connect and communicate with the 2007 release of the...

Connect and Communicate With the

2007 Release of the Microsoft® Office Live Meeting Service

White Paper

Microsoft Corporation

October 10, 2007

Abstract

The 2007 release of the Microsoft® Office Live Meeting service enables organizations to meet, present, train, and collaborate in real time and at a moment‘s notice. Businesses can

communicate with more people, more often, and more effectively without the time and cost of travel. The 2007 release of the Office Live Meeting service provides four key benefits to users:

Immediate Cost Savings – The Live Meeting service enables organizations to save on both the time and expenses associated with business travel. It also delivers lower cost of ownership as an integrated solution when compared to alternative video, audio, and Web conferencing offerings.

More Deeply Connected Organizations –The Live Meeting service fosters deeper connections across and between organizations through online meetings, events, and training.

More Engaged Attendees – The Live Meeting service makes meetings more effective through integrated audio, video, and rich media.

Enterprise-Class Reliability – As a trusted, reliable service, the Live Meeting service frees up IT personnel and resources to work on business-critical projects.

This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO

THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Connect and Communicate With The 2007 Release of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting Service

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a

commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document

does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Active Directory, Excel, Forefront, Outlook, PowerPoint, RoundTable, SharePoint, Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

.

Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................. 3

WEB CONFERENCING: BRIDGING COMMUNICATIONS GAPS .......... 4

MICROSOFT WEB CONFERENCING OFFERINGS ............................................................4

DIRECT BENEFITS OF THE 2007 RELEASE OF OFFICE LIVE MEETING SERVICE ........................................................................................ 5

IMMEDIATE COST SAVINGS .....................................................................................5 Reduced Travel Budgets 5 Increased Time Savings 7

MORE DEEPLY CONNECTED ORGANIZATIONS ..............................................................7 Improved Technology Training 9 Better Collaboration with Customers 9

MORE ENGAGED ATTENDEES ................................................................................ 10 More Effective Presentations with Data, Audio, and Video 10 Greater Flexibility 11

ENTERPRISE-CLASS RELIABILITY .............................................................................. 13 Enhanced IT Productivity 13 Fast, Straightforward Deployment 14

CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 16

APPENDIX .................................................................................... 17

Connect and Communicate With The 2007 Release of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting Service 3

Executive Summary In today‘s global economy, employees are increasingly required to collaborate across geographic boundaries. Every day, information workers travel to meet and work with colleagues, customers, and partners. This time spent en route is time away from strategic work that drives the company‘s success. With the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office Live Meeting service, however, employees can conduct training sessions or hold meetings through the Internet, rather than in person—without reducing the effectiveness of the interaction.

With its Web conferencing solution, Microsoft provides a cost-effective collaboration tool that brings audio, video, media, and other content together to fully support organizations in their need to be more connected.

Dispersed teams can communicate successfully with the Live Meeting service, making the physical location of team members irrelevant. Organizations therefore avoid the direct

expenses associated with travel, and information workers who no longer need to spend time traveling to and from meetings can be more productive.

In addition, many businesses have chosen to use the Live Meeting service because it is easy to deploy and manage, freeing up critical IT resources to focus on more strategic projects. This white paper examines how the Live Meeting service provides business value to companies through:

Immediate cost savings

More deeply connected organizations

More engaged attendees

Enterprise-class reliability


Web Conferencing: Bridging Communications Gaps A common challenge facing many organizations today are fragmented internal communications systems within various departments. Not only is this fragmentation frustrating and time-consuming for employees, but it is also expensive for IT departments to deploy, manage, and update the systems, which can include multiple applications and hardware from many different vendors. Communication modes are rarely integrated with all the applications and hardware, resulting in disconnected infrastructures and proprietary hardware and software applications that are unable to speak to each other.

Organizations need a unified communications platform managed using common tools so that IT departments can increase operational efficiency and save money.

