Accelerating business with online collaboration

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1 Online Collaboration Real Results Report Accelerating business with online collaboration Four case studies WebEx Communications, Inc Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA USA Main: Sales:

2 Online Collaboration Real Results Report Introduction Online collaboration is accelerating the way organizations do business On any given day, companies experience changes inside and outside their corporate borders that affect the way they go to market, sell products, manage their operations, or comply with new regulatory mandates. In fact, corporate success is often a result of responding to changes quickly, effectively, and comprehensively. Fundamental to any business is the dynamic nature in which it operates. The frenzied rate of market change requires employees to access, collaborate, and act on growing amounts of information in less time. You know that old saying time is money ; in some industries, like healthcare and government, the saying would be time is life. Time-critical business knowledge is valuable and must be shared quickly throughout the workforce. Therefore, the need to distribute important information immediately is critical. Knowledge rapidly gathered, developed, internalized, and applied within a company translates directly to competitive advantage. The possibilities with collaborating online Online collaboration makes it possible for organizations to stretch resources, eliminate logistical barriers, and transform online initiatives into strategic lines of business. Business users can now rapidly inform and update dispersed audiences on the latest product updates and initiatives inside and outside the organization. They can also edit, archive, and store sessions in an online library, giving geographically dispersed audiences instant on-demand access to this valuable information. Online collaboration makes it possible to: Quickly meet with and update employees throughout the organization on process changes, product rollouts, regulatory compliance, and new initiatives without juggling travel schedules. Shorten sales cycles by educating prospects and customers faster. Create more effective channel partners by providing more frequent and cost-effective training while avoiding stale, canned presentations and expensive face-to-face trips. Use online solutions for trainer interaction, side conversations, and small group activities that boost effectiveness. Improve customer service and satisfaction by quickly and remotely diagnosing and solving problems. Integrate surveys, tests, and interaction into online meetings and assess the impact of materials and presentation instantly. Track performance, and offer encouragement and support using a variety of online testing and collaboration components. Generate revenue or help with resource accounting using self-service registration and e-commerce payment features. Offer paid on-demand content in a secure, reliable environment with no additional capital expenditures. Can you imagine turning your cost center into a profit center?

3 Online Collaboration Real Results Report Accelerating business processes with online collaboration When business professionals first started implementing online meeting solutions a few years ago, it was mainly to reduce costs by saving time and money on travel. Then, business users found they could expand their reach and do more with less. The trend has been for leaders to push online solutions to not only save time and travel, but to embed these solutions into actual business processes that impact the way the organization works. These leaders are implementing online collaboration solutions inside groups like product management, sales, marketing, training, customer support, services, legal, and much more (see below). Note: This list was compiled from a recent survey of 341 WebEx customers who were asked how online meetings impact their businesses and bottom line inside their organizations. Get products to market faster. Expand reach and meet with geographical teams more often. Develop more effective and efficient sales teams. Slash sales cycles by educating prospects and customers faster. Improve customer service and satisfaction. Create more effective channel partners. Reduce support costs by training customers. Protect company by staying compliant. Shorten the time for application rollouts. Make it easy for subject matter experts to interact with geographically dispersed audiences. Examples of companies accelerating core business processes ADI Time slashed onsite client visits by 90% and expanded market reach using Cisco WebEx solutions. Curbstone Corporation reached a 99% close rate after adopting WebEx meetings to conduct pre-sale presentations to prospects. Kline and Company, Inc. shortened sales cycles and increased conversion rates by transforming its sales process using WebEx meetings. Objective Management increased its customer base to 5,000 by using WebEx meetings to roll out new products faster, accelerate reseller training, and extend market reach.

