Wainhouse Research

2010 Documents

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  Optimizing Sales Team Performance Using Unified Communications and Collaboration

  How integrating collaboration technology with sales processes can significantly enhance sales force productivity & effectiveness

  This white paper, sponsored by Cisco’s Collaboration for Sales initiative, describes a highly successful sales transformation program based on collaborative technologies and sales process transformation that has allowed Cisco sales teams to increase customer interactions by 40 percent, improve customer satisfaction ratings, and reduce travel expenses by 50 percent.  Three distinct opportunities quickly emerge for sales process optimization: reducing travel while increasing the frequency and quality of customer interactions, accelerating performance through finding the right people anytime and anywhere within the organization, and connecting account managers and sales specialists instantly with relevant sales content. By combining sales transformation best practices with collaboration technologies, this white paper shows how other sales organizations can replicate similar results within their own companies.

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  Critical Success Factors for Deploying Distance Education Technologies

  Implications for Practitioner Organizations, Vendors, and Service Providers

  Understanding that often the applications (and benefits) of distance education technologies evolve over time helps organizations properly strategize for success. Two factors are cited most as the major obstacles to successful distance education: 1) lack of bandwidth and technology infrastructure or old equipment; and 2) staffing.  Other obstacles, such as lack of educator interest, funding challenges, and lack of policy and champions, are also important barriers that can, fortunately, be overcome.  The white paper includes practical suggestions for vendors and service providers wishing to support their end user educational customers, as well as tips for end user organizations themselves.
  
  Based on interviews with educators and administrators in almost all states and the District of Columbia, this white paper will be useful to policymakers, content providers, and educators wishing to understand the dynamics of successfully deploying virtually any distance education technology in the classroom. This study was sponsored by TANDBERG and the research was conducted by the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC).
  

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  Benchmarking Videoconferencing Success

  Recommendations and guidelines for organizations to measure and track their videoconferencing success

  Exactly what defines a successful videoconferencing session? If a company claims to have a videoconferencing success rate of 95%, exactly what does that mean? These are questions that have plagued the videoconferencing industry for more than 20 years. Unfortunately, there is no pre-defined or generally-accepted methodology for measuring videoconferencing success. As a result, it is difficult for enterprise videoconferencing managers to measure their own performance, and compare their company’s performance to that of other organizations. In hopes of clarifying the issues surrounding the measurement of VC success, WR conducted interviews with 20 enterprise videoconferencing managers responsible for global videoconferencing deployments.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Polycom and York Telecom, highlights the information learned from these interviews, and provides a set of recommendations and guidelines for organizations to measure and track their videoconferencing success. In other words, this paper defines the first ever benchmark for VC success.

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  Collaboration within the Telepresence Experience

  How advanced collaboration tools provide additional value to the telepresence experience.

  As immersive telepresence advances into the mainstream, more and more users are  paying closer attention to the collaborative tools that solutions providers can support and to the ways that collaboration can be used to augment the in-room illusion provided by the audio-video system. Electronic collaboration tools have been around for nearly two decades, but as system and network technology have advanced, the levels of “connectiveness” have improved dramatically and the range of applications has exploded. Immersive meeting tools are taking the next step by enhancing the in-room illusion created by audio-video systems with immersive collaboration solutions.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by Teliris, explores and illustrates how advanced collaboration tools provide additional value to the telepresence experience.

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  Accelerating Your Workflow with Unified Conferencing

  Seamless Unified Conferencing surpasses Web Conferencing for generating savings and productivity breakthroughs

  Unified conferencing is much more than an audio bridge and/or a web conferencing service; it is a purpose-built aggregation of the capabilities available in a modern unified communications environment. This white paper discusses unified conferencing from the Office Communications Server Release 2 perspective and gives examples of how businesses are using unified conferencing to generate savings and productivity breakthroughs.
  

