Reselling Web Conferencing Services: How To Profit From The Coming Boom In Web & Video Conferencing
Web conferencing services are going to absolutely explode in the coming years.
The use of web and video conferencing tools is exploding, with some studies predicting a growth rate of 6.4% per year by 2019.
Cloud hosted services are more cost effective than traditional on-premise solutions, making it possible for small and medium sized businesses to enjoy the benefits of interactive online meetings and collaboration tools at a very low price.
Today, many of the major players in the industry are offering web conferencing services with advanced features at a surprisingly affordable price point.
What's even more surprising is that some of the biggest players in tech today have been providing hosted video conferencing services for years.
Google Hangouts is one example, but Skype and other popular consumer applications will also fall into this category.
With relatively low barriers to entry and such a massive growth potential, it is only natural that a thriving reseller channel for web conferencing will emerge in the coming years.
The challenge for resellers specializing in this space is how to find high quality products from leading vendors at affordable prices to resell to clients.
Luckily, there are quite a few ways to do this.
This article will discuss the various ways that resellers can find high quality hosted and on-premise web conferencing services to offer to their clients.
It will also give an overview of the most important factors in selecting a good web conferencing service, and it will offer some tips for marketing and selling these products.
Why Web & Video Conferencing Is Growing Rapidly
Web conferencing is growing rapidly due to the fact that it is extremely cost effective compared to traditional methods of group collaboration. This is because all web conferencing solutions run in the cloud, so businesses don't need expensive equipment or top notch bandwidth.
Reduced network requirements and the ability to scale easily also mean that these services can benefit even the smallest businesses.
A quick glance at Google Trends shows that web conferencing is a fast growing trend:
The key factors driving this trend are:
- The cost of attendance for business meetings has been steadily rising, and some studies predict that it will reach $22 by 2020.
- With the increasing cost of travel, business travelers have been turning to cheaper options such as web conferencing.
- With mobile devices becoming more widely adopted, web conferencing allows participants to meet online from anywhere in the world, as long as they have an Internet connection and a suitable application installed on their device.
- An increase in the use of video conferencing tools is also driving this trend. A recent report suggested that video conferencing will become the primary means of group collaboration by 2019.
- With the advent of cloud hosted services, web conferencing has become more accessible and affordable to small and medium sized businesses, which makes them a good choice for larger organizations as well.
The benefits of web conferencing are clear to see, but it's not all excitement and good news.
It's clear that marketing these products properly is going to require some thought and effort on the part of resellers.
Let's take a look at ways that resellers can find high quality products from leading vendors to offer clients.
Option 1: Use a Service Provider
Service providers like Telia and Vocus are offering their own web conferencing solutions.
These services are ideal for resellers, because they have been established and profitable for years. Their systems are also very well designed, at least in theory.
In practice, therefore, resellers are likely to have rather limited choice of products if they choose to go the service provider route.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. It is likely that the service provider has selected products that meet certain criteria in order to be successful in the market place.
What this means is that resellers can use the popularity of the service provider as a guide for what products to focus on when marketing web conferencing solutions.
That's not all! Service providers are also likely to have good quality control, since they've been a part of the market for so long.
The general rule of thumb is that if a company has been around for several years, they will have more experience and knowledge about how to design and build their services.
There is also something else to consider when selecting products from service providers - their commission model. Some service providers offer free trials so that you can test drive their services before you buy.
Some service providers, however, will take a commission on all sales. If a reseller sells services, they generally recommend that you use a service provider and take their commission.
This has the added benefit of simplifying your sales process because it means that you don't need to set up billing relationships and you can simply promote the products as an official reseller.
Option 2: Resell Hosted Web Conferencing Services
Resellers can also look for hosted web conferencing solutions to offer to clients.
This approach is ideal for resellers who want more choice and flexibility in terms of products and pricing than what is likely to be available from service providers.
There are several sources for finding high quality hosted web conferencing services.
One of the best places to start is Rightscale . It is a marketplace for cloud hosting solutions. It includes solutions from many different service providers, so it's a great resource for resellers looking for hosted services.
Another good idea is to look at any web conferencing solutions that your clients are using today.
If you know what they're using, you can venture a guess as to whether they're using on-premise or cloud hosted services.
In addition, you can also try finding these applications via Google, though this approach might take longer and require more digging than the other two options.
Another great place to start is Sovos .
This company specializes in offering managed services for hosted web conferencing applications. They've been around since 2002, so they have a wide selection of clients, including some very big names.
There is one other source for finding high quality hosted and on-premise web conferencing applications - Google.
Type in your search terms and see what comes up. You can even go a step further and use the following advanced query techniques:
- A combined search using the site: parameter with the keyword "web conferencing". This will find all web conferencing products from companies that are selling their service on the web.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the web conferencing market is a very interesting category.
There is clearly a lot more opportunity than there was several years ago, especially when you consider that web conferencing tools used to be almost exclusively offered by big players like Cisco.
- Big players are now focusing on other areas of communication and collaboration, which means that resellers can find good opportunities in the small business space.
- The market is also growing at a very fast rate, which is creating a huge groundswell of demand. This is creating opportunities for resellers who are willing to invest some time and effort into finding the best solutions for their clients.