4 Cisco WebEx ADI Time Case Study WebEx enables us to access clients environments and troubleshoot issues immediately. We answer client support requests within 30 minutes, while our competitors can take up to a full day to respond. Lori Bello, Client Services Manager, ADI Time ADI Time gains business efficiencies and client loyalty with WebEx. Customer and industry ADI Time, high tech Cisco WebEx services WebEx Meeting Center, Training Center, Support Center Summary ADI Time wanted to find an efficient way to work with prospective and existing global customers on an ongoing basis. ADI Time implemented WebEx solutions throughout its sales, technical support, and training organizations. As a result, the company s client response times are now a fraction of its competitors, fostering greater client loyalty and increasing sales. WebEx also optimized ADI Time s resources by cutting client site visits by 90% and expanding customer reach. With only one trainer on staff, ADI Time strengthened its training offerings while providing elearning convenience to clients. About ADI Time Line of business: Time and attendance solutions Headquarters: East Providence, RI Number of employees: 45 Target market: Mid-size enterprises WebEx customer since 2000 Founded in 1983, ADI Time is a leading developer of time and attendance solutions that help thousands of businesses worldwide successfully manage their workforces. Designed for a wide variety of workforce management needs, ADI Time solutions address the most complex challenges facing labor-intensive industries today. The solutions integrate easily with popular human resource, financial management, and payroll software resulting in tangible savings and improved productivity for clients everywhere. The challenge With clients spread throughout the nation and across the world, ADI Time wanted to find an efficient way to work with prospective and existing customers on an ongoing basis. To perform software implementation and sales calls, our staff had to travel to client sites, and spent several days a week on the road, recalls Lori Bello, Client Services Manager at ADI Time. The company tried to interact remotely with clients by implementing some of the connectivity applications on the market at the time. Bello explains, In the late 1990 s, we tried PC Anywhere and different DOS programs, but the slow performance of these early software packages made it difficult to share our applications with clients. In addition, ADI Time wanted to provide remote technical support to clients and value-added resellers located across the globe, from New Zealand to Kuwait. As web-based meeting applications entered the market, ADI Time began searching for a strong online collaboration and support tool. The solution In 2000, Bello researched web-based meeting solutions on the Internet and found WebEx. WebEx technology was far more advanced than any other solution on the market. We chose WebEx because it was clearly the industry leader, she says. WebEx ease of use and sophisticated reporting functionality were also important factors for ADI Time. We knew that WebEx reports could provide us with metrics to help us streamline our sales and support processes, she says. ADI Time initially implemented WebEx Meeting Center for pre- and post-sales activities. Today, the sales team uses Meeting Center to conduct product demonstrations, which consist of one-on-one meetings with clients. According to Bello, We set up sample databases, making it possible for clients to touch and feel our systems via WebEx. WebEx also enables our sales team to conduct joint sales calls with VARs and their clients when needed. In addition, the company conducts weekly and bi-weekly calls with new clients to guide them through every stage of product implementation. With WebEx, we re in constant communication with our clients, even if we only talk for half an hour to check on their implementation. Our clients can have as many people on the call as needed. They feel well-supported, and we can ensure they use our products successfully, explains Bello.

5 Thanks to WebEx, our technicians now travel to client sites maybe once out of every ten software implementations. This 90% cut in travel translates into a huge productivity gain. And because our sales team conducts almost all demos via WebEx, they now make more sales calls each day, increasing the number of prospects they reach. Lori Bello, Client Services Manager, ADI Time Soon after implementing Meeting Center, ADI Time adopted WebEx Support Center for its technical support organization. The company now uses the WebEx Remote Support module within Support Center to provide extensive technical support to 700 clients, as well as second and third-tier support to twelve value-added resellers worldwide. WebEx enables our technical support staff to see client problems onscreen, greatly facilitating troubleshooting. Now they solve issues instantly, says Bello. Most recently, ADI Time employed WebEx Training Center to facilitate client trainings. Our trainer was using WebEx Meeting Center for trainings for quite some time but then we realized Training Center would better support our growing needs, says Bello. Today, ADI Time offers monthly WebEx trainings that are open to all existing clients. These hour-long sessions highlight key product features and attract up to 70 attendees at a time. The trainer records the sessions and posts them on a password-protected section of the corporate website for clients to access at their convenience. In addition, ADI Time uses WebEx to conduct complete one-on-one trainings with new clients. We typically have a copy of the clients configured databases, and we train them on our software by showing them their own data onscreen during a WebEx session, says Bello. The benefits WebEx ensures ADI Time consistently delivers on its commitment to high-quality client service, resulting in a competitive edge as well as increased sales. WebEx enables us to access clients environments and troubleshoot issues immediately. We answer client support requests within 30 minutes, while our competitors can take up to a full day to respond, says Bello. WebEx reinforces the company s reputation for being highly responsive to client needs, further strengthening customer relationships. By enabling us to deliver excellent customer service, WebEx helps us cultivate client loyalty. Some of our clients have been with us for ten years. They provide repeat business as well as great referrals that help us generate even