A key part of that platform is Web conferencing, which makes it possible for groups of people in diverse locations to interact over the Internet. With the Live Meeting service, Microsoft delivers a Web conferencing solution that promotes collaboration within the

productivity programs that information workers use every day. Together, colleagues can brainstorm in Microsoft® Office PowerPoint®, edit a Microsoft® Office Word document, crunch numbers in a Microsoft® Office Excel® spreadsheet, and send instant messages and e-mail through Microsoft® Office Outlook® messaging software—all in real time via the Internet. The Live Meeting service makes it easy for information workers in any department within an organization to work closely and efficiently with customers, partners, and each other.

Even as the capabilities of Web conferencing grow, IT departments face continued pressure to deliver more with scarce budgets and limited time and resources. Hosted services such as the Live Meeting service give IT departments the ability to simplify deployment, control costs, and reduce IT labor. With its security features and 10-year track record of reliability as a hosted service, the Live Meeting service can help free up critical resources to focus on other IT projects.

Microsoft Web Conferencing Offerings

Microsoft provides two enterprise-class Web conferencing solutions:

Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 is an on-premise server solution that is deployed and managed internally within an organization. In addition to conferencing, Office

Communications Server 2007 provides technology for instant messaging, presence, and software-powered VoIP audio.

The Office Live Meeting service is a hosted conferencing solution. It connects and engages audiences in online meetings, training sessions, and events through a reliable, enterprise-class hosted service. Training and events are available only through the hosted

service.

For more detailed information about Microsoft Web conferencing solutions and the important differences between Communications Server 2007 and the Live Meeting service, please see the Appendix of this white paper and ―Choosing a Microsoft Web Conferencing Solution,” available at www.office.microsoft.com/livemeeting. For the most up-to-date information, please visit www.microsoft.com/uc.

http://www.office.microsoft.com/livemeeting

http://www.microsoft.com/uc/


Direct Benefits of the Office Live Meeting Service

Immediate Cost Savings

With the Office Live Meeting service, organizations have the cost-effective option of conducting training sessions and holding meetings through the Internet, rather than in

person—without reducing the effectiveness of the interaction. For instance, companies such as Raymond James and Plastics Fabrication Technologies have experienced immediate cost savings, including those associated with:

Travel (airfare, hotel, rental car, meals, etc.)

Document production Time

Reduced Travel Budgets Raymond James is a leading financial services company with more than 4,600 financial advisors who provide services from 2,200 locations throughout the world. The company‘s success

depends upon its ability to deliver personalized, one-on-one service to each of its customers, which often meant a high degree of business travel for its employees. Raymond James needed a communications solution that would permit it to provide this individualized service regardless of the physical location of the customer.

The company adopted the Live Meeting service, taking advantage of its fully integrated audio and video solutions. The personalized communications made possible by the Live

“When we were relying on e-mail to share image

information, it could easily take up to two hours to upload a video. With the Office Live Meeting service, we can share the same information in 10 minutes. This is a huge benefit, on a daily basis, especially considering that we are often exchanging such information with companies with different working hours in vastly different time zones.”

Jay Magness

IT Consultant, Plastics

Fabrication Technologies, Medway Plastics, and

Advanced Plastics Technologies

Table 1 - The Live Meeting service provides immediate cost savings

Company Industry Reported Savings

Activant Solutions Technology 50% reduction in on-site days with customers

Avtex Technology $50,000 savings per year in travel costs

$20,000 reduction in Web conferencing costs

Barry University Education Saves $20,000 at each of the 15 remote sites and more than $100,000 on the main campus

Increased enrollment

Cogan Wire and Metal Manufacturing 80% reduction in training travel costs

Del Monte Consumer Goods Reduced travel costs

ESI Manufacturing Reduced travel costs

PFT Manufacturing 50% reduction in component and product shipping costs

Raymond James Financial Financial Services Reduced travel costs

XBRL US Non-Profit Organization Reduced training costs


Meeting service are so effective that employees significantly reduce travel to meet with their colleagues, customers, or partners. Raymond James now provides enhanced customer

service and enjoys increased collaboration with its offices and affiliates worldwide—at a lower cost.

