Measuring ROI

Taken together, the data suggests that the theme of "reducing costs" is a favorite topic of IT professionals, who often hold veto power over decisions on whether to deploy Webcasting technology. Those working in functional departments such as marketing, accounting, and human resources, tend to value the technology based on the way its helps them to communicate better.

This outlook can help put the relative growth of enterprise Webcasting into better perspective in the post-Internet Bubble era. While the use of online multimedia in the corporate sector continues to expand at a steady clip, the expansion rate for the market pales in comparison to the fast-paced growth of the first generation of narrowband Web technologies witnessed between 1995 and 2000.

With less venture capital flowing into the broadband applications sector during the past four years, fewer companies have had the resources to promote widespread awareness of multimedia technology and how it can transform the corporate communications environment.

Without the steady drumbeat of venture capitalist-fed marketing, the relative demand for Webcasting technology has lagged among those with the least knowledge of technical innovation. Essentially, the marketing push to stimulate demand for Webcasting among functional department executives has yet to materialize.

This, in turn, has shaped the way that Webcast technology vendors have positioned themselves. IT department executives have the greatest awareness of Webcasting’s potential. As the data suggests, appealing to this group means catering to their ongoing desire to deploy Webcasting that helps to drive down costs. This focus, in turn, feeds the demand for case studies and spreadsheet analyses that hold a key role in driving many of today’s Webcast deployment decisions.

With only marginal levels of investment flowing into the Webcast industry, start-ups justifiably must adhere to strategies that assure them of generating the revenue that allows them to survive in the short term. That means focusing on a cost-return approach to ROI analysis that encourages at least some prospective customers to make the leap into Webcasting.

In feeding their revenue needs for the short-term, though, vendors are forced to starve alternative strategies that could promote accelerated expansion of Webcasting deployment and usage. The path to fostering that long-term expansion in this sector lies in promoting online multimedia as a cost-effective technology that can enrich the ways that functional department executives communicate on a daily basis.

Webcast vendors are not blind to the power that online multimedia brings to enterprise communications. In a world of limited marketing resources, these companies are forced to make choices to convey the easy-to-understand message of "cost savings" ahead of the more complex idea of using the technology to "empower communications."

But if you’re looking to implement Webcasting—or any other streaming media solution, for that matter—in your organization, you shouldn’t limit your concept of ROI to dollars and cents. Better internal communications, stronger customer experiences, and improved organization image are just a few of the "intangible," but crucial, benefits that streaming media can bring to an enterprise. And when more enterprises recognize that, we’ll see real progress.