more sales, she says. WebEx also dramatically reduced the need for travel at ADI Time, optimizing technical support, implementation, sales and training resources, and increasing overall productivity. Thanks to WebEx, our technicians now travel to client sites maybe once out of every ten software implementations. This 90% cut in travel translates into a huge productivity gain. And because our sales team conducts almost all demos via WebEx, they now make more sales calls each day, increasing the number of prospects they reach, states Bello. As a result of using WebEx, ADI Time has improved the efficiency and convenience of its training programs. WebEx enables us to break our trainings into short twohour sessions. We have increased the number and frequency of training sessions with only one trainer on staff, and our clients are pleased that their employees don t have to dedicate an entire day to training. They can learn how to use our products without leaving their desks, she says. The future As ADI Time continues to grow its workforce, it intends to continue expanding WebEx usage. Over the next couple of years, we hope to add more implementers, trainers, tech support staff, and sales people who will all use WebEx, says Bello. She also plans to use WebEx reports more extensively to gain better visibility into client support activities. The reports will help us determine which clients are using our technical support services and the length of each support call, she says. In reviewing ADI Time s experience with WebEx, Bello states that the company is very pleased. Our relationship with WebEx is great. WebEx is always offering new services that we find very useful. We look forward to continuing to leverage all WebEx has to offer to support our growth. Highlights WebEx ensures ADI Time consistently delivers on its commitment to high-quality service, resulting in a competitive edge, greater client loyalty, and increased sales. WebEx optimized ADI Time s technical support, sales, and training resources by cutting client site visits by 90% and increasing customer reach. Using WebEx, ADI Time improved the efficiency of its training programs, expanding its offerings with only one trainer on staff and providing maximum client convenience.

6 Cisco WebEx Curbstone Corporation Case Study WebEx has absolutely helped us eliminate any of the doubt that normally causes prospect fallout between the time of first contact and order completion resulting in an impressive 99% close rate on deals. Toni Pattison, Inside Sales Supervisor, Curbstone Corporation Curbstone credits revenue growth and service excellence to WebEx. Customer and industry Curbstone Corporation, high tech Cisco WebEx services WebEx Meeting Center and Support Center Summary Curbstone needed a way to deliver complex information more effectively to prospective customers. Curbstone now uses WebEx Meeting Center to conduct visual pre-sale presentations, helping the company achieve a 99% close rate. With WebEx Support Center, Curbstone works with customers online to resolve issues quickly, remotely, and securely. Thanks to WebEx, Curbstone people now work smarter and more efficiently, enabling the company to double its revenues in one year with minimal additional staff. About Curbstone Corporation Line of business: Independent software vendor Headquarters: Ball Ground, GA Number of employees: 14 Target market: Companies using IBM AS/400 midrange systems WebEx customer since 2005 Curbstone Corporation develops, sells, and supports credit card processing software for the IBM AS/400 (iseries, System i) midrange platform. The company s specialized platform expertise provides a distinct advantage over competitors, and is the primary reason companies of all sizes deploy Curbstone solutions as part of their mission-critical operations. Curbstone customers include industry leaders such as Conde Nast Publications, MIT Press, New York Life, Rand McNally, Swiss Army Brands, Terminix, and travelocity.com. The challenge Curbstone Corporation s growth strategy focuses on increasing efficiency, not head count. In the early days of the company, Curbstone sales people qualified pro pects, then set up a phone conference to conduct a more formal needs analysis as the next step in the sales process. However, conveying complex transaction processing concepts and complicated industry merchant rules to prospects was highly challenging. Curbstone President, Ira Chandler, took the lead in the phone conference, painting tedious word pictures about the process and the software to describe specific applications. Unfortunately, after the teleconference, prospects retained about 5% of what they heard, he says. Chandler wanted to make a more visual, compelling presentation, reduce the number of follow-up questions from prospects, and accelerate the sales process. I needed to find the right tool to help my small staff grow sales volume, says Chandler. The solution To accomplish its goals, Curbstone decided to move to web conferencing for its sales presentations. Curbstone evaluated GoToMeeting, ilinc, Microsoft NetMeeting, and virtually every other provider before selecting WebEx. Only WebEx offered the brand recognition and reliability Curbstone needed for its specialized market. Our software is mission critical for companies, so it s paramount that customers have the highest confidence in our company as well as the tools we use to collaborate with them. Since WebEx is universally recognized for web collaboration, our customers feel comfortable using it, states Chandler. In addition, Curbstone needed a solution that would work properly and consistently on hundreds of different machine configurations. I have never found any software as reliable at establishing user connections as WebEx. We have complete confidence going into a conference that it ll work correctly every time, says Chandler. Curbstone selected WebEx Meeting Center to streamline its sales process, enabling the company to convey information visually to prospects for the first time. Now, Curbstone s three sales people qualify leads by phone, and then direct prospects to fill out an online needs analysis on their current credit card processes. Next, the Curbstone salesperson schedules a one-hour WebEx conference to conduct an in-depth customer sales presentation and needs analysis. According to Chandler, Credit card processing is an art, not a science. WebEx enables us to customize presentations easily to match each customer's industry type and unique business process.