One of the biggest complaints that Raymond James used to face from its remote offices was that they didn‘t receive associated paperwork for meetings and that, conversely, too much paper was being wasted by sending large reams of unnecessary documents. With the Live Meeting service, meeting attendees are now in control. They can choose to print out relevant parts of a presentation or simply save a local copy of the meeting‘s handouts. The result is less wasted paper, or as Rob Schwartzberg, Technology Product Manager for Raymond James, says, ―A whole bunch of electrons were inconvenienced, but no trees were cut down.‖ The reduction in

employees‘ use of airplanes, cars, and trains also decreases environmental strain.

Figure 1 - Plastics Fabrication Technologies (PFT) achieves faster time-to-market with the Office Live Meeting service

Employee prepares

model/ part for review

Model/part is shipped overseas

Model/part arrives at

destination 4 days later

Conference review

Model/part is manufactured

Previous Model/Part Review Process

Employee prepares model/ part for review

Conference review utilizing

Live Meeting

Model/part is manufactured

New Model/Part Review Process with Live Meeting

“We are doing on average 10 online trainings per month. A

year ago these trainings would have been at the customer’s location. Not only is the company saving money from not having to travel but we have freed up time to provide additional services.”

Jennifer Eckert

Consulting and Education

Manager, Avtex


Increased Time Savings

Plastics Fabrication Technologies (PFT), a world leader in custom injection molding and tooling, needed a better way to communicate with affiliates, suppliers, and customers. Sending large video files through e-mail to demonstrate parts and processes was cumbersome and unreliable. A Private Branch

Exchange (PBX)-based video-conferencing

solution proved equally problematic in terms of software compatibility, firewalls, and the speed of Internet connections. In response, PFT deployed a conferencing solution based on the Live Meeting service and the Microsoft® RoundTable® device.

With the Live Meeting service, PFT is saving time and increasing productivity. In product development, for example, a model or part for a conference review can be ―delivered‖ in approximately 20 minutes. ―In the past, when that part had to be shipped, usually overseas,

the delay could be up to four days,‖ notes Jay Magness, IT Consultant at Plastics Fabrication Technologies. ―That‘s four days saved on just one decision thanks to the Office Live Meeting service, of maybe dozens that need to be made over the course of development—a major beneficial impact on time-to-market.‖

The Live Meeting service can expedite matters similarly on the sales side. Magness estimates that by using the Live Meeting service for conferencing with customers who are considering a purchase, PFT will help the company close sales up to 30 percent faster.

More Deeply Connected Organizations

The Live Meeting service helps information workers get more done by reducing their travel time and making meetings and conference calls more productive. Improved communication and collaboration has led to a variety of benefits for companies—such as Activant Solutions; Orrick, Herrington &

Sutcliffe; and Avtex—that use the Live Meeting service to keep their organization connected, including:

Software company increases internal communications

Activant Solutions makes complete business management solutions that help small and midsize retail and wholesale companies be more efficient and effective. The Livermore, California–based company targets its solutions at three markets: hardware and lumber, wholesale distribution, and automotive. Activant has more than 2,100 employees throughout the United States and Europe and more than 30,000 customers around the world. Annual revenues top U.S. $266 million. Activant expects to reap internal benefits from the use of the Office Live Meeting service. Approximately 65 percent of the employees in the Hardware and Home Center Group work from home offices. “My staff members are in five different locations,” Jenny Kois, Training Manager, Hardware and Home Center Group, Activant Solutions says. “I live in the Office Live Meeting service, working on documents with team members, sharing and explaining reports, and conducting meetings as if I’m sitting across the table from them. We were surprised at how much we liked the webcam support in the Office Live Meeting service. Being able to see each other adds a level of personal warmth to communications that we hadn’t anticipated.” As users of the Office Live Meeting service, Kois’s five-person team has virtually eliminated travel for team meetings. “We recently had a face-to-face team meeting for the first time in five years,” Kois says.” Once we roll out [Microsoft] Office Communicator 2007, we’ll be able to launch the Office Live Meeting service sessions even more easily; we’ll just right-click an individual’s name in our Office Outlook address book and launch the Office Live Meeting service session. It will be a huge efficiency gain.” Activant will continue to move more internal meetings and customer training online, accelerating its drive to reduce costs and shorten time-to-action for both customers and employees. “Web conferencing with video support will be a huge step in eliminating the barriers of time and distance in effective communications,” Kois concludes.


