Emerging Vendors

February 09, 2010

Company: Dimdim

Headquarters: Lowell, Mass.

Technology Sector: Networking

Key Products: Dimdim Free, Dimdim Pro, Dimdim Enterprise

Year Founded: 2006

Number of Channel Partners: 50 to 100 channel partners.

Ideal Channel Partner: Midmarket-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: Dimdim offers great incentives for recommending its Web-conferencing product. It allows solution providers to brand the product as their own, while Dimdim provides support and service.

The Lowdown: Web conferencing is convenient, saves time and trouble and is great for the environment. But it can be costly and inflexible -- and those were the two areas the founders of Dimdim determined they could improve upon. Low cost and flexibility, in fact, are the differentiators of the Dimdim product.

"We wanted to build something for free that you could use for Web conferencing. You could see and hear me, and see my desktop. We wanted it to be the same experience as if you were here with me," said Steve Chazin, chief marketing officer. "WebEx, which is owned by Cisco, and Goto Meeting, which is owned by Citrix, are both very expensive and inflexible. And they put some of the burden on users, who must install their software on their computers."

Dimdim

With Dimdim, no software needs to be installed. All the user needs is a browser and Flash, and people can share pictures, PDFs, desktop screens and video. One click, and participants are in a meeting. And the basic version, which supports up to 20 users, is available at no charge. "It's the classic 'freemium model,'" explained Chazin. "We sell other versions to enterprises or partners who want to brand it as their own." Some channel partners, for example, resell meeting rooms to their customers. They can resell the rooms as their own, while Dimdim supports and hosts the conference.

Dimdim also allows screen sharing. Participants can see what the host has on his desktop and can share a particular application or document or the entire screen; a white board application lets participants simultaneously collaborate on a project.

Dimdim Pro costs $228 per year for a 50-person meeting room. Dimdim Pro lets solution providers customize meeting rooms with their own branding and logos -- or offer that feature to their end customers. In addition, Dimdim Open Source Community Edition v4.5 "Liberty" is meant for developers, highly technical enthusiasts and for use in noncritical environments. It has the most of the features of Dimdim Enterprise and is based on open source streaming and media components.