When it’s not Acrobat Connect, it’s painful
October 30th, 2007
The new version of Microsoft’s Live Meeting (former Placeware product) was recently launched, and according to Ken Molay (The Webinar Blog: Live Meeting MWA Still A Mystery) and others, the release may be a step backwards towards thick-client experiences.
I’m actually pretty surprised by this. In my experience with web conferencing over the past five years, one of the most common complaints I’ve heard from other vendor’s users has been the work vendors put their end-users through just to participate in a meeting. If your end-users are spending 15 minutes or so just trying to join the web conference, there’s a significant drop-off in productivity. Imagine it taking 15 minutes to open the door to a conference room…
So, did Microsoft just get it wrong? Did they avoid talking to customers for the past five years? I don’t think it’s that extreme, but I do believe we’re seeing the results of Microsoft’s decision a few years ago to focus on Office Communication Server vs. the old Placeware service. With a focus on a server-based solution and associated thick client to be deployed on-premise, it is not surprising to see client requirements that will be more successful in controlled desktop environments vs. the cross-firewall use-cases that drive so much of our customers web communication experiences.
How have we judged success in the past? We know we’ve built a great user experience when end-users are inside our meeting room just seconds after browsing to a URL. It’s not uncommon for us to have to explain they are already in the room vs. expecting to install some software before they can participate. For web conferencing to be adopted on a broad basis, this level of simplicity is required.
Leave a Reply