Web Conferencing: It's About Adoption Not Deployment

Economic conditions are driving business and IT strategists to pursue options that will reduce and/or avoid costs. Web conferencing is one of those technologies that comes to the forefront of options decision makers often consider during hard times. Having covered the topic for over a decade, I've seen use of web conferencing grow incrementally over the years and then surge forward during a time of crisis (e.g., epidemics, acts of terrorism, economic downturns). However, once things return to "normal", the increased use of web conferencing within the enterprise tends to go down - not all the way back to its original level - but use does seem to recede once the crisis has passed.

Why hasn't web conferencing taken off like e-mail and other communication and collaboration tools?

Certainly there are examples of specific applications where web conferencing has seen tremendous success: marketing webinars, virtual classrooms, and in certain custom service scenarios. But the technology is not nearly as mainstream in terms of everyday use by the vast majority of workers as email, the telephone and other tools.

If I were to layout the top technology-related issues holding back web conferencing from becoming a broad-based, everyday solution, the following come to mind:

1. Poor usability (none of these tools are a joy to use by the average person)
2. Inflexible and/or complicated licensing models  
3. Gaps in vendor capabilities - especially the level of  integration/interoperability across conferencing functions and media services (voice, video, and data)
   • Note: This item would lead to a conversation on unified communications

But technology per se if only part of the reason why web conferencing has not seen greater success. Even if we were to fix the above items, I'm not convinced it would lead to significant uptake in organizations for the the following reasons: 

1. People have pre-existing options to share information and collaborate (i.e., e-mail, face-to-face meetings, instant messaging, telephone, workspaces)
   • Web conferencing introduces another tool and another choice people need to think about
2. The positioning of web conferencing as a situational response to the crisis creates the perception that it is a temporary tactic
   • Once restrictions and policies that promoted web conferencing (e.g., travel) are relaxed, people revert to old ways of working

Changing people's behaviors and ways of working in a manner that is sustained over time brings us to the issue of "adoption vs. deployment".  Rather than stop after a web conferencing system is rolled out (as many organizations do with a variety of technologies), I would recommend some additional steps that focus on building and sustaining adoption over time:

• Make design and user experience a continuous post-deployment activity
  • Customize the web conferencing system if possible and integrate the tool within existing applications where needed
  • Observe and interview end-users on a regular basis and make adjustments to the system and supporting services (e.g., training, help desk)
• Provide guidance on how different tools best satisfy different types of work activities
  • Include examples beyond meetings and classrooms - outline where web conferencing is used "in flow" of a business activity 
  • Keep the guidelines practical so that people understand them (don't make them academic)
• Pursue options that put a "community spotlight" on new ways of working
  • Socialize how everyday work is being improved by having local advocates tell their stories in a visible manner
  • Gain management sponsorship and buy-in to the notion that employees can co-create new work models that fit enterprise needs
  • Consider supporting tools (e.g., a wiki, social network site) that allow end-users to share what works, what does not work, best practices, and gaps

Comments

[Free Local Online Classifieds]

That its really a very nice post Web Conferencing: It's About Adoption Not Deployment Web Conferencing really useful because through this you meet face-to-face regardless of location and everyone can see and hear the exact same thing.
That's really a smart and quick solution for video conferencing, without much efforts and time.. I am going to say that conferencing is an amazing thing to see and experience. It is crazy to think how technology has improved in twenty years.

[Free Local Online Classifieds]

That its really a very nice post Web Conferencing: It's About Adoption Not Deployment Web Conferencing really useful because through this you meet face-to-face regardless of location and everyone can see and hear the exact same thing.
That's really a smart and quick solution for video conferencing, without much efforts and time.. I am going to say that conferencing is an amazing thing to see and experience. It is crazy to think how technology has improved in twenty years.

[Charles Ames]

Web conferencing is a godsend once you're actually in a meeting, but getting started is far too complicated. I'd like to see web conferencing seamlessly integrated with IM tools, so that starting a meeting is no more difficult than initiating a chat.

[Roland]

We use a SaaS vendor for our web conferencing so deployment was relatively painless. Training, on the other hand, is something that has to be done often and consistent. Once properly trained, our employees can't live without it. We use Nefsis(http://go.nefsis.com). But we evaluated several products that we liked. We went with Nefsis because of the support we received during the trial.

[Dennis Stevenson]

I deal with a lot of overseas teams. We schedule regular meetings which we mediate via Skype. Simply using the group chat feature it has been very powerful. Not only do we eliminate a number of language issues, but at the end of the discussion we have a transcript that can be sent out via e-mail (people who missed the "call" often read the transcript to get caught up).

