Rich Media Publishing and Management: Definitely Here Today - Part 1

What’s Changed?
"We’re getting closer to the rich media inflection point," observes Steve Vonder Haar, principal analyst of Interactive Media Strategies. "People who have to communicate, rather than manage computer networks are starting to recognize the potential of rich media."

First, more people are having a compelling experience with rich media than ever before. Knowledge workers are bombarded by offers to receive training and information via a rich media presentation.

Next, those who have seen a good example of rich media are closer to the point of changing their behaviors due to travel restrictions and other resource constraints produced by smaller budgets. The need to achieve more with less money is raising decision makers’ awareness of the benefits of rich and streaming media for both cost cutting and revenue generation. According to a study conducted by IMS, there is a very strong correlation between those who have seen rich media and those who have advocated for its deployment themselves.

Third, there are more tools available for producing content locally on personal computers. There are more enterprise computers on media friendly operating systems (Windows XP or Windows 2000), with the processors necessary to compress and produce rich media content in real time or near real time. The barrier associated with self-publishing content using Serious Magic’s Visual Communicator, Anystream’s Agility Presenter and other similar applications is much, much lower. These are not rich media publishing and management solutions in their own right but they increase the productivity of those who are creating content. Although this trend doesn’t directly drive demand for end-to-end rich media publishing and management systems, it can tax the content managers who are performing all publishing tasks manually.

Finally, the price points for solutions that fall into the rich media publishing and management segment are anywhere from 50 to 75% lower than eighteen months ago. The price/performance point is nearing a point that more enterprises are willing to get a closer look at the solutions presented to them for consideration.