Network Orange Saves Time and Money Using WebDemo Collaboration Software with Customers

The Situation:

Network Orange, Inc. has an important service to sell: Technology that is used for the on-going testing and monitoring of 9-1-1 emergency networks that telephone companies rely upon every day. The service provided by Network Orange has been standardized across BellSouth for its network, and it is used to ensure that hundreds of locations across that system are in proper working order around the clock.

Each Network Orange customer has its own unique needs, requiring continual support from the company. However, with its headquarters located in Boca Raton, Florida, maintaining relationships with both existing and prospective customers has often required regular, cross-country travel for company executives and sales staff. This is particularly true of another Network Orange customer, a Seattle telephone carrier, according to company President Mike Vislocky.

As travel expenses and related issues began mounting, finding alternative, cost-efficient methods to maintain relationships with customers became a high priority. Vislocky understood that in order to remain competitive, Network Orange needed to develop practical and efficient methods to save time and money, but at the same time, required solutions that continued to provide the best service and support to customers.

"It has come down to a matter of costs and availability, and all of the negative issues of traveling these days, plus the likelihood of being stuck somewhere," Vislocky says. He adds that it is often difficult to coordinate schedules across the country between groups.

The Solution:

As a result of previous work that Vislocky had performed on a technical committee for 9-1-1 standards, he had the opportunity to try some of the hosted Web collaboration tools available on the market. While he says that the experience was good, and that the service was effective, it was still expensive. Seeing the potential that an online communications and collaboration product could provide, Vislocky kept an eye out for other solutions. He later came across a server-based software product, called WebDemo, and found that it had a nearly immediate ROI due to its low cost while offering the same key features as others on the market. He decided to purchase.

WebDemo, which is part of Converging's Linktivity line of browser-to-browser communications and control software, is an affordable way for small-to-medium sized businesses and organizations to connect and collaborate over the Web. Available as a server-based and integrated system solution, WebDemo allows users to easily share information and ideas in real-time over the Internet. Customers have used WebDemo to meet a wide range of needs, including conferencing and collaboration, sales meetings, e-learning, online technical support and remote control. WebDemo provides users optimal security, stability, and data confidentiality in all configurations.

Vislocky says that Network Orange began using WebDemo about six months ago, and the benefits of the service have been self-evident. Vislocky, or members of his team, can conduct online demonstrations of the Network Orange 9-1-1 testing product and features, and provide on-going support to customers. This has been especially helpful in the case of the company's Seattle-based customer. "In the lower 48 states you can't get too much further apart than we are," Vislocky notes.

And in light of recent events across the country, and with anxieties about air travel running high, the use of online collaboration software like WebDemo has become even more appealing.

The Results:

Beyond simply providing opportunities for online sales meetings and tutorials with customers, Vislocky has been using WebDemo for a variety of other purposes, including internal technical support with other Network Orange employees located in offices outside of Boca Raton.

Vislocky says that he has also been able to customize the WebDemo home page so that when a Network Orange customer logs on to use the service, it will have an interface that is consistent with the look and feel of his own products and services. While that might seem like a small add-on, he says that it is a product feature he had not seen offered from other online collaboration tools he has tried.

What's Next for Vislocky and Network Orange? Even though his company has been using WebDemo for about six months, there are still product features that he has not yet had a chance to try out. Up until now, all of their use of the software has been for desktop-based collaboration purposes. Yet WebDemo also offers voice features that can compliment its online collaboration tools, and potentially create another area of cost savings for a company like Network Orange.

"We may expand into using WebDemo for some of its voice features to cut down on the cost of conference calls with customers," Vislocky says. "We'll have to experiment to see how it works."

About Linktivity
Linktivity, a 20 year-old Tucson, Arizona-based division of Converging Technologies Inc., provides server-based communications and control products that enable person-to-person interactions through a browser window. Linktivity products include WebDemo, a Web-based, real-time conferencing and collaboration software tool, and WebInteractive, a real-time software tool that gives support professionals an efficient way to manage and resolve online support requirements for personal computers. For more information, please visit www.linktivity.com.