7 We doubled our revenue in one year while adding only two employees. We attribute our ability to do this to WebEx. Toni Pattison, Inside Sales Supervisor, Curbstone Corporation We dynamically select from over 100 standard slides to present the set of 20 or 30 best-suited to each prospect. He adds, With WebEx, we also impact the broad spectrum of decision-makers all at once from accounting and customer service to IT management and programmers. Once a quote is generated, and the software licensed, WebEx helps Curbstone jump-start new customers with formal implementation kick-off meetings. Curbstone project managers use WebEx Meeting Center to guide customers through a complete implementation plan, identifying the unique milestones for each client s particular installation. WebEx Meeting Center also helps foster staff collaboration since Curbstone employees telecommute from home offices. WebEx helps us develop a sense of community within the company. We use it to encourage interaction among employees as well as to collaborate on projects. Today, Curbstone employees confidently rely on WebEx to help get the job done better and faster. To improve business efficiency even further, Curbstone implemented WebEx Support Center Remote Support for secure, remote support. Because Curbstone software is independently audited ensuring it adheres to the Payment Card Industry s Best Practices Security Standards customers expect the company to employ state-of-the-art, secure tools. In today s securityconscious environment, older methods of gaining access to customer systems have become problematic. With its SSL encryption, WebEx Support Center enables us to access customer systems securely without entering a company s virtual private network (VPN), says Chandler. Now, customers show Curbstone their issues on-screen, and watch the tech support staff resolve them. Using WebEx for support is standard for us, explains Chandler. The old Type this command and What do you see is archaic now. WebEx enables fast, efficient service at the first hint of a problem. The benefits WebEx Meeting Center streamlined the sales process at Curbstone, enabling the company to improve communications and generate phenomenal revenue with a small staff. We doubled our revenue in one year while adding only two employees. We attribute our ability to do this to WebEx, says Chandler. WebEx helps Curbstone convey complex processes visually, instead of drowning prospects with words. WebEx has absolutely helped us eliminate any of the doubt that normally causes prospect fallout between the time of first contact and order completion resulting in an impressive 99% close rate on deals, adds Chandler. Equally compelling for Chandler is the value Curbstone gets from WebEx Support Center. Curbstone now processes support issues much faster, while increasing the level of customer service it provides. It s just another reason WebEx is worth every penny, comments Chandler. We don t sell support or implementation services. When a customer licenses our software, they get unlimited technical support. Because we re not billable, we need to be especially efficient. Curbstone provides 24/7/365 support to an installed base of approximately 200 customers with only three front-line support technicians. While this is a testament to the reliability of our software, it also highlights the extreme efficiency of WebEx-based support. The future Going forward, Curbstone plans to leverage WebEx to further improve company efficiency and service to the client. For instance, the company is considering conducting portions of the kick-off meetings using pre-recorded WebEx presentations. Curbstone is also thinking about using WebEx during the lead qualification process. Using a WebEx presentation will ensure consistency of the information we deliver to every lead, says Chandler. He summarizes the many positive effects of using WebEx at Curbstone. Without a doubt, WebEx enables our company to operate more efficiently, appear more capable to prospects and customers, provide a higher level of customer service and support, and make the sales process more efficient. As Curbstone continues its successful growth, WebEx is there to help it do more with less. I can t imagine growing this company at this rate without WebEx, concludes Chandler. Highlights Curbstone boasts a 99% sales close rate for prospects who attend a WebEx needs analysis presentation. WebEx Support Center enables Curbstone to deliver highly efficient and secure customer service remotely. WebEx Meeting Center streamlined the sales process at Curbstone, enabling it to double its revenues in one year while adding only two employees.