Shorter project durations and quicker, better decision making

Improved connection with customers and partners in addition to collaboration with employees

Shorter, more efficient and productive meetings and

training sessions with employees and partners

Easy user management, with the ability to see required participants‘ availability, send separate attendee and presenter meeting invitations, and track responses with the conferencing add-in for Office Outlook

Streamlined experience due to participants‘ ability to view shared documents

Increased productivity in meetings with new annotation tools within the Live Meeting service whiteboard feature

Straightforward meeting access for non-Microsoft platforms (Solaris, Mac OS) and/or locked-down machines through the Live Meeting service Web-based client

Increased productivity through streamlined meeting scheduling process that tracks lead information and integrates attendance and registration data

Table 2 - The Live Meeting service improves organization communications

Office Live Meeting service–related benefit

Key Performance Indicator Business benefit

More frequent status meetings Reduced project cycle time Shorter product development cycle

Improved attendance at meetings Quicker resolution of problems Higher product quality

More frequent customer updates Improved customer satisfaction Lower customer turnover

Figure 2 - The Live Meeting service event and class registration process


Improved Technology Training

For well over a century, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has provided dynamic and innovative representation to the world‘s leading financial and corporate enterprises. Today, the firm is known for its extranets, knowledge bases, and other applications of sophisticated information technology on behalf of its client. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is deploying the Live Meeting service to enhance IT training and, ultimately, provide a foundation for other kinds of training as well as marketing demonstrations, meetings, depositions, and case reviews.

Based on positive feedback from the firm‘s Live Meeting service pilot users, especially regarding the streamlined user interface, Melissa Self, Applications Engineer at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, believes the Web conferencing solution will transform the way

that the firm provides IT training. For example, the firm will use the solution to provide all training for smaller IT rollouts and some training for larger rollouts—a move that is expected to reduce the need for instructors to travel and increase the opportunity for students to access a training

session whenever, and however often, they like.

―With the Office Live Meeting service, we anticipate reducing training-associated travel and dramatically reducing wear and tear on

instructors,‖ Self says. ―We also will make it possible for those instructors to record sessions when and where it is most convenient for them, even after hours or from home. If they wish to offer a ‗live‘ online session in parallel with the recording, they can take advantage of time-zone differences to reach students in offices on the other side of the globe.‖

Better Collaboration with Customers

Avtex is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that provides contact center, unified messaging, and IP telephony applications and integrated solutions to more than 650 customers in 50 U.S. states. Within 18

Virtual organization keeps employees connected

XBRL US is a virtual organization that is wholly dedicated to increasing the use of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in the United States. XBRL is an open-standards–based specification that employs XML data tags to prepare, publish, exchange, and analyze financial statements. XBRL US has six full-time employees who work from home offices in New York, California, Colorado, and the Washington, D.C. area. The organization’s members total more than 100 and include leading corporations, government entities, and individuals. With employees spread across the country, the Office Live Meeting service provides critical tools for facilitating engaged, effective communication. “As a virtual organization, we don’t have a shared office to report back to,” says Mike Tauriello, Vice President of Internet Strategy and Member Services at XBRL US. “Our home office is literally our home. We depend on the Office Live Meeting service to help us build a sense of community between employees. I may only see my colleagues a couple of times a year, but we do get together regularly on the Office Live Meeting service. The multimedia experience is really smooth. We’re staying in touch with each other, and it’s an excellent way for us to get together without increasing expenses. I know there are other solutions in the marketplace, but the Office Live Meeting service provides a familiar, consistent interface so employees don’t have to be frustrated learning how to use new features like sharing a video file. I say, ‘stay with what you know.’” In addition, the Office Live Meeting service can be used on various types of computers and systems and in different locations. “A non-Microsoft Web conferencing program might get trapped in somebody’s firewall,” says Tauriello. “However, the Office Live Meeting service is accessible to all our contractors and consultants. Many teams meet once a week using the Office Live Meeting service so that they can discuss how they are working on individual parts of the same project.”


