News

BT Offers Microsoft office live meeting. "BT MeetMe" instant audio conferencing now integrated with web conferencing.

May 2005L

How many times have you been on a conference call and wished everyone could see the document you are talking about? Perhaps not everyone has received the slide pack or they cannot find the slide that you want to discuss.

These frustrations are a thing of the past because BT is working with Microsoft to deliver multimedia remote conferencing - integrating BT's MeetMe, reservation-less audio conference service with Microsoft's hosted Web conferencing service, Microsoft Office Live Meeting. It's available now in the UK and will rollout in the US later this year.

Web conferencing is no more complicated than having a phone conference, where everyone can view and work on the same document at the same time. All that is needed is a phone, a PC and an internet connection.

Live Meeting can connect thousands of colleagues, customers and partners around the world, anywhere, anytime for online meetings, training and events. Individuals, teams and organizations can do more together and work more intelligently, leveraging existing investments and skills, with significant savings in time and money.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting tools mean users can customise the level of interactivity with the participants, including presentation and document sharing features such as whiteboard, text slides, web slides, voting polls, annotation, text chat, Q&A and seating chart. It incorporates the familiar and easy-to-use Microsoft Office look and feel.

New features in the latest version include:

• Application sharing with feedback mechanisms dimming non-shared desktop areas.
• Remote Assistance enabling support to initiate application sharing on the participant's desktop.
• An updated Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer with support for animations, transitions and full-screen slides.
• A Meeting Lobby providing the first simple way to bring entrants into a waiting room until the presenter gives them permission to join.
• "One click" to schedule and one click to join the meeting, without pin codes, passwords or dialling telephone numbers.

Nigel Stagg, CEO BT Conferencing, said: "Voice and data applications, and fixed to mobile convergence rely on a robust network. Our networked IT services expertise means we're well placed to take advantage of opportunities like integrated web and audio conferencing. Alliances with organisations such as Microsoft mean we can deliver richer, more sophisticated solutions to our customers than ever before.

"Microsoft Office Live Meeting is flexible, presenters and audience members can use a variety of ways to communicate and collaborate. So if you want to call an ad hoc meeting with your immediate team, your board of directors, or regional colleagues, you can set it up without anyone needing to leave their office and waste time travelling."

Amit Mital, general manager, Real-Time Collaboration Group, Microsoft Corp, said: "Real-time collaboration tools are vital for today's global economy, helping people work together and communicate more effectively from anywhere at anytime without the need to travel. BT Conferencing understands the needs of today's information workers, improving the speed and quality of key business decisions with its MeetMe audio conferencing service."

Nigel Stagg said: "There is a new commercial landscape being created by the convergence of IT and communications. In fiercely competitive markets, it's essential to connect people to the information they need, when they want it and wherever they are." BT conferencing can make the need to travel to meetings virtually redundant. BT internal research estimated that in the past year, using conferencing eliminated the need for nearly 300,000 face-to-face meetings.

Environmental benefits are also impressive - BT calculates conferencing prevented a staggering 47,400 tonnes of CO2 emissions from being pumped into the atmosphere by vehicles travelling to meetings. Because of these savings and other business benefits, BT has deployed Live Meeting across the company. BT Conferencing has been selling Microsoft Office Live Meeting since July 2004.