusion & Recommendation 10

Executive summary

As an integral part of the course “Integrated System Network” for E Business Technologies Program we are assigned by our respected course teacher to write a report on “Web Conferencing and its impact in Business”. Hence this part constitutes the executive summary of the report.

In order to cover up the topic selected, we have decided to follow a logical flow for report writing that we deem fit to explain what we have studied. Firstly we have explained about the web conferencing and method of study and then we go for bit technical aspects. We talked about the features that web conferencing software’s are providing and the hardware requirement along with some security issues. We have used real life case study to explain our objective. We have selected the case studies so that different notion and dynamics of businesses can be understood as all the companies are unique in their own way. We have explained advantages and challenges of web conferencing that we found during our study. In the last part we have shown the reason why people accepting this technology based on research of third party and then provided three case studies. We used the problem scenario explanation to problem solution and finally impact in business. Finally, we believe that new features will more enrich the web conferencing and provide benefits to customers in coming days.

Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. These are sometimes referred to as webinars or, for interactive conferences, online workshops. In general, the service is made possible by Internet technologies, particularly on TCP/IP connections. The service allows real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers.

The easy features of web conferencing now days are attracting a lot of people/companies as it brings multiple factors into one single umbrella that give ease and comfort to the user. Some of the features that are available in the web conferencing software now a days are Screen and Application Sharing, File Transfer and Document Sharing, Text Chat, Record and Playback, Polls and Surveys, Slide Shows, Whiteboards with Annotation, VoIP etc. We have touched the software and hardware requirement on the basis of selected product. In addition to that, we have also focused on the security issues that lies in relation to corporate web conferencing as lot of sensitive data are shared between networks that are off limit to others.

Based on the market situation, we have provided some of the standards that are guiding the customers while choosing between the vendors. Understanding of the standards plays a vital role for a company because otherwise they may end up with products that are not required for them.

In the next phase, we have provided a case study from CISCO. The objective of the case study is to see the dual opportunities lies in a single platform: In house production of web conferencing and its internal usage to commercialization.
CISCOS like any other multinational companies wants to reduce the expenses associated with travelling and have come up with a solution that shape the said web conference software. CISCO actually used the software for their internal usage that helps them to achieve the objective that they are looking for. We have explained some of the advantages of the web conference based on our study. Based on the different dynamics and nature of the business, different companies/individuals have different types of benefits they look for from the web conferencing. We have also shed some light on the challenges of the web conference that one may face. Without a doubt no IT products is beyond the scope of security issues.

In the last part, we are more focused on the business impact. Brother International Corporation released results from its 2013 Collaboration and Process Management Survey,' which found in their study that over 50% of enterprise are spending money on business travelling. In a time where companies are decreasing headcount and improving obligations to help reduce costs, Brother recognizes the use of web conference meetings as a low competitive cost benefits device.

Some of the case studies that we have discussed in this part are SEAGATE CASE STUDY, VODAFONE CASE STUDY, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE CASE STUDY. In all the case studies that we presented in this report, we tried to find out the challenges that companies are facing on the basis of their nature and dynamics and how they come up with the solution with web conference and most importantly how it is helping companies from different perspective form cost saving to increase productivity.

We have provided a list of the software that are available and with the their client base to show how fast it is progressing among the companies that does not necessarily to be the blue chip companies but coming from ass aspect.

Finally, we would like to point out that in this current competitive business world, we are looking at an environment that prefers IT ease and simplicity. In order to attain the profit, companies look ways to reduce expenses with the help of new technologies and processes available in the market. With web conferencing they not only save resources but also increase productivity by a large extent. No doubt we will see more advanced feature of the web conferencing in coming days.