months, the Minnesota Company grew from 50 to 100 employees, who work from offices in four states and from remote locations. Because employees are geographically dispersed, Avtex relies on Web conferencing for team meetings and training sessions. The company

also uses Web conferencing to communicate with its 650 customers and to provide them with support services.

The company uses the Live Meeting service to streamline the sales process, improve customer support, and enhance customer relations. For example, Avtex sales teams now can provide preliminary product demonstrations during online meetings before they travel to a customer‘s location. Then, they may ask an Avtex project engineer to use the Live Meeting service to join them as they meet on-site with the customer. ―They bring in a person from Avtex using Web collaboration, and they can have access to resources in customer sessions that they may not have been able provide otherwise. It‘s made the sales process a lot more efficient,‖ says Jennifer Eckert, Consulting and Education Manager for Avtex.

In addition, Avtex uses the Live Meeting service as a tool to help it fulfill its maintenance

agreements with customers. ―We use the desktop sharing capabilities, so we can watch what‘s happening from a user‘s standpoint. It makes it much easier for us when they call and describe the problem, and we can‘t give them a solution. We‘ll say, ‗Can we go on and actually watch this happen?‘ A lot of times it will make it much easier for us to diagnose the problem,‖ Says Eckert

The Live Meeting service also is used extensively with customers who have Internet access but don‘t have a network infrastructure that supports remote access. ―Although we don‘t rely exclusively on the Live Meeting service as an access method to the servers that we support, it is definitely an option for us,‖ Eckert says.

More Engaged Attendees

More Effective Presentations with Data, Audio, and Video

The Office Live Meeting service delivers a more interactive experience that keeps attendees engaged and focused, including:

Interactive Tools—Interactive tools include Question Manager, Real-Time Polls, Mood Indicator, Chat, Annotations, Whiteboard, Text Slide, and Web Slide.

Live Webcam Video—Presenters can show live webcam video of meeting participants alongside their presentations in one of two display modes.

Collaboration—Participants can draw, annotate, and type simultaneously on a whiteboard or text slide to achieve the natural interactivity of an in-person meeting.

Virtual Breakout Rooms—Attendees

Figure 3 - Live webcam video with picture-in-picture preview panel


can break out into discussion groups for one-on-one training or more subject matter drill down. They can then bring back class materials to the main session.

Document Viewer—Participants can share any printable Microsoft Office or

non-Microsoft Office document for online review or editing, zooming in/out without loss of quality to text or graphics.

High-Fidelity Recordings—No special equipment is required for users to record a presentation; all it takes is a mouse click.

Handout Distribution—Handouts can be scanned with Microsoft® Forefront™ and distributed in their native file formats before or during meetings.

Panoramic Video with Microsoft RoundTable—Participants can see a 360-degree panoramic video of everyone in the conference room when a RoundTable device is used. Several individual participants can be connected with the rest of their team assembled in a conference room. Alternatively, teams in two conference rooms

can be connected.

Greater Flexibility

Daily operations at an increasing number of companies require employees to collaborate across geographic boundaries. The Live Meeting service makes it possible for dispersed teams in organizations such as XBRL US to communicate effectively, no matter where

individual team members are located. Many businesses, including Electro Scientific Industries, also use the Live Meeting service to quickly integrate newly acquired companies and hold more effective project status meetings with customers. With the time and expense of travel eliminated, project teams can meet more often and improve the quality of their customer relationships.

Better Access to Information with Multimedia Recording Capabilities

XBRL US is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in the United States. Founded in September 2006, XBRL US employs six people and approximately 50 contractors who work from home offices. With teams spread across the country, the organization needed a collaboration platform that would facilitate information sharing and Web conferences. Rather than lease a data center, XBRL US subscribed to the Live Meeting service.

