netactr

Last week Bill Gates launched a new generation of Microsoft’s unified communications software and services. As a former product manager for Live Meeting I am proud to join the crowds in celebrating this major release (the little torchlight in front of Gates is called RoundTable  – it’s a novel 360-degree video camera used together with Live Meeting).

One of the less publicized facts about the new 2007 release of Live Meeting is the amazing value to online marketers and salespeople offered by the new Professional Edition. Consider this: maximum meeting size of 1,250 attendees, VoIP and live video, a registration web site, free storage for recordings for a full year, and free phone support for your attendees. The best feature is the price - $185 / year with no setup fees and only a 5-license minimum. Compare this to offerings like Citrix GoToWebinar where you’d pay $600-800 per license after all discounts and get significantly less features (no Voip, no online storage, no PowerPoint-mode).

All marketers should seriously consider conducting their webinars, lead generation seminars, and sales product demos using web conferencing tools and the new Professional Edition fits the bill.