Streaming Media - August/September 2007 - (Page 24)

case study IBM Takes Webcasting to the Desktop The starting point: Here’s what IBM employees and other corporate IVT Studio users see the first time they go to work with the software. was an invitation, typically turnout was 10 to 15%,” says Kahan, “so if a 1,000 people were invited and 150 showed up, that was considered a good webcast.” Kahan was pleasantly surprised that IVT Studio boosted attendance to “well above 30%, doubling the original invite type of thing.” And then there is, of course, the added advantage that many more people could access the stored presentation on demand after the fact. Of course, while IVT Studio can be used for live webcasts, it is the tool’s video-on-demand capability that is most important, says Wainhouse Research’s Weinstein. “VOD is the time shifter and geographical boundary breaker,” he says. “When we do webcasts, we see an initial surge of viewing for the live event, and then usage trickles up over time for the VOD. But another advantage of VOD is that it becomes a bit viral. Someone looks at it and forwards a link to someone else. And now you’re communicating as a team at everyone’s convenience. That’s good stuff.” Easy Come, Easy Go Kahan believes that one of the most attractive aspects of IVT Studio is its simplicity and ease of use. “The primary reason we wanted to use the Studio product was mainly to empower the average user to create multimedia communications without having any professional knowledge of how to do that. The biggest asset of the system is that anybody can sit down and use it. It doesn’t take up time for training. 24 STREAMING MEDIA August/September 2007 It didn’t take a lot of resources to get it up and running. That has huge value to me,” says Kahan. “It doesn’t take a production team to build the content. A 5- to 10-minute presentation takes an individual about 30 minutes. If you forget, you can do it fast at the last minute. You can do it in the morning and have it out the same morning.” Kahan points out that if the tool shaves 30 minutes off of a meeting attended by 20 people, that’s 10 man-hours saved. That’s ROI, he says. “We put out the system with no training,” says Kahan. “It came with no training material whatsoever. We just said to users: ‘Start using it. If you have any problems, here’s some reference material.’ And not one person, not one, actually needed to reference the reference content. People adapted to the interface quickly. Even senior-level executives, who typically like to have their hands held, were able to produce their content and do everything they needed to do in nothing flat.” “Rich media is important because it attracts eyeballs,” says Weinstein. “With tools like IVT Studio we are taking this eyeball-attracting content and making it easier to create and more cost-effective to create. This is a good trend. But it is evolutionary. What will start to be revolutionary is when we are able to combine all this content with some of the advanced management and searching systems that are out there. Content is only valuable if I can find it when I need it.” Indeed, the other key attraction of IVT Studio is it’s back end, according to CEO Pulier. “The critical thing here is

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - August/September 2007

Table of Contents Sweet Sixteen Letters to the Editor Technology and Business Trends IBM Takes Webcasting to the Desktop ROI in the EDU Bank Serves Espresso, Enterprise Video Online Video Advertising: Hit or Miss MLB’s Foul Bawl A Crash Course in Flash Video Newspapers in Multimedia Metamorphosis Webcasting Large Entertainment Events: Seeing Through the Hype Webcasting With Windows Media Can’t Start A Fire . . . A WiMAX Primer Mobile Video at Last Telestream Episode Pro Grass Valley ProCoder 3 Silverlight Is No Flash Killer

Streaming Media - August/September 2007

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