Feature

BPOs explore Web conferencing

As technology applications proliferate, BPOs are increasingly finding Web conferencing opening the door to a wealth of options originally available only in face-to-face meetings, says Priya Jain.

The adoption of the Internet and other computer-related services is slowly proving to be a boon for Indian BPOs. Web conferencing is one such service. “In the past one year, there’s been a significant increase in its adoption in the enterprise market, particularly in the BPO sector,” says Alok Shende, Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

According to Kiran Datar, MD, Webex Communicati-ons, “The growth in knowledge services from India is largely dependent on the effectiveness of converged communication and collaboration.” Web meetings can be the answer to this need for collaboration across the enterprise and groups.

Globally, users have preferred hosted services for their ease of use and delivery of cutting edge technology, throughout a user’s lifecycle.

Says Yugal Sharma, Country Manager, Polycom, “With Web conferencing, BPOs are increasingly using multiple simultaneous views and integrated functionality such as whiteboard, annotation, chat, data and file sharing. Teams are able to work together in real-time, accelerating project implementations to quickly and effectively deliver to customers.”

It is interesting to see that many organisations are going in for a hosted model rather than paying for these solutions upfront because they do not have to worry about maintaining and fine-tuning their infrastructure.

Another BPO that has gone for this kind of a model is eFunds. Atul Kunwar, Managing Director, eFunds India explains, “For the past three years we have been using the hosted Web conferencing service of Microsoft Live Meeting. It offers applications that can be directly loaded into meetings to access live databases. The possibilities are numerous. The solution also integrates with our existing systems and productivity applications, and incorporates a user-friendly interface that improves remote collaboration and enables effective meetings.” Companies can securely hold discussions across the globe since every session is encrypted.

Generally, the concept of the Web office is virtual in nature where the participants can meet, collaborate and share information, applications and documents in a secure interactive environment. One can hold online meetings via a personal URL and buddy list that bring users into the office. Also, it easily integrates with the password-protected voice and video conferencing infrastructure to deliver a complete conferencing experience.

Across departments and tasks

BPOs generally use Web conferencing across departments. In the case of marketing, it can be used in company announcements, product launches, brainstorming sessions, seminars, sales demonstrations, product training and customer retention programmes.

Apart from that, the training and human resource functions use it for employee orientation, customer training and staff meetings. Financial and investor relations meetings, shareholder meetings and analyst briefings are also being addressed through this technology.

Sharing and demonstrating applications live are important features of Web conferencing. Says Sangita Kulkarni, Manager, Communication, Intelenet Global Services, “We use Web conferencing primarily for interacting with our colleagues and close counterparts based out of the US and Britain, and to stay connected with employees who are travelling for business purposes. Several customer interactions and training modules are imparted using this method of communication.”

Then there is the feature of multi-party video conferencing that is especially appealing to BPOs. Kunwar explains, “The multi-party Internet video conferencing as a standard feature enables smooth and clear video. The implementation is entirely in software, and requires only standard USB video conferencing cameras. Security is our topmost priority in any internal and external interaction, which is the reason we opted for an enterprise solution.”

This rivals hardware-based video conferencing equipment costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bandwidth management is built into the Web conferencing application. Sharma explains, “To effectively manage bandwidth, one can click on any video display and change the size, quality and frame rate—all in real-time.”

It allows the meeting host to change video settings during the conference, but at no time will the software allow settings higher than the bandwidth permits (the software monitors bandwidth and adapts accordingly).

Can factors such as cost of ownership (for applications) and issues related to security act as a deterrent to the adoption of this technology? To this Sharma replies, “There are no security issues as the product supports encryption and password-based entry into a conference. The overall cost of ownership of the product is low because there is no huge infrastructure cost involved and it runs on an organisation’s existing infrastructure.”

Ajit Kumar Thatte, VP, Marketing and Strategic Alliance, Avaya Global Connect states, “Web conferencing is one of the most secure solutions available today. It is an installed software, so one can have control over physical security, Web conferencing routing and access to server event logs.”

At the click of a mouse, you can set your conference server to use SSL3/TLS or let your conference hosts decide whether they want to use secure connections. For sensitive applications, one can also set the conference server to use the company’s public key infrastructure.

The potential for Web conferencing is huge in India. Multinational companies and large enterprises have recognised this Alok Shende Director ICT Practice Frost & Sullivan	The growth in knowledge services from India is largely dependent on the effectiveness of converged communication and collaboration Kiran Datar Managing Director Webex Communications	The web conferencing service of Microsoft Live Meeting offers applications that can be directly loaded into meetings to access live databases Atul Kunwar Managing Director eFunds India

Intranet vs. Web

So, does the availability of free messaging software like MSN and Yahoo limit the use of Web conferencing? “Not really. MSN and Yahoo messenger provide only chat facility, file transfer and voice conference with a limited functionality,” says Sharma. However, Kulkarni feels that though having a Web conferencing facility helps, free instant messaging software such as Yahoo, ICQ and MSN also provide small and medium enterprises with an alternative.

Further, with the growth of outsourced work in the Indian IT industry, Web conferencing enables branch offices in India to easily communicate with their headquarters as well as clients around the globe. This increases their ability to secure revenue opportunities, communicate effectively, and reduce costs associated with working remotely because of reduced travel. Thatte agrees. “In India, BPO companies have given a thrust to Web conferencing though other industries across verticals are adopting it now. BFSI, FMCG, manufacturing and nearly every other industry that is geographically dispersed are looking at Web conferencing. In India, we have customers such as Wipro Technologies, L&T Infotech, SBI, HPCL and ITC.”

Web conferencing will get better with time as the user interface improves and availability of bandwidth increases. However, the most interesting changes will be in the features that conferencing software offers and the method in which it is used. “The potential for Web conferencing is huge in India. Multinational companies and large enterprises have recognised this. Now it is the turn of medium-sized enterprises to understand its advantages and embrace this means of transferring data. Key verticals that are likely to acquire traction in India over the next one or two years are the companies offering IT services and IT-enabled services in India,” explains Shende.

Polycom also foresees that for the next few years technology service providers are likely to account for the bulk of market revenues as new adopters will continue to find these services as the most cost-effective solution. However, by the end of this year, experienced end-users will begin to deploy Web conferencing software on their own premises. The future drivers would essentially depend on the increasing awareness of the benefits of Web conferencing and the availability of cheaper bandwidth that will fuel the growth.

priya@expresscomputeronline.com