Too often I think we try to make the software too complex and difficult to use. Skype has been very effective in my case. It is simple, easy to use, and free. In some cases, we use the voice features. Other times we just use typing. Frankly I like the fact that I can sit at home while watching tv in the evening and join a type meeting without having to disappear from my family.

Start small and let it grow. If we want to share desktop, we add in a Central Desktop session. It works.

[Ken Molay]

Another big problem is that the content gets confused with the technology. Most people don't deliver quality communications via web conference. You see PowerPoint slides that are full of dense details and endless bullets. Presenters read information off slides to their audience. People give demos that are boring, confusing, or overkill. Meeting organizers don't set agendas and expectations for the content, and don't control the flow of collaboration so that everyone's time is used effectively.

Being a good presenter is not a natural skill. It takes a commitment to learning what works, spending time on construction and rehearsal of your material, and refining your presentations based on feedback. Most workers have neither the time, the training, nor the incentive to do the work necessary to collaborate effectively online.

People see a poor web conference and say "I don't want to go through that again." The medium gets saddled with the faults of the message it carries.

By the way, here are some shameless plugs for related sites about web conferencing for events (public webinars as opposed to collaborative team meetings). I hope you don't see this as competitive. I look at it as complementary material and guidance for business users of collaborative technologies. I just found this blog today and I'm publishing it on my list of valuable resources.

The Webinar Blog (www.TheWebinarBlog.com)
Webinar Wire (www.WebinarWire.com)
Web Conferencing Community Forum (www.wcc-forum.com)

[Anne Hudson]

Gartner summed the problem up this way:
“Without effective meeting discipline, Web
conferencing can waste more people's time
across a broader geographic range than
before. …
We believe most organizations will benefit
from combining GDSS [Group Decision
Support System] and Web-conferencing technologies to enhance meeting performance and to reduce the number of dysfunctional meetings,regardless of the type of meeting.”
(Source: Gartner Note No. G00138101, 13 March 2006).

Virtual team meetings require interaction between participants. Without interaction, the meeting is a one-to-many, broadcast event. That's why webinars and application sharing have become the most used tools of web conferencing programs. It's what web conferencing does best, but it has not led to broad adoption by project teams - the bread and butter of online collaboration.

The problem with web conferencing arises when a team wants to collaboratively solve a complex problem, develop a plan or progess a project. These activities require tools that enable idea generation, voting, ranking, categorizing, decision making and action planning - often in conjunction with the presentation of information or sharing documents/reference materials. These types of meetings require the use of meeting process methodologies e.g. a strategic planning process, or a methodology for implementing a Six Sigma improvement project.

It is our belief that by giving teams simple to use software that delivers custom meeting methodologies, GDSS and web conferencing, they will happily adopt virtual technology to accelerate their projects and improve vitual meeting satisfaction and outcomes.

Feedback appreciated!

[Sal]

I also think start up time geting into a meeting can be slow, even as a moderator. I like the solutions that dial out to you though, I've not actualy physically dialed into a meeting for a long time now and get confused when not using this particular vendors product.

I am also of the thought that web conferencing services could expand to include wikis and document areas, discussions/forums so that conversations can take place before the meeting starts, I'm sure this woudl speed up meeetings too. Not everyone is comfortable speaking some liek to chat or write but during a call can be counter productive, before or after would be optimal for that group.

Has anyone come across a web conferncing service that provides more web 2.0 features built in? and perhaps also intergrate with your existing IT services in house? or am I talking baout web conferencing 2.0? :)

[Jim Bunting]

We have an air conditioning and heating company and have a number of service reps in the field at all times. Many of them rarely come to the home office - but we find it's important to stay bonded with them to give them the feel that they are part of our company, regardless of whether or not we see them in person. So we use video conferencing - they have cameras in their laptops - and we use it for technical training or just checking in to see how they're doing.

Jim Bunting
www.cariniair.com

[Brian]

That is a GREAT post on conferencing, which is really gaining speed in the market. I can recommend a great conferencing guide for newbees to use when figuring out how to get started. The “Quick Start Guide for Web Conferencing”, which I got on Amazon.com, got me up and running in about 25 minutes:

http://www.amazon.com/Web-Conferencing-Quick-Start-Guide/dp/1448649781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250795732&sr=8-1

I read that the www.webconferencingcouncil.com had a non-technical relative of equipped with a a Dell E6400 with Windows XP, complete with built-in camera & microphone test this book to see if it was truly a quick start. This relative was able to start a multi-point meeting in 17 minutes, was able to share her desktop and present an online presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint) in under 25 minutes, and even started using the voting and whiteboarding features within 30 minutes - all of it witnessed but uncoached. I was a little bit faster but I am more technical than most.