What Is Webex?

WebEx is a system for holding meetings over the web. With this system, presentations can be done through web conferencing, as a web meeting or as a video conference. WebEx is a pay system with different subscription pricing available.

History

WebEx was created by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu in 1995. The company was called WebEx Communications. By 2004, WebEx controlled 57 percent of the web conferencing market. In 2007 Cisco Systems purchased WebEx. The purchase price was $3.2 billion.

WebEx Meeting Center

The flagship subscription product sold by WebEx is the Meeting Center. With this, you can have up to 25 people in a meeting at one time. The host of the meeting can then show a presentation, share documents and even have up to six webcams running at one time. Attendees can either call in or use Voice-over IP (VoIP). This service is $59 per month with a free two-week trial.

WebEx Event Center

The Event Center is intended for large online events such as an announcement of a new product or a large-scale seminar. Up to 3000 people can attend this type of web conference. It has the features of the Meeting Center, plus it has added features such as the ability to host threaded question and answer questions from the attendees. The price for the Event Center varies depending on how many people are going to show up and what features will be utilized. You must contact WebEx sales to find out more about what pricing is available.

WebEx Training Center

Ideal for training a team of people in diverse locations, the Training Center allows up to 1,000 participants at once. This is based around training, so there are added features such as hands-on labs, registration and reporting and more. Because this is a training session, the instructor cannot only give hands-on tasks, but track how the students are doing to ensure the training is working. There are even options to charge students for the courses, if you are seeking to create a for-profit training center. Much like the Event Center, pricing varies, so you must contact WebEx sales for pricing information.

WebEx Remote Support

This product is markedly different from the previous ones in that it is not presentation-based. This product allows your company's tech support to view a customer's computer remotely (with their permission of course) and help resolve any issues they are having far quicker than they could without such a system. The price ranges from $149 for one technical support representative (TSR) seat to $599 for four TSR seats, based on a 12-month contract.

References

• Rice Fields Yield Internet Riches
• Cisco Completes Acquisition of WebEx
• WebEx Product Overview