1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study would be to reveal the term “Web conferencing” and influence on business. Within the report we briefly referred to the worthiness of web conferencing as well as it is improvement in recent times to help current. Moreover, we reveal some of the technical part to discuss precisely how that works, the type of components as well as application is utilized to help obtain access to it. Together with that we stated technical functions as well as characteristics. Within the technical aspect we have now briefly referred to server structures requirements, protection factor and also the problems including protection, privacy as well as connectivity. Nevertheless, whereby we described problems of net conferencing presently there we also offered some options as a way to triumph over the problems.
Essentially, in this particular report we have now also illuminated that will precisely how companies are working with this technology to achieve effectiveness as well as usefulness over time and cost, and how companies are increasing growth in their returns and investments with the help of web conferencing. Relevant to this, we raised some of the pertinent case studies contain: the case study of Cisco, Vodafone, the US postal service and the university of Notre dame to support each of our matter. Furthermore, we referred to the advantages and drawbacks of net conferencing, plus lead most of propositions to generate this engineering more enhance plus much more effective for the companies.
Source of Data: We have used secondary data in our report * Internet * Online books and Articles * Research papers
What is Web Conferencing?
Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. These are sometimes referred to as webinars or, for interactive conferences, online workshops. In general, the service is made possible by Internet technologies, particularly on TCP/IP connections. The service allows real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. It offers information of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, across geographically dispersed locations.

Why web conferencing
The web conferencing is not a new thing in the business world. Many big giants have developed advanced web conferencing software based on the demand of the customers. Web conference essentially helps companies to reduce down the cost by huge specially for the multinational companies where offices are geographically dispersed. The main impact they make is to reduce the travelling expense of the employees and also increase productivity by huge as employees can meet any time without the physical presence. We will shed more lights on this in our study. 2. TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF WEB CONFERENCING

3.1 Web conferencing

Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. These are sometimes referred to as webinars or, for interactive conferences, online workshops. In general, the service is made possible by Internet technologies, particularly on TCP/IP connections and VOIP protocol. The service allows real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. It offers information of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, across geographically dispersed locations. Applications for web conferencing include meetings, training events, lectures, or short presentations from any computer.
Typical Technical Features of web conferencing:
1. Screen and Application Sharing: This feature allows conference participants to view any document, Web site or tool that a presenter has pulled up on his or her computer. Attendees can better understand what is being discussed and will not need to disrupt the presentation for clarification.
2. File Transfer and Document Sharing: With file transfer, users can upload and download documents to their individual machines and share them with the other conference attendees. This is especially important for events about proposals, briefs or other types of collaborative documents.
3. Text Chat: Text chat simply allows participants to send IMs (instant messages) to each other, publicly or privately. Twitter is another channel that could be adapted for the same purpose using Twitter messaging functionality. It is a useful feature for question-and-answer sessions as well as one-on-one collaboration.
4. Record and Playback: It is easy to miss another attendee’s comment or an important side conversation in a Web or video conference. Record and playback lets Web conference participants view everything at a later date. This is also helpful for individuals who could not attend the original event.
5. Polls and Surveys: These are easy ways to get immediate user feedback. The conference presenter has the ability to ask questions with multiple answer choices for the audience, as well as solicit public or private responses.
6. Slide Shows: PowerPoint presentations have become a fundamental tool for almost every corporate meeting today. It is essential to ensure that the Web conferencing solution supports slide presentation capabilities. Offerings should also support Keynote for OS X users, and Open Office Impress.
7. Whiteboards with Annotation: Just because a meeting is held online does not mean it is necessary to sacrifice hands-on collaboration. The whiteboards feature lets the conference presenter or participants make changes to slides or take notes on a blank whiteboard.
8. Security: It is essential for the Web conferencing solution to have the right defenses in place. Integration with existing tools including firewalls, password protection and encryption are good indicators that the offering under consideration will protect the Web Conferencing event from online infiltrators.
9. Video Integration: With a simple desktop video camera, video integration allows attendees to view each other and the presenter.
10. VoIP: While many Web conferencing solutions get by with simple audio capabilitsies, VoIP has some useful advantages. VoIP uses the Internet and lets participants speak in real-time through headsets and using computers’ speakers. This simplifies conferences by limiting all communications to individuals’ machines; participants do not have to have a phone line available during the conference.
11. Ease of use, Accessibility, and Support: These considerations are fundamental to an effective system, although the support requirements can be community or contract support and still be effective. SaaS solutions are generally advantageous since they typically do not require specialized clients or plug-ins. Many applications do require browser plug-ins, and these should be pushed to user desktops to ensure accessibility and ease of use. 3.2 How Web Conferencing Works?
A typical configuration of the web conferencing application varies from vendor to vendor. The below configuration is highly scalable, secure and flexible modular configuration of Adobe Connect web conferencing solution. Most of the components on the architecture is visible on most of the products available on the market.

