More and more business sectors are starting to embrace technology as a means to reduce costs, increase efficiency and enable business. Two such local sectors that stand to benefit greatly from the introduction of the latest in online collaboration technology are the legal and financial industries.   Internet Solutions (IS) has announced the launch of Cisco WebEx web conferencing, a unified conferencing and content sharing online collaboration tool that enables a single licensed user (the WebEx meeting host) to communicate and share content with anyone in the world who has an internet connection. Participants, or in this case clients, business partners or industry specific third parties will be able to utilise the service and connect to the WebEx service  without the need for a license.

 

“WebEx is the ultimate business enabler for these two professions as collaboration is at the core of their business,” says Hayden Lamberti, Application Solutions Business Unit Manager at IS. “This type of technology is changing the way the legal and financial industries are able to provide services, as they are both heavily dependent on sharing and delivering documentation, while at the same time explaining and discussing the content of the shared material. This is speeding up the pace at which processes, tasks and activities that previously required direct contact between various parties can take place.” 

WebEx works seamlessly and securely across corporate network boundaries because it is delivered on a utility, Software as a Service (SaaS) basis.

 

It only requires an internet connection and browser to work and combines real-time desktop sharing with phone conferencing, giving everyone the ability to view the same content during the conference call. “This makes it far more productive than emailing files and then struggling to get everyone on the same page,” says Lamberti. “Draft and original documents can also be shared, either to make changes on-the-go or accept receipt of and sign for original documents.” 

 

As a collaborative solution that includes visual and audio communication, WebEx also enables legal and financial professionals to host more efficient and effective meetings. “This reduces costs, increases reach and improves productivity,” comments Lamberti. “Cost reduction comes from the decreased need to travel to meetings, which also saves time and has a positive impact on the environment as travel is reduced. Reach is also increased as legal and financial services can be offered in remote regions where it was not previously feasible to travel to or have offices, while still meeting due diligence and compliance requirements.”

 

WebEx uses a worldwide managed audio network to deliver the voice component of the conferencing functionality, which means each country has a local toll free or toll number that the meeting participants can call into. “By delivering the voice component separately to the visual component bandwidth use is also optimised, ensuring IT infrastructure and connectivity costs are reduced,” he says.

 

“Meeting organisers will be able to launch WebEx meetings on-demand, where they can share documents, work together with participants in different applications, share desktops or remotely control another desktop, as well as annotate the meeting on-the-go,” continues Lamberti. “However, the meeting host can control the sharing of content as it is self contained on their desktop. This means that meeting participants can’t copy or record anything unless the meeting host specifically allows them to do so – a very important function for legal and financial service providers who need to ensure the security and control of their documentation.”

 

“With all this functionality we see WebEx as a key business tool for the legal and financial sectors, as it not only enables them to conduct more productive and cost effective collaborative business online, but it also helps to ensure they remain in control of how documentation and information is shared,” says Lamberti. “With over 250,000 daily WebEx users globally and over 50 million individual users, WebEx is already the global standard in web conferencing, and it is now available to the South African market through Internet Solutions,” he concludes.

TAMMY DU PREEZ Communications Manager   Tel: 087 365 7768   Tel: +27 (11) 575 7768   Fax: +27 (11) 576 7768