8 Cisco WebEx Kline and Company Case Study When we launched our new database product, we converted 100% of our prospects into sales within 30 days by conducting WebEx demos. Jim Weatherall, Senior Vice President for Kline Research Group Kline & Company transforms global processes with WebEx. Customer and industry Kline & Company, global management consulting and market research Cisco WebEx services WebEx Event Center, Meeting Center, Production Services Summary Kline & Company needed to improve global customer interaction, expedite project turnaround times, and reduce expenses. Using WebEx Meeting Center, Kline increased the quality and frequency of project interaction, engaging customers throughout project lifecycles and improving communication without travel. WebEx Event Center transformed Kline s sales process, slashing sales cycles and increasing conversion rates dramatically while boosting productivity. About Kline & Company Line of business: Global management consulting and market research Headquarters: Little Falls, NJ Number of employees: 110 Target market: Chemical and materials, consumer product, and energy and life science industries WebEx customer since 2003 Established in 1959, Kline & Company, Inc. provides leading management consulting and market research services to the world s largest multinational companies, as well as local and regional start-up firms. Whether supporting growth initiatives or demands for improved business performance, Kline management consulting services offer practical solutions based on robust analysis and close collaboration with client teams across the globe. Kline s market research group provides a variety of comprehensive reports and services covering the industrial, professional, and consumer sectors. The challenge In 2001, Kline & Company began looking for a way to improve global client outreach. The company s consulting assignments normally require frequent meetings with clients during every project stage, but travel was becoming increasingly challenging. Constant travel was financially unfeasible, and adhering to timelines was difficult. We needed a solution that would help us reduce operation costs and expedite project turnaround times for teams that spanned the globe, says John Hadley, Director of IT for Kline & Company. We wanted everyone to have the same meeting experience virtually, as if we were all sitting in one room. The solution Kline heard about WebEx through MCI. We began using WebEx as part of our MCI teleconference package but as our needs grew, we needed a fully integrated web collaboration solution, recalls Hadley. Kline evaluated Raindance, 1,2,3 GO, and Microsoft Live Meeting. Live Meeting had operating system limitations and required specific software to make it work. WebEx, on the other hand, is platform independent and doesn t require software installation on client computers, he says. Working directly with WebEx also provided additional benefits, including integrated telephony, integration with MS Outlook, and a Klinebranded portal site from which users launch WebEx solutions. Initially, Kline used WebEx Meeting Center within its management consulting group to facilitate client and project team interactions. More than 75% of our projects have clients and management teams spread across the world, explains Tom Aldred, Director of Customer Engagements for Kline Management Consulting. Kline manages approximately 40 projects at one time with three to six people working on each. Each project team meets approximately 20 times over the duration of the project, which normally lasts three months on average. That s 800 global meetings, and we conduct all of them using WebEx, says Aldred.

9 With the types of time, geographic, and efficiency challenges our company and our customers are facing, the only logical solution is WebEx. John Hadley, Director of IT, Kline & Company Kline soon expanded WebEx into its market research group, adopting WebEx Event Center for pre- and post-sales activities. Now we host a 30-minute WebEx seminar for every study we produce and reach up to 50 prospects at a time, says Jim Weatherall, Senior Vice President for Kline Research Group. The seminars start the group s sales cycle by generating interested leads. WebEx seminars often lead to one-on-one online meetings or in-person visits by our sales team, he explains. For existing subscribers, Kline s market research group conducts one-hour WebEx sessions to review reports in detail, giving customers the opportunity to interact with Kline project managers. These WebEx events help us maintain lasting relationships with our customers by ensuring they use their reports on an ongoing basis, says Weatherall. In addition, Kline records all Event Center sessions and posts them on the company website, enabling both existing subscribers and new prospects to view them at their convenience. To create professional online events, Kline turned to WebEx Production Services. Initially, we tried to produce an event on our own and found that there were more components than we realized, says Hadley. The WebEx Production Services team worked with Kline through every stage of the event, providing presentation scripting, on-hold music, and a professional moderator. Today, Kline also uses WebEx enterprisewide for internal company communications. Our telecommuting corporate culture and distributed global enterprise make WebEx an essential tool for us, explains Hadley. Kline uses WebEx for all types of interactions, including quarterly and sales meetings. There is not one meeting at Kline that does not have a WebEx component, he remarks. Recently, Kline also added WebEx WebOffice to facilitate file sharing with associates around the world, without having to connect through the corporate VPN. The benefits WebEx transformed Kline s sales process, shortening sales cycles and increasing conversion rates dramatically while boosting productivity. WebEx increased our market reach by enabling us to present our offerings to 12 people at a time, on average. Visiting each person