Figure1: Adobe Connect Features
2.2.1 Server Architecture:

Figure2:Host Server Internals
Application Server: Adobe Connect Server is built on J2EE using Apache Tomcat for the application layer. Apache HTTP Server provides the web server functionality. The server contains and executes all the business logic necessary for delivering content to users.
Streaming Communication Server: Adobe Connect Server includes an embedded instance of Adobe Media Server that acts as the meeting server. This component handles all the real-time streaming of audio and video, synchronization of data, and deliver of rich media content. Adobe Media Server uses the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) but can be configured to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for increased data security.
HTML Authoring and Publishing: Adobe Connect Server uses Adobe CQ, a web content management system, for creating and managing HTML-based templates used for event email notifications, landing pages, and user self-registration. It provides the ability to author and subsequently publish web pages.
Analytics: Adobe Connect Server can provide extensive participant behavior reports and session analysis using the hosted Adobe Site Catalyst service. These reports track viewing of landing pages; response to registration questions; attendance at meetings, webinars, or training; and even participation in polls, Q&A, and file download activity during meetings.
Media Transcoding: Adobe Connect Server provides a number of file conversion utilities to automatically convert popular document formats into highest-quality files that are displayed in the meeting room.

Figure3: Adobe Connect Host Architecture

Security Consideration:
When the data is stored in the database, it’s very essential that it’s not accessible to anyone other than the intended person. These data may contain sensitive information about the employee records, product information, company earnings or other confidential information. So, it’s essential that the data is protected and the robust web conferencing solution is adapted.
The easiest solution to secure a dedicated system is to block all ports other than required ports for the communication. It configured in such a way that only HTTPS or RTMPS connections can be allowed. Standards work in two ways. First, external standards such as Transport Layer Security (TLS, commonly known as Secure Socket Layer (SSL)), Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) and T. 120 ensure that a solution is interoperable with applications and platforms used inside and outside an organization. Second, corporate standards create a common architecture and conventions that can, through consistent use, be more effective and secure. Each standards scenario offers an opportunity to gain efficacy over time and contribute to ROI [1].
2.3 Issues with web conferencing:
Security: Conferences often require that their content be confidential. In addition, secure authorization of participants is incomplete if access to the media can be gained by unauthorized participants. Functions for securing the media and for key management and distribution to authorized participants need to be provided by the Conferencing System. In some cases, the functions used for participant authorization can be leveraged for this purpose.
Privacy: Privacy is an important aspect of conferencing. Users may wish to join a conference without anyone knowing that they have joined, in order to silently listen in. In other applications, a participant may wish just to hide their identity from other participants, but otherwise let them know of their presence. These functions need to be provided by the Conferencing System.

2.4 Standards in Web Conferencing:
Recognizing the need for security, the IETF has set up the Centralized Conference Working Group (XCON) in 2003 to recommend standards for Web conferencing. XCON is developing a standardized suite of protocols for multi-media conferences where strong security and authorization requirements are needed. While XCON is still working on parts of this, companies are using some completed recommendations in their security architecture. That's why you may see XCON mentioned in hosting companies' descriptions of their security systems [2].

Figure4: XCON Standards
Some of the standards from XCON:
RFC6503/4 – Centralized Conferencing Manipulation Protocol (CCMP) Examples
RFC6502 -Conference Event Package Data Format Extension for Centralized Conferencing (XCON)
RFC4376 - Requirements for Floor Control Protocols
RFC4582 - The Binary Floor Control Protocol (BFCP)

2.5 Industry driven requirements:
When it comes to picking up the right solution for web conferencing, its essential many factors, of which below are some of the important factors. * Depth of features * Audio and Video Quality and Clarity * Price * Cross-Platform Installation * Ease of installation usage adoption * Security * Stability and Performance
2.6 TOP web conferencing solutions: There are lot of open sources, host based and licensed applications are available on market. Adobe, oracle, cisco and Microsoft are the leaders on providing web conferencing solution. Below are the top 10 application[3].

