e-skills UK Guide

Online demonstrations

Demonstrating products online

This guide is designed to assist you understand the benefits of demonstrating business applications on line to existing and potential customers, suppliers and team members and take the steps to implement a solution.

This type of solution enables you to provide online demonstrations, web seminars (sometimes called webinars), online selling, online training and remote support. With these solutions users will sit at a computer and take part in the session as if they are sitting around a table in the same room. The discussion is normally conducted on a telephone conference line or can be held using VOIP technology dependent upon the circumstances of the attendees.

Webinars are interactive sessions with attendees discussing and questioning a presenter but web casts are normally pre-recorded sessions that don’t involve two way discussions. Some companies may record a conventional seminar and then make it down loadable from their web site as a web cast for later viewing.

The benefits of online demonstrations

From a team collaboration perspective these technologies enable you to implement better levels of communication with your remote team members. In a small business it is vital that everyone is given a chance to contribute their ideas and by conducting an online session you have the ideal forum.

If you provide technical support for users this solution may be a useful way of improving the support experience of customers. Some software enables you to take charge of the users desktop PC and demonstrate the solution to them directly. 

For potential customers and suppliers it is possible to demonstrate your software online to them where ever they may be – especially if they are abroad. It is now perfectly acceptable to use this type of solution in business and most people understand the significant benefits it can bring.

The most obvious benefits are cost savings in terms of travel and also time involved in simply getting to a customer site. Obviously not all sales presentations can happen online but many can – you will need to make an assessment for each opportunity.

In addition to saving time and money it is also worth factoring the stresses of frequent travel and the environmental benefits of not constantly driving up and down the motorway or using airline travel.

Choosing the right online demonstration solution

There are a number of solutions available that provide online demonstrations and discussions.

WebEx has a solution designed for small businesses that bypasses the need for complicated setup and configuration of online services – a really important factor in deciding which solution to adopt.

Microsoft has a solution called Live Meeting which provides a similar type of solution to WebEx.

IBM Lotus SameTime is another solution that provides a similar approach to online demonstrations and meetings.

Implementing online demonstration solutions

The implementation of online demonstration and meeting software is fairly straightforward. As long as you and your team members have access to PCs that are linked onto the internet then you should be able to communicate. Each vendor will have a slightly different approach, but ultimately you will be visiting a web site to download some software to each client PC. You are unlikely to need the help and support of an IT consultant to implement this solution.

Customers or suppliers that are taking part in an online meeting or demonstration do not need to have any special software loaded onto their PC. They will be invited to visit the conferencing supplier’s web site (i.e. WebEx) and then asked to enter a password for the session. It is normal practice for the person that is organising the session to send out emails to attendees with login details to make the process run smoothly.

It is worth noting that if you are dealing with a large corporate organisation users inside that company may be prevented from accessing certain websites or using technologies such as online meetings to prevent their internal network being overloaded. If there is any doubt check with the user before hand to save any last minute frantic phone calls before your presentation.

It will normally only take a few minutes to setup accounts with the online demonstration software vendors. The cost of an online demonstration solution is typically around £40 per host per month for a minimum of 5 hosts and an annual contract. Some vendors also provide a “pay-as-you-go” solution which costs around £0.19 per minute for each meeting.

Security concerns and online demonstration solutions

The security concerns and risks of conducting online sessions such as these are fairly minimal. For most businesses the type of work being discussed can be secured using the tools that come with the supplier’s software.

Commercial suppliers

We do not recommend specific products or suppliers; instead we provide you with a representative sample which covers the range of suppliers/products available. You may choose to look at these suppliers or products but this is entirely at your discretion.