SHINAWATRA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IT522) SEMESTER II/2012

WebEx Group Decision Support System Assignment

Team members
Akarajit Tanjana, ID: 55312005-6 Ta Hoang Thang, ID: 55312003-1

March 3, 2013

1. Introduction
Nowadays, the enterprises achieve more enormous development scales in applying the modern technologies. Human can be able to do more jobs with less time. To improve the working performance effectively, many meetings or conferences which are called teleconferences are organized by internal staff or partners throughout the Internet environment. Teleconferences can link from several persons to other ones on telecommunications system to execute the live exchange and mass communications. Therefore, human can save time and travel expenses for interacting directly while still maintain the quality of meetings and work efficiency. In this report, our research object is WebEx. WebEx Communications Inc. is a sub company of Cisco Corporation that provides on-demand collaboration, online meeting, web conferencing and videoconferencing applications services. The telecommunications system may also advocate the teleconferences by supplying one or more of the following: audio, video, data services such as telephone, computer, telegraph, teletypewriter, radio, and television. To establish a teleconference, the organizers need these crucial components such as: Host and attendees Electronic devices have Internet connections, sound recorder and webcam Teleconferencing software Service providers

Firstly, the organizers (host) set an appointment on their server or third parties and send the invitations to the attendees by email or other means. The attendees must confirm about their presence before the meeting with certain duration. On right time of meeting day, the attendees will use the software or entrance web-based gateway (such as Cisco WebEx) to connect to the meeting. At last, the organizers will hold the meetings by using some functions which simulate the real meeting to communicate with other attendees. Figure 1 shows the teleconference communication process of WebEx below.

Figure 1: WebEx communication model

2. Using WebEx as collaborative tool

Cisco provides collaborative tools called WebEx to offer synchronous system that facilitate people to work from different place at the same time. http://www.webex.com/

2.1 Price plan and features

There are four options depending on difference tools and number of participant that subscribers prefer. (Price at March 3, 2013),

Basic
Free

Premium 8

Good for small teams 3 people per meeting 1 host license Standard-quality video Audio: VoIP (Internet)

$24 per host, per month $19/month annual plan Priced affordably 8 people per meeting 1 host license High-definition video Audio: VoIP (Internet) Phone call-in Call Me/Toll-free call-in (optional) Share: Desktop Whiteboard Documents Applications Remote Control Support: User Guides, Help Articles, and FAQs Live 24/7 Support Storage: 1 GB

Premium 25

$49 per host, per month $39/month annual plan Most popular package 25 people per meeting Up to 9 host licenses High-definition video Audio: VoIP (Internet) Phone call-in Call Me/Toll-free call-in (optional) Share: Desktop Whiteboard Documents Applications Remote Control Support: User Guides, Help Articles, and FAQs Live 24/7 Support Storage: 1 GB

Premium 100

Share: Desktop Whiteboard Documents Support: User Guides, Help Articles, and FAQs Storage: 250 MB

$89 per host, per month $69/month annual plan Good for large meetings 100 people per meeting Up to 9 host licenses High-definition video Audio: VoIP (Internet) Phone call-in Call Me/Toll-free call-in (optional) Share: Desktop Whiteboard Documents Applications Remote Control Support: User Guides, Help Articles, and FAQs Live 24/7 Support Storage: 1 GB

Each of four plans shared same collaborative feature. Collaboration Mobility: Meet on your Smartphone or tablet Meeting Spaces: A centralized place for files, meeting notes, and comments 3

Meeting Recordings: Share with colleagues and view any time Instant Messaging: See who's online and chat Drawing Tools: Mark up or draw on shared documents and applications

Compatibility Windows, Mac, Linux Security Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption Enterprise grade reliability, scalability, and security Outlook Integration Schedule and start meetings right from Microsoft Outlook

2.2 Register WebEx: New subscriber able to register for Free Plan of WebEx following this URL:
http://signup.webex.com/webexmeetings/US/meetings-plans-basic.html and fill-in First Name, Last Name, Email Access , Company and Country ( may leave it default) as present on Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Fill-in basic information

After filled-in information subscriber needs to choose password, verify CAPTCHA text then click check box to accept Terms of Service and Privacy Policy before continue to sign-up as illustrate on Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Verify account

Next, WebEx will send an Email to activate account as figure 2.3. And, after new subscriber click Activate button, the link will appear password verify screen as figure 2.4. Lastly, adjust some information such as Time Zone, Locale, Language, Display Name, Job Title, and Company Name and upload picture to change profile picture, then finish by click Done. (Figure 2.5)

Figure 2.3: Activate by Email

Figure 2.4: Fill password to sign in

Figure 2.5: Adjust profile

2.2 Using WebEx: After complete registration process, we are ready to remote meeting.
To be host, we can start by click Meet Now as figure 2.6 and fill-in subject of meeting on What: and invite participant by add known email of registered WebExs subscriber on Who. For this session, we invite Teddy to join the meeting.

Figure 2.6: Start Meeting

On the Teddys side, an Email will deliver to Teddy mailbox (Figure 2.7). If Teddy needs to join the meeting, he can accept invitation by click Join. Now, Teddy and Akarajit able to join meeting by facilitate of WebEx that provides video, audio, whiteboard and messaging to achieve objective of the meeting (Figure 2.8).

Figure 2.7: Teddys mailbox

Akarajit side (Host)

Teddy Side Figure 2.8: Teddy and Akarajit join WebEx

2.3 Feature WebEx:

WebEx provides many features to facilitate decision making on meeting. For free plan, host and participant able to: Video: By this feature, host and participants able to see action and reaction of each other in real-time. Audio: Host and participant able to make conference call instantly. Messaging: Host and participant able to read and send broadcast message to all participants or just send secret message to specific person. Whiteboard: WebEx also provide share drawing board to help participants understandable and focus what is current subject and topic of the meeting as Figure: 2.9 and whiteboard will be saved as JPEG format into WebEx space after finish the meeting (Figure 2.10) that host and participants able to download it later.

Figure 2.9: Whiteboard and message

Figure 2.10: Whiteboard uploaded to WebEx space automatically.

3. Advantages and Disadvantages of teleconference

Teleconference contains some advantages such as: The best advantage of teleconference is to mitigate the cost of group meeting. The companies can mainly save the travel expenses. The attendees and the host can communicate each other on network environment without having a directly meeting. Teleconferences permit everyone to engage the meetings anywhere and anytime. It means executives can have more flexible time, especially in international companies with various time zones to manage their staff and working processes. The organizers can set the meeting schedule exactly the minutes and hours instead of days or weeks. Stronger communication and coordination between headquarters and branches, as teleconference allows them to get in touch with each other closely and rapidly.

Teleconference contains some disadvantages such as: The result of meeting may expose if some participants not aware on security such as simple email password or WebEx account. Conclusion of meeting may be led by influencer who familiar on the system. The result of the meeting may incomplete because of limitation of time and no adequate evidence to support proposed ideas. Wiki website may better for session that requires team for doing research. Someone on meeting session may be ignored and hard for host person to notice that person via video. 10

Quality of conference relay on reliable of the Internet that hard to guarantee its quality from start to end without any lacking of video, audio or message. All of participates in meeting may be halted because someone loss connection. Teleconference may less lively than face-to-face communication. Host person may not able motivate people on brainstorming session effectively. Cant share success feeling after meeting had ended. For example, hand shaking or celebrating party. This feeling is necessary to fasten relationship.

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