Figure5: top web conferencing solutions

3.1 How the companies are using Web conference: From creation and usage within to commercialization – A CISCO case study

Business Challenge
With the ever-increasing costs of travel, concerns around efficiency, and the need for employees to multitask to stay on top of their job responsibilities, enterprises are actively seeking solutions that use technology to improve the productivity of business and technical groups and CISCO is not an exception in this case.
Heather Paunet, senior software engineer and lead of the Cisco® Unified MeetingPlace® for Lotus Notes team, explains her group's requirements this way: "We are a global team with members in San Jose and Belgrade. Frequent communication is critical to our success and to working effectively with the customers who use this product. Because of this, we need a technology approach that is much more effective than e-mail."
Solution platform
The use of rich media for conducting meetings is a robust, effective solution to the challenge of supporting global teamwork. The Rich Media Communications and Rich Media Solutions teams at Cisco have taken the lead in promoting rich media applications throughout the enterprise. Interestingly, one of their first "success stories" within a product development organization was the use of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace to facilitate meetings conducted by the very group that is developing Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Lotus Notes.
A Closer Look at Leading Effective Technical Meetings
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace provides an important vehicle for conducting effective engineering team meetings. So do best practices-for both team leaders and members. ""And there are many best practices that, combined with MeetingPlace, boost the effectiveness of a technical meeting. One such practice is simultaneously taking and sharing minutes of meeting proceedings. Another is incorporating an executive summary into the minutes."
"Learning to create an effective executive summary is a valuable skill," says Inn. "Because readers are typically business managers who are under time pressure, the summary should succinctly highlight factors that will change milestone dates. It should include any areas that require executive or management engagement, such as issues that affect or are affected by other business units."
Outcome of the study
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace is an end-to-end conferencing tool that enables groups to meet and be productive, regardless of the location of individual members, using a robust Web-based user interface and voice and video telephony. Given vigorous promoting and solid results, the use of rich media in meetings throughout Cisco is increasing. Members of the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Lotus Notes team are uniform in their praise of it, citing such benefits as:
More effective interaction
The ability for everyone involved to share their desktops through audio and Web conferences means that debugging, consultations with other Cisco teams and the resolution of customer problems can occur remotely-and that overall communication is more effective.
Faster and Easier knowledge transfer
"Cisco Unified MeetingPlace is great for those whose first language is not English," says Milutin Cvetkovic, a Belgrade-based Cisco software engineer. "I can read the meeting minutes as they are captured and shared during the meeting, and they make it clear what was said. When something new is discussed, the minutes make knowledge transfer easier."
Time efficiency
With Cisco Unified MeetingPlace, team members can work effectively from home offices. The impact of time zone differences-the 9-hour difference between San Jose and Belgrade, for example-is minimized. Meetings are easy to schedule, because Cisco Unified MeetingPlace can be easily integrated with Microsoft Outlook calendaring. Meetings start on time, and participants can easily involve others as required.
Superior dynamics
All team members noted that audio and Web conferences were "always preferable" to "straight audio." They also liked being able to "see" people join a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace conference through the participant list and knowing who was speaking or sharing information. The participant list is a powerful feature of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace that associates team members' voices and names with their team roles, greatly improving the information flow of a meeting.
Whiteboard capabilities
The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace whiteboard feature is useful in product visualizations where real-time collaboration is vital. "Visual objects convey information four times as effectively as spoken communications," says Inn. "This information is much more quickly internalized than information presented in plain text."