Table 3 - The Live Meeting service improves attendee participation

Office Live Meeting service related benefit

Key Performance Indicators Business benefit

Virtual Breakout Rooms Improved collaboration Increased productivity by working on more projects simultaneously

Interactive Tools Increased real-time feedback Better and faster decision-making

Live Webcam Video Increased interactions with employees and partners

Engaged employees and partners produce high quality results


As a newly formed organization, XBRL US creates processes that will best support its employees and members. To achieve this,

employees try to record as much information as possible so that they can establish efficient workflows. Says Mike Tauriello, Vice President of Internet Strategy and Member Services at XBRL US, ―We‘re desperately trying to create the patterns and processes that are going to be successful for us as an organization and for our members,‖ Tauriello notes. ―We want to hold onto everything, and the Office Live Meeting service allows us to do that.‖

With the Live Meeting service, people can store recordings of meetings directly to their

desktops. This feature is useful for those who want a copy of a training session but do not have access to the organization‘s Windows® SharePoint® Services sites. ―Being able to save meetings to your desktop is a major step forward and will be a huge benefit to

us—especially for how we will be using the Live Meeting service going forward,‖ concludes Tauriello.

More Effective Meetings with Integrated Tools

Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), a company that produces laser products for electronic devices, uses Web conferencing to speed up the integration process for its latest acquisition, New Wave Research. ESI employees in Portland, Oregon, plan to use

the Live Meeting service when they conduct training and integration meetings with the 400 employees who work in New Wave‘s office in Fremont, California.

―The sharing capability of the Office Live Meeting service makes meetings more

efficient, and the speed at which our files were updated ensured a smooth flow of information,‖ Robert Hainsey, Manager, Laser Processing Research Group, Electro Scientific Industriessays. ―For engineers and scientists, a fair amount of what we do is visual, so being able to do something like pop up a design and critique it in real time using the Office Live Meeting service is valuable.‖

University achieves increased student enrollment

Barry University, a private school with 9,300 students in Miami Shores, Florida, wanted to better meet the online communications needs of its administration, faculty, staff, and students. In addition to its main Miami Shores campus, Barry University maintains 15 permanent satellite locations and approximately a dozen remote locations. In June 2007, the school deployed the 2007 release of Office Live Meeting service. Now, university employees and students have access to live video, document sharing, live chat using VoIP, and archived video recordings. As a result of the migration to the Office Live Meeting service, Barry University says there has been an immediate increase in students in the Master of Science in Informational Technology (MSIT) classes. These courses, which previously averaged 12 students, currently use the Office Live Meeting service to attract students who are unable to travel to the main campus or to a satellite location to attend classes. Now students can receive the full benefit of an interactive classroom while sitting at their own home workstations. “This semester we averaged 31 students in the MSIT classes because we are using the 2007 release of the Office Live Meeting service,” says Khaled Deeb, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Information Technology. “The program attracts more students because it blends traditional learning with online learning. Students who care about interacting with the professor but who don’t have the convenience, time, or flexibility to be in the traditional classroom really appreciate the service.” As a result of the early Office Live Meeting service success stories, other Barry University programs, including the School of Education and the School of Anesthesiology, are looking to replace third-party video conferencing systems with the Office Live Meeting service.


Hainsey also appreciates that the Live Meeting service gives participants the ability to print out materials with excellent graphics quality. ―I really like that with the Live Meeting service I don‘t have to run to a fax machine and pick up a gray and poorly printed version of the

presentation materials,‖ he explains.

Enterprise-Class Reliability

Enhanced IT Productivity

Because the Office Live Meeting service is a trusted, reliable service, IT personnel can concentrate their efforts on other business-critical projects. The Live Meeting service can be deployed quickly to individual departments or the entire organization. With the Live Meeting service, Microsoft provides:

First-class telephone and e-mail support for meeting organizers and attendees alike, even if they are external to the organization.

