EDail Gives Flagship Audio Conferencing Appliance A Boost

AudioPresenter 3.0 plugs into a customer's existing telephone and data networks, giving end users a low-cost, in-house alternative to communications services from carriers and other service providers, said Bill Andrews, senior vice president of marketing and sales at eDial, based here.

The appliance accommodates both traditional and IP telephone calls, he said. As long as end users have a telephone and an Internet browser, they can use the system, which does not require any plug-ins or software downloads prior to the meeting, he said.

For solution providers, AudioPresenter's strongest selling point is its return on investment, Andrews said.

Westron Communications sells AudioPresenter as part of its convergence practice, said Dave Casey, vice president of the Dallas-based voice and data systems integrator.

Westron's first eDial client, a consulting firm, knocked $10,000 off monthly conferencing costs, cutting monthly fees to $7,000 for the same amount of calls, by deploying AudioPresenter 3.0 rather than going through a service provider, Casey said.

Service providers can charge as much as 21 cents per minute per user on a hosted conference call, in addition to the standard long-distance fees, he said.

Also, customers using Web presentation service providers have to upload presentations to the provider's infrastructure, opening themselves to security risks, Casey said. "When you upload to an outside [service provider, you're placing that proprietary information outside your firewall, outside your security domain."

Another alternative, e-mailing presentations to conference-call participants, could also result in security breaches, Andrews said. "Now I've sent you an editable document. I can't control how you view it, and I never know who else is getting it," he said.

In addition to adding Web presentation capabilities to AudioPresenter 3.0, eDial also introduced 30 new features, including roll call. Available now, AudioPresenter 3.0 costs $28,000 for 24 ports, $50,000 for 48 ports and $78,000 for 96 ports. One port is required for each call participant. The vendor is targeting customers with 200 to 10,000 employees, Andrews said. Solution provider partners receive a 35 percent discount, he added.