|
Companies Boosting Web Conferencing
Budgets Are Most Likely Buyers Of Webcasting,
IMS Study Says
Survey Results Highlight The Increasing Overlap
Between Web Conferencing and Webcasting Applications in the
Enterprise
Arlington, TX (February 6, 2004) - More
than 60% of the companies that plan increases in Web Conferencing
spending for 2004 also are planning to grow their budgets
for Webcast deployments as well, according to survey results
released today by Interactive Media Strategies.
The results presage a coming industry trend
in which Web Conferencing firms will begin offering more multimedia-enhanced
applications while Webcast vendors will begin to integrate
more Web Conferencing capabilities into their systems, said
Interactive Media Strategies Research Director Steve Vonder
Haar.
"Over time, corporate users will not care
whether they are using Web Conferencing or Webcasting," VonderHaar
said. "Rather, they simply want access to software that helps
them initiate a meeting or presentation forum that helps them
get their message across in the most cost-effective manner
possible."
Of the companies with plans to spend more
on Webcasting in 2004, more than 80% plan to increase their
spending on Web Conferencing as well. In comparison, 29% of
all corporate executives surveyed by IMS are planning increases
in 2004 Web Conferencing budgets. "The results suggest the
emergence of a new breed of "Web Communicator,"" Vonder Haar
said. "Some companies are aggressively investing in applications
that help them deliver messages more effectively with less
expense. Others are content to rely on their historical communications
networks."
Interactive Media Strategies recommends
that vendors begin integrating a broader set of application
features, incorporating Web Conferencing and Webcasting on
a single platform, to better appeal to the new class of Web
Communicators. Such an effort will do more to spur new sales
than expanding selling efforts in industries where companies
have been slow to embrace Internet-based communications applications,
Vonder Haar said.
The usage data comes from IMS' Enterprise
Web Communications Survey, conducted in the Fourth Quarter
of 2003. More than 1,200 survey participants were polled on
their perceptions, individual use and deployment of audio
Webcasting, video Webcasting and Web Conferencing technologies.
Arlington, Texas-based Interactive Media Strategies, www.interactivemediastrategies.com,
provides market research focusing on the ways that audio,
video and other Web communications capabilities are being
used for business purposes.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA STRATEGIES
Editorial Contact:
Steve Vonder Haar
(817)860-5121
svonder@interactivemediastrategies.com
|