individually would take us months, says Weatherall. Recently, Kline started using Meeting Center to demo its new products. When we launched our new database product, we converted 100% of our prospects into sales within 30 days by conducting WebEx demos, he says. Using WebEx has improved sales efficiency as well. WebEx streamlines our sales process, makes us more productive, and yields faster success, states Weatherall. With WebEx, Kline increased the quality and frequency of customer interaction significantly, engaging customers comfortably throughout their projects. Without incurring additional costs or time commitments, our teams now conduct four interim project meetings with customers instead of one. Frequent WebEx meetings ensure we deliver what the customer expects, he says. With the types of time, geographic, and efficiency challenges our company and our customers are facing, the only logical solution is WebEx, Hadley remarks. The future With WebEx serving as the company s core communications infrastructure, Kline plans to continue leveraging the solution to support global expansion. We recently opened new offices in Shanghai, Delhi, and Prague, and as we continue to grow, we d like to use WebEx for new employee training, says Hadley. Kline is investigating the addition of WebEx Training Center for internal and customer training and WebEx Support Center to provide better technical support to international offices. The company is also exploring the WebEx multipoint video capability to replace its existing videoconferencing system. Hadley concludes, As the complexity of our organization, our customers, and our projects increases, we will rely on WebEx even more. WebEx is a much more effective way of doing business. Highlights WebEx Event Center transformed Kline s sales process, shortening sales cycles and increasing conversion rates dramatically while boosting productivity. Using WebEx Meeting Center, Kline increased the quality and frequency of project interaction significantly, engaging customers and improving team communication. WebEx serves as Kline s core communications infrastructure, used for nearly every internal, project, and sales meeting the company conducts.

10 Cisco WebEx Objective Management Group, Inc. Case Study By expanding our geographic reach, WebEx helped us build our business to 5000 customers around the globe. WebEx solutions are part of our company culture. Dave Kurlan, Founder and CEO, Objective Management Group, Inc. Objective Management grows global customer base with WebEx. Customer and industry Objective Management Group, Inc., sales training consultancy Cisco WebEx services WebEx Meeting Center, Training Center, Event Center Summary With resellers and clients located around the globe, Objective Management Group wanted to roll out new products faster, accelerate reseller training, and reach prospects and customers more easily. The company adopted WebEx Meeting Center, Training Center, and Event Center to support reseller sales and product training, reach out to its market, and deliver keynote speeches remotely to executive groups. As a result, Objective Management Group was able to grow its customer base rapidly, while saving time and boosting employee productivity. About Objective Management Group, Inc. Line of business: Sales force evaluations, sales candidate screening Headquarters: Westborough, MA Number of employees: 10 Target market: TBD WebEx customer since 2000 Founded in 1990, Objective Management Group, Inc. is the pioneer and industry leader in sales force evaluations and sales candidate screening. The company s sales candidate evaluations, Express Screens, have proven to be an accurate predictor of sales success in a variety of industries. Founder and CEO Dave Kurlan is the author of Baseline Selling and gives frequent keynote speeches on sales and sales management to audiences worldwide. The challenge In 2000, Objective Management Group realized it needed to improve training delivery and strengthen reseller sales. We have an unusual, but successful go-to-market model, says Dave Kurlan, Founder and CEO. We interact directly with end-users but rely on authorized resellers to perform evaluations and screenings and present the results to customers. For this model to be effective, we must deliver excellent sales and product training to our resellers. With 120 resellers in countries as widespread as South Africa, Hungary, and Lebanon, Objective Management had to travel constantly. On average, we conducted in-person trainings in five cities over a three-week period every month, recalls Kurlan. Objective Management needed a way to save time and increase productivity. The solution Throughout its history, Objective Management has taken a proactive approach to business technology acquisition. Explains Kurlan, We re always looking for the next leading-edge technology to help us grow our business. As Kurlan recounts it, one of his associates had evaluated WebEx Meeting Center and was impressed by its capabilities. Our first foray into WebEx was almost accidental, though, he says. We were on our way to conduct a regional training session in Los Angeles and experienced flight delays that kept us at the airport in Pennsylvania. We called WebEx and, within minutes, had our meeting room set up and everyone connected. WebEx even provided someone to sit in on the session in case we needed help. After this initial success, Objective Management rapidly expanded its use of WebEx. According to Kurlan, We knew that WebEx Meeting Center would enable us to expand our training program. We started with monthly regional trainings, then moved to bi-weekly and finally, weekly sessions. Today, the company also uses Meeting Center to host promotional web conferences for potential clients. In addition, Objective Management frequently joins resellers in WebEx presentations to clients, helping resellers clarify or expand on sales force evaluation findings when necessary. WebEx makes it easy for us to reinforce the service resellers provide our customers, says Kurlan.

