Communication keeps getting faster. Once there was mail that could take days, then came overnight mail, followed by faxes, then along came e-mail and finally instant messaging.
What’s next? Could it be Web conferencing?
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It’s already here, but it’s going to get much bigger in the coming year, said Timothy Reedy, president of Conference Plus Inc. in Schaumburg.
Reedy, a conferencing veteran who worked in wireless phones before that, said that voice conferencing combined with Web connections that enable people to work together on the same document is on the verge of taking off.
“You can do it from anywhere at any time,” Reedy said. “It’s totally under your control.”
A decade ago, about four of five teleconferences were controlled by an operator, Reedy said. But these days, the ratio is about one in five. People prefer services they control themselves and can tap into anytime, keeping the same access and identification numbers, he said.
CPI, a subsidiary of Aurora-based Westell Technologies Inc., offers a full range of services, including operator-moderated conferences and video conferencing. But Reedy said current trends suggest that Web-augmented audio conferencing will be the next big thing in the staggering telecom industry.
“It’s one telecom segment that’s expanding while other parts of the business are contracting,” he said.
Van Cullens, who heads Westell, said that while CPI is profitable on revenue of more than $40 million a year, most conferencing firms are losing money, despite an expanding market, because of rapidly falling prices. He expects the coming year will bring a shakeout featuring lots of consolidation.
“Everybody has been talking to everybody else,” he said. “We’re just waiting to see the first deal get announced, and then the rush will be on.”
While revenues have been falling, conferencing volume is expanding, Cullens said, as more companies find conferencing is cheaper and more efficient than travel.
“I doubt if many companies will go back to paying big bucks to buy plane tickets at the last minute as they did before the current economic slowdown,” he said. “They’ve learned it just isn’t necessary.”
Bill the lawyers: How many lawyers does it take to buy their own software?
Quite a few, according to John Fish, chief executive of HubbardOne, the Chicago software firm that specializes in creating Web sites and writing software for law firms.
“Our technology helps large firms function,” he said. “It’s not really so helpful for firms with just a few partners. But when you have 500 partners scattered over many cities and you need to tap into their expertise, that’s when software can be really useful.”
When Fish and his colleagues started the firm in 1997, they intended it to be a general computer consultancy. But they happened to get a law firm as a client, and then another, and they discovered this was a rich area where little useful software existed.
“Solutions designed for corporate users don’t work well for law firms,” said Fish. “Lawyers do things corporate people might find hopelessly inefficient, but lawyers put a higher premium on accuracy than on efficiency.”
Also, lawyers tend to bill by the hour. So telling a lawyer that new technology can help them finish tasks sooner isn’t always welcome because that can translate into falling revenue.
Fish and his colleagues have started by targeting tasks that aren’t billable, such as preparing presentations for potential clients. When computers can prepare reports in minutes rather than a week, even lawyers are impressed, Fish said.
“We’ve made a lot of inroads,” he said. “But really, we’ve just scratched the surface of what’s there to be done.”