Faster time to market
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace helps speed time to market-particularly in terms of fixing bugs. It provides the visual information necessary to process each identified bug, a significant advantage when the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) is unable to replicate a problem.
Learning from the case study
The basic idea for presenting the case study of CISCO is two folds. As we all know CISCO is one of the most advance tech companies for providing the routers and communication setup hardware. But they have also diverse product portfolio to have more scalability on their product portfolio. The two fold aspects are described in below
Producer point of view
CISCO, with their own internal need they deployed the software that enhances their capabilities for meeting in a very diverse nature and proved effective as per the challenge faced. Like large multinationals they also wanted to find a solution that reduces their travelling cost and create a faster communication setup between employees worldwide that ultimately should result in improving the productivity of the company. The software is developed by themselves by their own people. The primary objective was to save money and to create a vast platform of effective communication among CISCO.
Commercial point of view
Since after the successful deployment of the software that serves their purpose, then they put more focus on commercializing the product by further developing it to compete with the market players. They were also successful in doing that. From deployment of software for internal usage that is also a platform of revenue generation is really smart and CISCO has successfully implemented that.
The above case study shows that viewpoint of a software company from in internal and commercial point of view. Their notion of developing such products will surely grab market share in the future [4]
3.2 Web Conferencing Advantages
There are lots of products available in the market for web conferencing and they offer different features to attract the customers that range relatively basic features to advance features aimed for individual, SMEs to large companies. However, the common advantages offered by web conferencing software after our study revealed the following
It saves time - Employees can spend their working hours being productive, meaning that more work will get done in less time than before, without having to physically travel. This is a huge deal nowadays, when executives and clients alike are increasingly demanding, and results are expected fast. Web conferencing helps improve employee efficiency, since the technology that powers it makes it possible for workers to get in touch with people all over the world almost instantly. Moreover, web conferences can be done in as little as 30 minutes, so employees may not have to spend time in lengthy but mostly useless meetings just because they have travelled a place/office.
It saves money – In the past few years travelling cost has increased a lot, whether employees are taking a plane or driving to their destination. Add to that the cost of meals and accommodation, and companies are left with a hefty bill for a single employee to attend a meeting. On the other hand, web conferencing can even be free, as there are many free web conferencing tools available especially important when the economy is struggling and companies need to save every penny in order to keep their employees and keep the bottom line healthy.
It enables employees to meet at any time - Even though workers might not be face-to-face in an online meeting, they still help with team building since they can happen more often. In fact, web is so flexible, that it can happen at any time and from anywhere, as long as those involved have an internet enabled devices can make themselves available to each other at any time, so if there's a pressing deadline, for example, they can work together to meet it. This ability to speak to anyone from the company at any time, helps dispersed employees feel like they're part of a tight knit group, improving team morale and produce effective results.

It lets companies hire the best talent, regardless of location – Now days the companies can actually hire talents from any part of the world regardless of their physical location. With the advent of remote working and web conferencing, companies are free to hire talent from anywhere in the world, since employees can communicate easily and clearly with the click of a button. Web conferencing has helped remove geographical barriers, as teams can now be built and monitored remotely with an unprecedented level of communication between different level of employees and executive who are put forth for better company result and performance.

It helps improve client relationships – It helps companies keep in touch with clients on a more regular basis, so they can feel involved in the projects they have commissioned or outsourced. Online meetings can also be more interactive and interesting than phone calls, as it's possible to share slides, videos and even desktop screens. This means that employees can not only explain the progress of a project, but they can demonstrate it as well. This helps client relationships become closer and more transparent.
3.2.1 Business Challenge: A Case study of The United States Postal Service (USPS)
The United States Postal Service (USPS) employs more than 700,000 employees at more than 38,000 postal facilities. It has one of the world’s largest private IP networks, using more than 25,000 Cisco® routers. As a self-supporting federal agency, the USPS receives no tax dollars from the federal government for operations, and pays its expenses using revenue from the sales of postage and postage-related products. Part of the Postal Service’s Strategic Transformation Plan 2006–2010 is to continually look for ways to reduce costs such as travel expenses for employee training. The agency conducts frequent training for mail carriers, retail associates, and postmasters on topics such as rate changes and how to use new Web-based applications. “When we only have one month to train tens of thousands of employees, providing on-site training is not feasible, and sending written materials or CDs is costly,” says James Shipman, Advanced Computing Environment program manager for USPS. “We calculated that an effective virtual conferencing solution could reduce annual travel costs by more than US$10 million.”
Shipman estimates that USPS can save over US$10 million in annual travel costs by replacing many in-person meetings with voice and Web conferences. After the first 10 months that Cisco Unified MeetingPlace was available, one employee reduced travel costs to less than US$1500, compared to more than US$10,000 during the same period the previous year. “With virtual meetings, I personally have replaced two monthly recurring meetings that previously required travel,” Shipman says. “Reducing travel also increases productivity and job satisfaction because employees do not waste valuable time in long security lines or have to spend the night in cramped hotel rooms.” USPS is forecasting 25 million minutes of usage for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace conferencing during the first year, and 50 million minutes annually thereafter [5]
3.3 Challenges of Web Conferencing
Like every technological products available in the market, there has to be some challenges that ranges from security to adaptation issues. Web conferencing though is very helpful in bridging the gap between the employees but it also faces with some pragmatic challenges. Within our study we found some of them
Security Breaches: There's always some kind of security risk to communication carried out online. In addition to the threat of hackers, you'll also have limited control over people who may overhear the conference. Most web conferencing companies have security measures in place to reduce the threat of hackers, but there is little anyone can do to completely control the audience. If your communication requires a high level of confidentiality, web conferencing may not be appropriate.

