VP of Marketing has the hots to get this asked him why,
he said-
-to show a few powerpoints to channel partners,
-explain our new e-commerece site(rant-first if you have to walk someone through how to do stuff on your website, there are some SERIOUS design issues.Secondly the website is already out there where anyone can see it-pick up the phone and walk them through it-rant off)
-show our shipping schedule to channel partners-it's on our internal network, they don't(and if IT has it's way-will never-as it should be) have a login to our domain. My suggest was to put that on our website has well(with a login)
-other stuff that may come up.

Now the kicker is he wants to sign up for a plan
Cheapest is $75/month/user 5 user minimum required
so if my math is right that's $4500/year

My suggestions are
1. Use NetMeeting, it's free(though our IT guy says-he doesn't want to have to manage another service-this after just getting all new servers, upgrade to AD and Server03(from SBS), a managed firewall/router and a Full T-1(hell we only have 45 users in house and 4 remote peeps)
2. For that little bit of use, send the powerpoints to the channel partners and pick up the phone
3. Use the ad-hoc meeting features of Webex (at .33/min/user for that annual fee of 4.5K we could host close to 45 hours worth of meetings for up to 5 people)
4. I do notice webex has feature called meetmenow (49/year) which may offer enough feature set to keep em happy. Anyone tried it? How is it?
5. Look at competing products(Love some feedback if anyone has tried these)
A. Conferral $20/month or 199 one-time/user up to 10
conference attendees per user
B. Webtrain.com .20/min/user
C. GotoMeeting by Citrix-$49/user/month-up to 10
attendess
D. Live meeting from MS(IT guy and I used placeware at
another job, now rolled into this expensive MS progarm)
E. Have users sign up for free trails at all of them when
and if we need to show something(at 14 days/trial * 30
people that's a lot of free web conferencing

F. Others I'm missing...

Anyone with thoughts or ideas ????

I'd agree sounds like a waste unless you come up with more uses for it. Based on your description, I agree with your rant and would lean towards option number 2. Simplest is best to me. That said, it may fall flat if you need to project an appearance of some sort to these folks. The web conferencing may suggest a more sophisticated opearation, etc.

One thing that came to mind for me because I've used their audio conferencing is Budget Conferencing. I haven't used the web product though: http://www.budgetconferencing.com/web-conferencing.php

A nifty webex alternative should be raindance ... Did you give it a thought ?

I've used Raindance for years and have been pleased with its functionality. I believe that the web conferencing is still free if you don't use the phone piece of it.

I've also used Citrix GoToMeeting, it worked well but am unsure of the cost.

I wouldn't suggest Netmeeting, it can be a pain to get everyone configured.

I'm ashamed of myself - on the verge of losing my FT membership for not having mentioned the most important feature: FREE

Raindance is free - and for phone you can always use Skype

All in all this combo is quite professional even in International conferences.

Thanks for the Raindance advice. Looks like they still offer a free version. "Free Point-to-Point Account"
Free is good, after all this is FT

50 lashes with a wet noodle for leaving out "free".

Macromedia breeze, has a pay per use model but it is a .32/user/min. i don't think there is a monthly or yearly fee, however, and it uses flash which means most people don't need to download a client.

We have been using Microsoft Live Meeting at Work. Pretty similar to Webex. We also use net meeting for intracompany conferences-but our IT group has set it up so that it can't be used with outsiders. Netmeeting is free, but not web based.

These tools definitely keep my frequent flyer miles down.

I live by WebEx but do agree having a paid membership the first year seems like it could be wasteful, definitely look into pay as you go. Or do you have any other firms you work with or in your area you could share membership costs with. We are a consulting firm and split our membership with another consulting firm to keep the costs down.

We use WebEx fairly often and just "pay by the drink."
While .33/min sounds high, it's peanuts compared to the cost of going to the customer's site and doing a live product demo.
It is a fantastic service IMHO. Basically whatever's happening on your desktop, the other parties see in real time. Never had any major issues with it.

I'm friends with a guy who is CEO of VidSoft, a much lower cost, software-only alternative to WebEx. I have it on my laptop and it's great! I was in Cabo over Easter and was VidSofting with someone in Florida and Boston.

Vidsoft's about $30 per month or so (no per-minute fees) and allows up to 10 endpoints to meet simultaneously so all 10 can be seen, heard and share documents. I suppose one or more of those endpoints could be a webcam pointed at a group.

Scott, my friend at VidSoft tells me that it can reside behind a company's firewall if they prefer.

If you want, PM me and I can give you info.
Rita

I've used webex and really like it, but agree it can be a bit pricey. In our company, net meeting is a bit tweaky, but we use it all the time for intracompany presentations. We don't have the ability to work with people outside our corporate network with net meeting. We use Microsoft live meeting or a webex interface that comes with our AT&T 800 conferencing number. Both seem to work OK. I think our deal makes microsoft live meeting less expensive (maybe its even free--i just don't know), but the webex interface is less buggy.

Great for meetings to make you think that travel and frequent flyer miles are really worth the time and $$$$.

Mike

I have used the gotomeeting service about three years now. It was only 9.95$ a month for a while, then went up to 14.95$. now that I look at the site, it shows 45$ a month, still less than webex. but, one license, and multiple logins can view, so it should work.

i'm not sure why I still have 14.95$ service, but I would call them, do a trial, and see what they can offer. Nothing is static in the virtual world.

service works great, I have not had too many problems other than some real work arounds needed to get it working with Vista and IE7

I am biased, but I would suggest the Citrix product line is the best fit of function, reliability and price - with the new Seminar version of GoToMeeting, the product line will cover the entire market space from small meetings to large global events.

I know price is an issue, but you want something reliable when meeting with customers and partners - and your choice of software also sends a subtle message, which is a reason to avoid using cheap or 'freeware' solutions.