Engineered with a number of key benefits built in, and offered as a fully supported hosted application, PerfectMeetings will integrate quickly and easily with existing infrastructure without the significant capital expenditure usually required by such technology.
Most larger organisations have already made significant investments in their video conferencing infrastructures, which are typically integrated with their existing communications networks.
Those same organisations are now looking at ways to enhance the video conference experience through the deployment of higher resolution and larger display units. They may also be looking at ways to include their dispersed workforce in regular video conferences.
A significant investment in hardware, implementation, testing and training may be required to achieve this, including the installation of a bridging unit with an ISDN gateway to link many units together.
PerfectMeetings addresses these issues. It can bridge multiple boardroom systems and multiple individual users outside the enterprise. It is a secure system, and enables conferences to be recorded.
PerfectMeetings operates without the need for any installed PC software; it provides greater functionality than a bridging server but without the capital expenditure. It merely requires a user to send participants an invite with the IP or ISDN address, an access code and a PIN.
Not only will PerfectMeetings create the opportunity to reduce travel costs – and their associated carbon emissions – multiple attendees from inside and outside an organisation can participate in conferences, meetings and presentations can be recorded, they can be streamed for remote viewing over the internet, plus activity and usage can be tracked for full transparency and reporting.
PerfectMeetings is an ideal option for a range of uses, including:
HR functions; such as training, conducting remote interviews, along with appraisal analysis.
Distance learning for education, training, and cultural understanding.
Project meetings involving multiple participants both internally and externally
Corporate meetings with remote workers and global multi-site operations
The hosted model means customers can take advantage of a low risk option into videoconferencing, test it and see how it fits in with the rest of their infrastructure. This can reduce the issues of a full-on integration project, or a commitment to a significant investment.
PerfectMeetings brings videoconferencing to all budgets. It is competitively priced starting at £235 per month, which includes 1,200 IP minutes, 10 ID and user PINs, the capacity to bridge up to four concurrent end points, online training and troubleshooting, plus free video recording and storage.
Many organisations have a limited in-house IT resource to support major new projects or cope with roll out and user training; video-to-desktop can be a challenging application for in-house IT teams to support. By combining high functionality with an intuitive web user interface, PerfectMeetings can offer organisations a much faster way to realise savings through video applications.
Haroon Juma, Datacom Sales and Marketing Director explains that due to Datacom's strong video credentials, it recognises that the user has to be at the forefront of the activity. "It is in our interests to look at each individual customer and provide a solution that will be just that – a solution, not a system that will gather dust. Our success is tied to the adoption our customers have with our service."
He continued: "Those customers who already have a high use of video within their organisation will see an immediate benefit from the use of PerfectMeetings. The great advantage of the hosted offering is that we provide a turnkey solution with full support and training for customers. This is ideal as it can be unrealistic to expect in-house IT professionals to be up-to-speed on each and every application deployed within their organisation."
In addition to the hosted version of PerfectMeetings , Datacom offers larger corporate customers an on site solution that affords a fully supported fixed price model for multiple users.
PerfectMeetings is also an attractive option for ISPs looking to increase the range of value-added applications they have on offer.