Technical Difficulties: The technological requirements for web conferencing can be a disadvantage unless you do your homework. Most online web conference hosting services are all-encompassing and only require that attendees have a computer, Internet connection and login information. You'll also need to utilize the planning and invitation stages to ensure that attendees have everything they may need to fully participate, such as microphones, social media accounts or any other applications.
It's a good idea test how user friendly a particular service is before deciding if it's the best choice for your company. You may encounter the challenge of users who aren't as adept with technology as the web conference may require them to be, which results in frustration all around. You also should check the platform's compatibility with different web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari to ensure widespread accessibility.Sometimes power outages and malfunctioning Internet/WIFI connections can also cause wreak havoc on web conferences, occurrences are certainly beyond your control.

Human Interaction: Perhaps the most significant drawback to web conferences is the lack of actual face-to-face interactions and networking that most people enjoy participating in at conventional conferences. While various social media platforms can be used to increase real-time chats, there's something to be said about breaking away from a conference to have lunch with a colleague you just met.

4. BUSINESS IMPACTS OF WEB CONFERENCING:
To survive in the global market place, businesses must regularly look for ways to modernize operations, reduce costs and increase work efficiency. A growing number of companies are finding that web conference meetings could save their money, expand internal and external communications and motivate their business for long term goals. If you are not already using web conferencing, you may be missing out the modern technology that can make a real impact on the success of business and helps to reduce your expenditure.
A large number of business owners and manager choose to use web conferencing because it helps to cut down the cost and save their money. Companies of all sizes utilize this product because they are capable to pull together their employees without paying for costly airline tickets, rental carsand hotel reservations expenditure. When participants cannot travel due to security, environmental or any other reasons then web conferencing becomes a key source to interact with other sub-ordinate which is placed on different location. For Example, Airplane tickets (US $500-700), hotel room prices (US $100/day), rental carsor resources materials necessary to travel (US $150), and any other sort of travelling fare (US$50). By sum of all the expenditure which comes around US $1000/trip, small-medium businesses are capable of saving this money by using free web conferencing. Even business owner could possibly invest that money in another portion of their respective company. The money-saving benefits are not only just extending to travel expenses. There is also other hidden benefits i.e. employees meet via the Internet so those who run the meetings do not need to make photo copies for everyone. This may not seem like a big expense, but the nickel and dime expenses do sum up. Now, we could say that meeting on the Internet is one big step toward a paper-free office.
Internet meetings truly reduce the amount of fuel used each day as fewer people are traveling for their job interviews and business meetings. This benefit helps the atmosphere and environment by reducing pollution and reliance on fossil fuels.
The simplest web conference requires hardly US $300-400 investment and some of the components already available with us: * A computer (Desktop or Laptop with cost of US $300-350) * An Internet connection (US $20) * A PC with a microphone (US $50) * A Webcam or digital video camera (US $25) * A video capture card (US $10)

In a business context, Web conferencing really is a key advantage for a company because it leads to reliability, decline expenditure and cross company interoperability which in turn portrays a professional image. Now a day, many enterprises regularly use Web Conferencing product to deliver PowerPoint presentations and sharing pdf documents with their customers and staff all over the world.

4.2 COLLOBARATION AND PROCSS MANAGEMENT SURVEY RESULTS:
Brother International Corporation released results from its '2013 Collaboration and Process Management Survey,' which found in their study that over 50% of enterprise are spending money on business travelling[6]

Of the 50% of respondents, asked that they travelling for the in-house company meetings or trainings: * 55% told that they travel at least 2 times a year for their business meetings. * 59% of participants told that they travel to conduct daily meeting with their sub-ordinate which is placed in other offices. * 38% respondents observed that their travel costs cross-over $500 for business meeting or company training and 15% also told that it cost over $1,000/month.

