While doing an earlier post I browsed the overview of Analyst reports on the Microsoft Website again and I bumped into a Magic Quadrant report on Web Conferencing by Gartner group.
Good to see that Microsoft also gets the well deserved recognition in this space …
Just a few highlights on the main competition in this space :
- Microsoft
Microsoft positions Live Meeting as part of the Office System as a hosted service. It works together with Microsoft Office Live Communication Server (on-premises presence and instant messaging server) and Microsoft Office Communicator (instant messaging client). This report does not evaluate NetMeeting, which Microsoft is slowly abandoning. Microsoft has many channel partners that sell Live Meeting as part of their own offerings. Live Meeting’s market penetration has increased markedly during the past year.- IBM
IBM’s Lotus IM and Web conferencing (Sametime) product is popular with enterprises using Domino that are looking for an on-premises, integrated real-time collaboration suite. Tight integration with IBM’s Lotus Notes/Domino applications is one of Sametime’s most-important features. This report does not evaluate the Web conferencing components in IBM Workplace Collaboration Services, which are far less mature and complete than Sametime. Transition to the portal-oriented Workplace environment is one of the major challenges ahead for IBM and its customers.- WebEx Communications
WebEx Communications has the largest share of the hosted meeting sector, although Microsoft is an increasingly aggressive challenger. WebEx also offers a voice bridge, VoIP and video. Use of video and VoIP services is low, but growing. The user experience can be uneven, although WebEx maintains its own high-traffic network (MediaTone) to improve performance and reliability. WebEx offers a variety of pricing models and a wide range of packages aimed at different types of meetings and conferences. WebEx has many channel partners that sell Meeting Center as part of their own offerings. WebEx will broaden its product portfolio with collaborative team spaces and basic content services through its mid-2005 acquisition of Intranets.com.
Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing, 2005 (Gartner, Sept. 29, 2005) As the next logical step in rich collaboration technologies, Web conferencing is becoming a mainstream enterprise communication tool. Several new vendors appear in this year’s Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing.
Ben,
Fully agree. SameTime has not been very well innovated the last few years. I have had quite a lengthy discussion about the update of the SameTime client recently (http://www.peterdehaas.com/2005/11/paul_mooney_sce.html).
Have you tried LiveMeeting at all? I provides all levels of flexibility from local (activeX) client pieces all the way to browser only …
A good and probably deserved result for Microsoft and it goes to show the lack of investment IBM have put into the Sametime product for far too long.
I’ve used all of these products in the past 12months and the Sametime experience was less than enjoyable due to firewall issues, java applet installation problems etc. It’s no wonder IBM Partners are using WebEx for their product demonstrations!
I’ve used the live meeting product a few times, the first time (by pure co-incidence of course) for a Gartner online meeting. I also evaluated it for a solution for internal product demos across Europe.
We’ve now got a contract with WebEx as it was a bit more flexible and didn’t insist on installing lots of stuff to the local hard disk.
OK,
Would be nice if you could email me some specifics; I will make sure to pass this on to the RTC team.
You may know that there are different client-side options for running LiveMeeting form installed client to browser only. Thing is of you need the management console you need to install stuff locally I think.
Peter,
It was live meeting that I tried and I didn’t like it. It put me over quota on my Windows profile as it installed so many files to get it working that didn’t clean up afterwards.
WebEx didn’t suffer from this, hence the recommendation.
What happened to TIBCO Software? They were in the leaders quadrant and now they are not even in any quadrant. No mention as to why they were dropped either.
Jeff,
I don’t know. Usualy the report also mentions companies that have dropped off with for some reason.
I have not followed Tibco in the recent years, could it be that they have been acquired ?
what happen to software Tibco ?for smart and quick sloution for video conferencing, without much efforts and time and offcourse money.
http://www.sony-conferencing.com/
Steve,
I am not in favour of comments that only try to promote a solution without any additional comments / context to the blogpost.
For now you’ve made your point that also Sony has solutions in this field. Next time I will remove your ‘link only’ comment …
Probably the most accurate resource on the web for finding the right web conferencing vendor, solution, or product is the annual product reviews and Top Ten list from the Web Conferencing Council. This free report is found on their site at http://www.webconferencingcouncil.com. This year’s best of class award went to VIA3 from http://www.viack.com.