• Evaluation of the Revolabs HD Wireless Microphone Systems

  
  In Q4 2009, Wainhouse Research (WR) conducted an evaluation of the Revolabs HD and Executive HD Wireless Microphone Systems.  For several weeks, WR used these Revolabs Wireless Microphone Systems during video calls on a variety of current generation videoconferencing systems. WR was extremely pleased with the performance, usability, and overall experience provided by the Revolabs HD Wireless Microphone Systems. We especially appreciated the wide-band audio support; a new Revolabs capability that allows these systems to support the wireless microphone requirements of even the most discerning users in the most demanding environments.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by Revolabs, provides detailed information about the Revolabs HD Wireless Microphone Systems and the results of WR's evaluation.
  
  

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  What Every IT Manager Needs to Know About Desktop Videoconferencing

  
  After years of being relegated to high priced, custom appointed meeting rooms, videoconferencing is finally moving into the mainstream. Key drivers for this growth include dramatic improvements in video quality, manageability, scalability, and affordability.
  
  Desktop videoconferencing, in particular, has enjoyed strong unit sales growth in recent years. The reasons for this increased demand and deployment scale vary widely and include: a) Cost Effectiveness - desktop video solutions often cost only a few hundred dollars or less per user, b) Strong Reach - anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can use desktop video, c) Immediacy – desktop video solutions support ad-hoc, impromptu communications, and d) Convenience – unlike group video systems which require the users to go to the meeting space, desktop video brings the meeting to the user.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by Avistar, examines the importance and benefits of a properly deployed desktop videoconferencing solution as well as the risks associated with selecting the wrong solution or a poorly planned implementation.
  

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  What Every Business / Line Manager Needs to Know About Desktop Videoconferencing

  
  After years of being relegated to high priced, custom appointed meeting rooms, videoconferencing is finally moving into the mainstream. Key drivers for this growth include dramatic improvements in video quality, manageability, scalability, and affordability.
  
  Desktop videoconferencing, in particular, has enjoyed strong unit sales growth in recent years. The reasons for this increased demand and deployment scale vary widely and include a) Cost Effectiveness - desktop video solutions often cost only a few hundred dollars or less per user; b) Strong Reach - anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can use desktop video; c) Immediacy - desktop video solutions support ad-hoc, impromptu communications; and d) Convenience - unlike group video systems which require the users to go to the meeting space, desktop video brings the meeting to the user.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by Avistar, explores and demonstrates why business / line managers looking to enhance the productivity, efficiency, and profitability of their organizations should view desktop videoconferencing as a compelling alternative to traditional audio calls and expensive business travel.
  

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  Evaluation of the IPeak IPQ (Internet Performance & Quality) Technology

  
  In Q4 2009, Wainhouse Research (WR) conducted an evaluation of the IPeak IPQ Technology. WR installed the IPeak devices, alongside a number of video endpoints and infrastructure devices then conducted test calls while inserting increasing levels of packet loss. Throughout the testing, WR was impressed by the performance of the IPQ technology. The solution consistently (and automatically) reduced the packet loss received by each video system, in some cases by over 90%. Based on these findings, WR believes this technology to be well suited for organizations conducting (or looking to conduct) IP videoconferencing sessions over lossy networks – especially those organizations with multi-vendor deployments.
  
  This paper, sponsored by IPeak Networks, provides detailed information about the IPQ Technology and the results of this evaluation.
  

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  The New Imperative for Lecture Capture Solutions in Higher Education

  
  Lecture capture is fast becoming a "must-have" technology in higher education, as shown in WR's latest white paper, The New Imperative for Lecture Capture Solutions in Higher Education. This free white paper is based on a survey that shows that four out of five higher education respondents believe lecture capture is a competitive differentiator, and is highly accepted by digital natives (learners) and faculty alike. Topics covered in the survey of more than 160 higher education practitioners and technology buyers and analyzed in the white paper include attitudes towards lecture capture, the business and pedagogical benefits provided by lecture capture, and how affordability and today’s educational imperatives are driving adoption.
  
  This white paper, sponsored by TechSmith, explores and demonstrates how today's lecture capture solutions are true game changers.