In a time where companies are decreasing headcount and improving obligations to help reduce costs, Brother recognizes the use of web conference meetings as a low competitive cost benefits device. "Unnecessary overspending on business travel is a problem for businesses of all sizes, including mid-sized businesses," said Courtney Behrens, Sr. Marketing Manager of Brother Online.

33 % of Small-Medium Business workers said they spend an hour or more each day -- about 13% of the day -- looking for e-mails, sharing files and arranging conferences. However, 66 % of participants said that they would be more effective by doing these administrative tasks if their company will provide web conference tool at their workplace, which help them to find files easily, scheduling business meeting quickly and safely share business documents with their co-workers and manager.

Cisco has highest market share among all the unified communications (UC) applications with $351 million in revenue, followed by Avaya (US$149 million), Microsoft (US$105 million), Alcatel-Lucent (US$69 million), and Citrix (US$49 million). In current era, I.T companies earning profit by selling UC application because this is an effective feature for the organization to minimize their cost and increase the productivity of their business. [7]
4.3 BUSINESS CASE STUDIES
There are some live examples in our current environment which are using “WEB CONFERENCING” in their organization and what benefit they achieved with this new model.
4.3.1 SEAGATE CASE STUDY
Seagate Technology uses WebEx Event Center product of CISCO with B2C model to create consumer buzz about revolutionary “New Hybrid drive” for maximize extra ordinary sales[8].
Challenge:
- Seagate has traditionally used B2B portal strategy for their products. Now, company decided to go for different tactics for their new upcoming Hybrid storage drive.
- With limited budget, Seagate notebook marketing team decided to target the influential customers i.e. Gamers and other fans of their product.
- Generate new launch model which purely focuses on viral marketing channels to cover mass audience.
Solution:
- WebEx-facilitated Seagate to launch product and bring more than 1500 attendees with zero advertising budget
- Cisco Advanced Services helps Seagate to ensure glitch-free event which helps to create down-to-earth dialogue discussion with key customers.
- WebEx meeting tools helps Seagate to assemble far-flung speakers for webcast without need of travel.
Outcome:
- Seagate exceeded initial unit sales goal by 300 percent and also double sales forecast within one week of launch
- Created instant backlog of demand for Seagate’s new solid state hybrid drive - Created viral marketing effect with 38,880 YouTube views of the webcast in four-month period.

4.3.2 VODAFONE CASE STUDY:
Vodafone Group Plc. is a leading mobile telecommunications enterprise with major presence in Middle East, Europe, The United States, Africa and Asia Pacific. It has roughly 315 million customers worldwide. The company was finding a way to improve sales and profit margins by declining mobile voice-minute and roaming revenues by launching innovative and new services for their valuable customers. Vodafone has taken help from Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) for support in designing, creating, launching and installing a web-conferencing service [9].

Challenge:
- Open new markets for Vodafone particularly in the segment of small and medium sized businesses
- Develop new income sources around 3G services
- Create early mobile products to substitute for fixed deals
- Further, create a direct sales channel to bring a business proposition to maximize market share and increase the growth rapidly.

Solutions:
- Vodafone & Linksys collaborated worked together to develop a new and market-leading product-a wireless hotspot with wide-area access, via Vodafone 3G cellular networks.

- An umbrella marketing campaign was established, under which in-country plans were formed. Vodafone taken help from Linksys’ service which introduced new product to its local distributors & resellers to create an effective channel for taking the 3G/Wireless router to reach new market and build strong relationship with their customers.

Outcome: - Vodafone estimates potential incremental revenue will total $162 million by 2013
- The new working design is expected to drive step-by-step earnings in voice-call minutes and data minutes, improve time to market (TTM), lower execution costs and reduce business threats and risk. - This model enabled Vodafone to reduce time required to launch a new service by 50 % and is looking to replicate this operational model in 15 countries during the next two years. OpCos product of Vodafone is already available in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and India have expressed a desire to bring this service to market during 2010. Overall we conclude that New Operating Model Helps Vodafone Generate Incremental Revenue, Cut Costs, and Improve Time to Market 4.3.3 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE CASE STUDY
There is one more example in the segment of Higher Education. University of Notre Dame adopted the feature of Go-to-meeting software of Microsoft for collaboration between faculty and students [10].

Challenge:
- Provide more opportunities to administrators and professors for global collaboration
- Work for single digital conferencing solution across multiple departments
- Record and convey lectures and courses worldwide for distance learning education.

