Month: August 2010

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Why we switched from WebEx to Adobe Connect

We had been using WebEx at my work to allow us to hold online meetings.  We are very small scale and only use it once or twice a month, but when we do it really comes in handy.  Once a month or so we have a user group meeting with our 22 districts across Riverside County.  If all our attendees came in person some of them would be driving over 4 hours roundtrip for a 2 hour meeting.  Not fun nor economically and environmentally friendly.  Online meeting software was definitely a requirement here.

WebEx was what I was used to and hadn’t seen anything better from GoToMeeting or the others.  So we signed up with them.  It works and we didn’t have any problem with it.  It’s just a little sterile and complicated for non-techie users.  Plus our vendor never returned our emails regarding renewing our contract.  So much for that.  We can’t even give them our money. 😐

One of my co-workers teaches an online class for USC.  They use an online teaching tool that makes use of Adobe Connect.  He really liked it so he told me to check it out since our WebEx contract was coming up for renewal.

After playing with it I really began to like it.  It offers many of the same features as WebEx but it is just more fluid and has a much nicer UI.  It is Flash based so it avoids many of the ActiveX or browser plug-in issues that WebEx has.  Since Flash is pretty much installed on any computer it works out of the box.  Also, Adobe Connect allows us to let guests enter a meeting just by connecting to the URL.  This is really nice as users had to enter a password with WebEx.  Password protected meetings are just one extra step to trip up non-techie users and completely unnecessary in our case. 

Also, we can set a permanent URL for a meeting we hold regularly.  This allows users to bookmark the meeting or bring it up from an old email.  With WebEx we always pointed users to our general WebEx page.  We usually only had one meeting on the calendar so it wasn’t that confusing, however, for larger organizations it can be a bother to sort through all the scheduled meetings.  Having a permanent URL that connects you straight to the meeting is a nice touch.

And guess what?  It’s cheaper for our account as well.  WebEx basic pricing runs about $60 a month for an annual subscription, which is limited to 25 concurrent attendees.  They will let more than 25 attendees connect but you will be charged for the overage.  Adobe Connect basic pricing runs about $45 a month for an annual subscription and allows up to 100 concurrent attendees.

All in all Adobe Connect is friendlier, easier to setup and less expensive.  Definitely a win for our needs.

If you are considering online meeting software definitely give Adobe Connect a look.  Also, if you do go with Adobe Connect, consider MeetingOne as a vendor rather than contracting directly with Adobe.  Check out my previous blog post about how their personal customer service really saved our day while also getting us a cheaper rate.

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Praise for Meeting One – Adobe Connect vendor

In today’s Internet world where everything is automatic and at the tip of my finger the need (and room) for personal service quickly disappears.  As a fast paced individual myself I actually lean more towards automated solutions.  Often I can find an answer, directions, a phone number, a solution on a development or IT problem, etc in a matter of seconds on the Internet rather than asking someone.  It’s because of this, and having to deal with pushy vendors in various past, that have made me largely anti-salesman.  If I can purchase something online with a credit card number and a few clicks of a mouse I’m much more inclined to go the non-human route than to get someone on the phone.  I’m somewhat introverted so that may also be part of the issue. 🙂

However, as a retail software salesman in one of my many past careers, a personal technical consultant and having dealt with many great small businesses I know that the personal touch is still very useful and worth the money.

In this particular case it saved my day.

We recently switched from WebEx to Adobe Connect for our online meeting software at my work.  You can read my post about why we switched here.  Mark Stevenson of MeetingOne contacted me as an authorized vendor for government contracts for Adobe Connect.  He was very nice on the phone and answered all of my questions.  However, I was still inclined to thank him, hang up and sign us up online through the Adobe web page.  Mark was able to get us a small discount so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. 

We are a very small contract.  I am the only staff member who uses online meeting software and I only 1.5 times a month on average, yes, only 1.5 times.  He had almost no incentive to give us a deal or even continue talking with me.  Honestly, if this was a fortune 500 company (MeetingOne very well could be, they just don’t give off that impersonal vibe, a compliment I assure you :)) his sales lead analysis tool would probably have already told him to hang up as it wasn’t even worth his time to keep talking with me on the phone.

I had previously signed up online with an Adobe Connect trial account while we were researching various products.  We had a meeting today but, as we are still in the middle of our purchasing process, we were forced to use our trial account.  I didn’t think too much of it as there is no indication that the trial accounts are limited to the number of connected attendees.  However, sure enough, after 5 attendees connected to the meeting the phone started ringing off the hook.  Users were getting turned away with an error message that the account had exceeded its usage.  Ouch!  What to do?

I called up Mark right away and he saved the day.  After talking over the issue and our meeting needs he set up a meeting for us under the MeetingOne account.  I sent out the new link to all our users and within minutes we were up and running full steam.  He even stayed in the meeting while he was working and assisted with a couple of technical issues we had while switching between presenters.

I have a very large suspicion that we wouldn’t have received this type of support had we contracted directly with Adobe.

So here is a BIG THANKS to Mark and MeetingOne.  He has helped change my attitude towards vendors.  The good ones are still out there, it’s just hard to find them sometimes.  Fortunately Mark found us. 🙂

If you are in the market for online meeting software, consider Adobe Connect.  If you do, please consider MeetingOne.  They are one of the good guys and will definitely help you out.