The Meeting Reminder
Increasing Productivity from Meetings and Conference Calls	Issue #2

How can Web Conferencing help my Company? Web Conferencing Training Session - Free Customer Case Study: How Audium uses web conferencing to increase sales effectiveness Web Conferencing Defined Past Newsletters and Useful Tips Web Conferencing Training Session - Free Group Unity recently provided a free on-line training seminar as a sponsor for Administrative Executive week in April. One of the sessions was a "How to Web Conference" describing several of the different platforms offered by Group Unity and explaining web conferencing in detail.

Welcome to The Meeting Reminder, an educational newsletter for Group Unity customers and subscribers. Our goal is to provide new ideas and techniques that help our readers maximize their meeting and conference call effectiveness. This Issue's Challenge: "How can web conferencing help my company?" Adding a visual component to a telephone or conference call can drastically improve the communication process. The following articles will cover different web conferencing options and benefits. The Meeting Reminder is distributed once every two months. If you wish to no longer receive this newsletter, please use the SafeUnsubscribe at the bottom of this page. Customer Case Study: How Audium uses web conferencing to increase sales effectiveness    Audium, a Group Unity customer since July 2002, uses Conference Visuals web conferencing to help their sales team. Company Profile Audium is a technology company that develops application software to help businesses design and operate speech driven automated phone systems. With Audium, businesses can replace traditional hardware-based IVRs (Interactive Voice Response systems) with intelligent, personalized VoiceXML applications using industry leading technologies at reduced costs. Audium's core product, Audium 3, was named Communications Convergence Product of the Year for 2003. (www.audiumcorp.com) The Business Problem In July of 2002 Audium was confronted with a problem - they had just released the latest version of their software and needed a way for potential customers to get a sense of the look and feel of their Graphical User Interface (GUI) without having to install the full enterprise software package. Because of the considerable interest in Audium and a large geographical distribution of sales leads, it was not possible to give live in-person demonstrations to all qualified leads. The Solution Audium turned to Group Unity for help, and was able to start using Conference Visuals to give web demonstrations of their GUI, the Audium Builder, in a matter of days. Conference Visuals reservation-less system let Audium start web conferences on the fly and helped them give demonstrations to customers at multiple locations. With Conference Visuals, Audium was also able to let their customers "drive" during the demos by giving them control of the application sharing window. "Conference Visuals has greatly helped increase the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts," says Tom Stephenson, Marketing Manager at Audium. "Our sales representatives like using the software because it lets them show off the powerful features of the Audium software without having to make an in-person appointment. Without Conference Visuals, it would be much harder to display the value of our solution remotely." Group Unity provides Conference Visuals as one of several web conferencing solutions. Advisors listen to customer needs and then match the right solution from a wide breadth of service and product offerings. Most services are activated within 24 hours of speaking with an advisor in person or on the phone. Click Here for More Information on Conference Visuals Web Conferencing Defined    Need help understanding the difference between data conference, web conference and application sharing? Here's a brief overview of a few web conferencing terms. Web Conference When 2 or more people in separate locations are seeing the same visuals (slides/ web tour/ applications) through internet-connected computers. Data Conference same as Web Conference Web Event A web conference with usually a large number of participants. Typically a demo, seminar or training session. Often has a registration component for the event. Slides The most basic element of a web conference. Typically Powerpoint slides are used as the base element for the web conference presentation. Often uploaded in advance. Web Tour Taking 1 or several participants to any URL web page. Participants will watch where the leader takes them. Application Sharing A web conference that allows one user to demonstrate/share any computer application with one or more remote users. (ex. 2 people working on the same Excel document from separate locations) White Boarding A blank "white" page that allows freeform drawing or text writing. Often used for diagrams or note taking. Collaboration Usually meaning when 2 or more participants are actively working on the same document, such as in application sharing or white boarding. Very nebulous buzzword, be careful when you hear this used. Streaming or "Casting" This can be defined as audio-, web- , video- . Generally, allows a remote user to click a web link and listen/watch a live or recorded session. This is 1-way communication, but very easy to use and great for increasing communication. The Group Unity free web training session is an example of web-streaming (audio and visual content). Past Newsletters and Useful Tips    Check out Group Unity's resource page for useful tips and information on meetings and conferences. Also look for past "Meeting Reminder" newsletters. Issue #1: How to Increase Meeting and Conference Call Participation Click Here for Resources & Newsletters

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