Solution:
- The Notre Dame Office of International Studies now uses the online solution to hold monthly meetings with members in London, England; Dublin, Ireland; Santiago, Chile; Cape Town, South Africa; and Washington, D.C.
- Lab-to-lab video conferencing enables researchers to collaborate in real time.
- Professors share recorded lectures and coursework with their students and sub-ordinate worldwide

Outcome:
- Cut-down US$1 million from travel expenses within one-year time frame
- Prohibited 4.85 tons of carbon dioxide from entering atmosphere
- Increased digital global collaboration among professors, researchers and students.

4.4 How much new small enterprises can save from web conferencing solution: New Small-Medium enterprise wants to start a new IT service business with the investment of US$50,000 and spend 70% on IT segment. With the help of Web conferencing, it is capable to save 20% of their fixed cost which is around US $10,000. SME are able to save money in the area of travel, extra person furniture and additional person hiring in organization. Saving 20% of investment is handsome percentage which could invest on other portion of business for better growth of firm. By using web conferencing feature, companies are able to minimize its cost and retain its employee through direct co-ordination at any time with any location. [11] 4.5 Top web conferencing Solutions for Enterprises: Now, we are study some live examples which are using different type of web conferencing software in their organization. Software Name: Saba Centra Suite - Saba Software, Inc.
Customers: Cingular Wireless, Cornelsen Group, East Carolina University, FlightSafety, GrantThornton, Nortel Networks, School of the Air, Sony Electronics Inc., Wachovia, Wyndham.

Software Name: Citrix Online - Santa Barbara, California
Customers: Clarity, eTouch International, FileMark Corporation, xG Technology, TyMetrix, Siemens, Cablevision, InternetVIZ, Microsoft Business Solutions, Papa John’s Pizza Company.

Software Name: Cisco WebEx – CISCO INC.
Customers: Seagate, CEV Multimedia, OfficeMate/Eyefinity, Kohn Pedersen, Fox, Glen Raven, PolyOne, Cabela’s, Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Software Name: Adobe Connect – Adobe Co.
Customers: Academy of Art University, Ontario Ministry of Education, Allianz Group, E*Trade Australia, The Graduate School USDA, Philips Healthcare, MedPoint Communications, Mine SafetyAppliances, Grundfos, Toshiba.

Software Name: Microsoft Office Live Meeting – MICROSOFT INC.
Customers: Activant Solutions, Intelliem, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Del Monte Foods, PFT Plastics, Raymond James Financial, Avtex, Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), Cogan Wire and Metal.

Software Name: Netviewer
Customers: SAP, TNT, BMW, T-Mobile, Ernst & Young, Siemens, Phillips, Bayer, Shering

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

References: 1. http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/adobeconnect/pdfs/web-conferencing/Adobe-Connect-9-Technical-Guide.pdf 2. http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/xcon/charter/ 3. http://webconferencingcouncil.com/ 4. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ciscoitatwork/collaboration/enterprise_web_conferencing_web.html 5. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps5664/ps5669/prod_case_study0900aecd806b7ab4.pdf 6. Bridgewater, N. (2013), “2013 Collaboration and Process Management Survey”, viewed 16th September, 2013, http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/brother-survey-reveals-smbs-could-help-save-thousands-on-travel-unnecessary-business-1830796.htm 7. Mullins, R. (2011), “Cisco Rules SaaS UC Conferencing Market” journal InformationWeek, viewed 21st September, 2011, http://davidchao.typepad.com/webconferencingexpert/2011/09/cisco-rules-saas-uc-conferencing-market.html 8. New Launch Strategy Delivers Amazing Sales (2010), http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/ps10352/webexcase/Seagate.html 9. Vodafone and Linksys 3G/Wireless Router Opens New Market and Demonstrates Strategic Collaboration (2006), http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/.../Vodafone_Littlebox_CS_v4.pdf‎ 10. University Achieves Substantial Cost Savings (2010), http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/ps10352/webexcase/NotreDame.html 11. Bridge, NJ. (2013), “2013 Collaboration and Process Management Survey”, viewed 16th September, 2013, http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/brother-survey-reveals-smbs-could-help-save-thousands-on-travel-unnecessary-business-1830796.htm