Resolution of any issues that a user may face in trying to join a meeting and answers to ―how-to‖ questions.

A decade of operating experience. IT departments implementing the Live Meeting service can let Microsoft worry about service quality, reliability, and security.

An Integrated Conferencing Environment

Barry University, founded in 1940, is an accredited Catholic university located in Miami Shores, Florida, that serves 9,300 undergraduate and graduate students. With more than 870 faculty members and 2,000 administrative and support staff, the university provides hands-on career preparation in the liberal arts and sciences. In June 2007, the school deployed the Live Meeting service. Now, university employees and students have access to live video, document sharing, live chat using VoIP, and archived video recordings.

John Beaubrun, Vice Provost, Chief Technology Officer, and Dean for Information Technology at Barry University says one of the significant benefits of moving to the Live Meeting service is that it integrates with the other Microsoft products in Barry University‘s IT infrastructure, which

means that the IT staff does not have to be retrained and recertified on other environments.

In addition, the service now includes Microsoft Forefront, which helps the university maintain a more secure IT environment by scanning the documents that online participants share.

Figure 4 - Quick Office Live Meeting client

setup—point to an intranet or Internet location


Dr. Linda Cahill, Ph.D., Assistant Dean of Distance Education Support, said that users have been relieved to know that Microsoft

Forefront is scanning documents before they are shared with other students and instructors. ―Some faculty were reluctant at first to use online handouts or to allow students to upload their own content, until we told them that we had the Forefront scanning function going on,‖ she says.

Fast, Straightforward Deployment

When deploying the Live Meeting service across an organization, an intranet portal automatically creates user accounts and authenticates with Active Directory. IT staff

also can speed deployment due to the following factors:

The Live Meeting client does not require an IT employee to assist with installation. It automatically installs or

upgrades to the latest version when attendees join a meeting.

An improved installation process automatically resolves problems that may arise when users have restricted access to their PCs.

Attendees using the Live Meeting service for the first time are given a choice of installing the Windows-based Live Meeting client or using Live Meeting Web Access.

The Live Meeting Service Portal makes it easier to deploy and manage the Live Meeting service conference center for any company using the Microsoft® Active Directory® service.

The Live Meeting Service Portal can automatically create accounts based on the information in Active Directory.

Authenticated users using the Live Meeting Service Portal can log on

to the Live Meeting service without entering their user ID and password.

Each time a user logs on through

Technology company effortlessly deploys the Office Live Meeting

service

Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), a company that produces laser products for electronic devices, wanted a Web conferencing solution. With offices and customers throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, ESI needed to enhance the ability of its engineers, scientists, software developers, and sales and support teams to interact online with colleagues, customers, and partners. For its video conferencing needs, the company had been using a third-party tool, which required an expensive infrastructure, and that system’s equipment was aging. In October 2006, ESI deployed Office Live Meeting (2005) Web conferencing service and launched the 2007 release of the Office Live Meeting service in May 2007. ESI implemented a rolling deployment of the new version of the Office Live Meeting service to employees throughout the company, including those at facilities outside the United States. The company established accounts for employees in its IT, sales, field service, and software development departments, but anyone who has a need for an account can have one, according to Barry Buchanan, ESI Network Administrator. Among the newest users of the Office Live Meeting service are employees of New Wave Research, a sapphire wafer scribing and laser micromachining company in Fremont, California, which ESI acquired in July 2007. With a redesigned user interface that makes the Office Live Meeting service easier to use, ESI has found that employees require minimal training. “I create their Office Live Meeting service accounts and let them know they will be getting an e-mail message with their credentials,” explains Brent Balza, an ESI Network Technician. “Then I send them a Word document on how to get it configured for Outlook. They don’t seem have any problems at all.” Balza says he usually conducts a one-on-one test meeting with the new user. “Users are easily able to connect up, open up PowerPoint slides, switch to making someone else a presenter, and share each other’s desktop,” he says, “the Office Live Meeting service is easy to use.”


the Live Meeting Service Portal, the system automatically synchronizes the Live Meeting service account settings with the user‘s Active Directory settings.

