While instant messaging is rampant in business, it is not yet a rampant business tool. That’s one lesson learned by start-up Convoq, which last week released Version 2.0 of ASAP, what it now calls a Web conferencing tool.
While instant messaging is rampant in business, it is not yet a rampant business tool. That’s one lesson learned by start-up Convoq, which last week released Version 2.0 of ASAP, what it now calls a Web conferencing tool.
We first looked at ASAP when it was introduced in January. At the time, Convoq called the hosted application an instant meeting tool because it adds video and Web conferencing to IM.
ASAP enables customers to use IM to invite people to meet right away or “as soon as present” (hence the ASAP name), and then lets them choose their method of communication, be it simple chat or an audio or video conference.
All connections go through Convoq’s data center, and Flash is used to build the user interface in real time on participants’ machines. (Obviously if invitees don’t have cameras any video will be only one-way.) Participants can be running different flavors of IM.
But IM isn’t today where company founder Charles Digate thought it would be. While IM penetration in business is high, corporate acceptance of it as a business tool is relatively low, he says. “We’re ahead of the market.”
So the goal with Version 2.0 of ASAP is to sidestep IM; 2.0 leverages presence but is not IM-based. The most important advance is the ability to publish ASAP links in e-mail or on blogs or Web sites.
On a Web site, for example, a company can offer a button saying “click here to talk to a representative.” Hitting the button opens a small form calling for the user to fill in his name, the subject and his e-mail address (this form isn’t customizable, which seems like an oversight). After submitting the form, a corresponding box pops up on the screen of a company representative, indicating a customer wants to communicate.
The representative then can start a chat session and, as necessary, evoke other tools, such as audio and video conferencing and PowerPoint presentations.
The “click to connect” buttons are created using a short form and the output can then simply be copied to Web pages, e-mail signatures.
Digate says a $250-per-year user license lets an individual hold unlimited meetings with up to 15 people. Conference room licenses range from $2,500 to $10,000 per year for meetings with 50 to 200 people.
This approach makes more sense than waiting for businesses to embrace IM.