11 WebEx made it possible for us to eliminate in-person trainings and use the time saved on travel to generate more revenue. Dave Kurlan, Founder and CEO, Objective Management Group, Inc. When WebEx introduced WebEx Training Center and Event Center to the market, Objective Management recognized it could leverage these solutions to meet specific needs more effectively. Every fall, I participate in a speaking tour hosted by our resellers. Now, I conduct an increasing number of my keynote speeches through WebEx Event Center, reaching 100 to 200 CEOs at once. WebEx enables me to continue participating in these unparalleled sales opportunities while lightening my travel schedule, says Kurlan. WebEx Training Center has had an equally positive effect. Training Center is especially designed for online training delivery, and our resellers have noticed. They feel as if they are in the classroom with us, says Kurlan. The robust capabilities within WebEx make it easy for Objective Management to schedule and host online meetings, while creating an engaging audience experience. The user interface is so simple, notes Kurlan, that it tends to overcome resistance from users who are not so technologically savvy. In addition, Objective Management uses a number of WebEx interactive features, such as polling, chat, and white boarding. I usually poll participants two or three times during the course of a session to keep them engaged, remarks Kurlan. Participants ask their questions via chat. During the second half of the session, I use the white board to illustrate the answers more effectively, he says. The benefits WebEx enabled Objective Management to improve productivity significantly, maximizing sales opportunities and growing the company s customer base. According to Kurlan, When you consider that a typical business trip consumes two to three days and yields an hour or so in front of the customer, the time we save with WebEx is huge. WebEx made it possible for us to eliminate in-person trainings and use the time saved on travel to generate more revenue. The company also credits WebEx with helping it increase market exposure. We re interacting with people we might otherwise not reach. By expanding our geographic reach, WebEx helped us build our business to 5,000 customers around the globe. WebEx solutions are part of our company culture, he says. WebEx strengthened Objective Management s business development activities by providing closer, more frequent interaction with customers, prospects, and resellers. Trying to find a common hour when everyone is available to gather in person can delay meetings indefinitely. WebEx meetings make it easy to find a mutually convenient time for all parties involved, facilitating the sales process, notes Kurlan. Objective Management uses WebEx approximately 40 to 50 times per month to stay in front of the customer. Thanks to WebEx, we now experience much greater continuity in business relationships with clients and resellers. WebEx provides the flexibility to conduct small customer meetings or large events attracting hundreds of attendees, depending on our objectives, he says. WebEx also enabled Objective Management to transform operations through enhanced training capabilities that accelerate time-to-market. With WebEx, we introduce new products and features to our resellers more rapidly, which enables them to deliver our services to the market faster, says Kurlan. With a training program that is easier to fulfill and manage, the company keeps in constant contact with its resellers. In the past, we waited until our monthly regional meetings to communicate with resellers. Now we provide training whenever we need to, ensuring resellers have the right knowledge to sell and deliver our products, says Kurlan. The future Kurlan plans to continue expanding the company s use of WebEx capabilities. Because WebEx registration functionality automatically collects important data on attendees, we would like to begin using it for our promotional web events and eventually use it for our other sessions, he remarks. The company is also discussing implementing live video streaming for Kurlan s keynote speaking events. My WebEx rep keeps me abreast of new features as well as those we just haven t discovered yet. I hear from other vendors on occasion, but we ve stayed with WebEx because it continues to introduce forward-thinking solutions and features, says Kurlan. Highlights WebEx enabled Objective Management to improve productivity significantly, eliminating in-person trainings and growing the company s global customer base to WebEx strengthened Objective Management s business development activities by providing closer, more frequent interaction with customers, prospects, and resellers. WebEx enabled Objective Management to transform operations through enhanced training capabilities that accelerate time-to-market.

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