Ease of Deployment

Del Monte Foods, based in San Francisco, California, is the leading provider of quality food and pet products throughout the United States. The organization employs 8,400 salaried and approximately 9,000 seasonal workers in the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, and American Samoa. Because of this widely dispersed work force, communications technology is critical for the company. Approximately 3,500 Del Monte salaried employees use the

company‘s messaging and collaboration products to regularly collaborate on sales

presentations and to discuss other projects.

With the Live Meeting service, Del Monte has a Web conferencing solution that features increased security and is straightforward for Del Monte employees to use. ―The Live Meeting service is easy to use,‖ says Jonathan Wynn, Manager of Advanced Technology and Collaborative Services, Del Monte. ―The user interface has been streamlined and our

employees have given us a lot of positive feedback about usability so far.‖ He also mentions that the solution is fully integrated with the Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client, which Del Monte employees use heavily. ―Office Outlook is our primary information worker tool, and because of the integration, users can quickly and easily set up the Live Meeting service from within that application.‖

As a result, deployment has been an easy process. ―Fast, easy adoption of new technologies is important, because there are only four of us in the IT department,‖ Wynn says. ―We don‘t want employees to be constantly calling us for technical assistance. The Live Meeting service is empowering our employees by giving them an easy-to-use conferencing application that helps them be more productive.‖


Conclusion The Live Meeting service provides organizations with increased productivity and efficiency by making it easy for information workers in diverse locations to interact and collaborate over the Internet. Users are able to view presentations, documents, and Web pages on their computers.

The Live Meeting service is delivering significant return on investment to companies that have adopted this Web conferencing service. The returns are generated from a combination of cost savings due to the elimination of travel and improved business processes that result

in increased revenues and decreased operating costs. Companies considering adopting a Web conferencing service should examine the Live Meeting service to determine if the service can generate for them the types of benefits documented in this paper.

To learn more about the case studies presented in this whitepaper and about the Live Meeting Service visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies and www.microsoft.com/uc.

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies

http://www.microsoft.com/uc


Appendix The following tables provide a feature-by-feature comparison of the two editions of the Office Live Meeting service and Office Communications Server 2007.

Feature Office Live Meeting

Service Standard

Office Live Meeting Service

Professional

Office Communications Server 2007

Connected Organizations

Host collaborative meetings quickly and cost-effectively

Streamlined user experience X X X

Streamlined user experience for Web use X X

Single meeting client for on-premises and hosted conferencing

X X X

Interactive whiteboard and annotation tools X X X

Shared notes pane X X X

Train distributed employees and partners and conduct events that scale to support large audiences

Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook

X X X

Event and class registration X

Public events page X

Advanced testing and grading X

High-fidelity recordings X X X

Shared recordings X

Personal recordings X X X

Microsoft event services X X

Meeting reports X X

Meeting content storage and management tools

X X

Programming APIs X X



Service Standard


Professional


Enterprise-Class Reliability

Redeploy IT resources on other business-critical projects

Telephone and e-mail support for internal and external meeting attendees

X X

Automatic client installation and upgrade X X X

Intranet portal to simplify rollout X X X

Depend on a reliable service with a proven track record

99.99% historical availability X X

Certified data centers X X

Encrypted communication X X X

Virus scanning by Microsoft Forefront X X


Service Standard


Professional


Engaged Attendees

Keep attendees engaged with an integrated rich media and conferencing experience

Rich media presentations X X X

Native live webcam video X X X

Integrated media experience X X X

Integrated PowerPoint viewer X X X

Drag-and-drop upload for viewing a range of document file types

X X X

Make meetings more interactive with two-way multi-party video and audio experience

Panoramic video with Microsoft RoundTable X X X

PSTN and two-way VoIP audio integration X X

Audio conference call controls X X X

Speaker indicator X X X

Handout distribution X X X

Virtual Breakout Rooms X

connect and communicate with the 2007 release of the...

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