Case Study: ViewCentral Helps Xerox Get Serious About Webinars

To make this task easier, White decided to employ ViewCentral, a collaboration management tool that Xerox has been using to coordinate their many Webinars. Available to customers like Xerox on a hosted basis, ViewCentral enables administrators like White to publish event information, track registration and attendance, execute payments (when applicable), deliver personalized communications, manage Web and audio conference seats and minutes, and perform post-event reporting and analysis, all from a single application. Because the Xerox Global Conferencing and Media Services group does a lot more than just Webinars, ViewCentral gets a lot of use at Xerox.

ViewCentral has helped the Global Conferencing and Media Services group expand its reach. What began as an initiative to streamline management of sales training for employees has expanded to the point where 40 different organizations within Xerox are now using the service. And according to Gary Foley, manager of the Global Conferencing and Media Services group, the ROI from using the service has been strong. "We noticed an immediate savings the first time we used ViewCentral's solution. Within the first month, the savings were realized," says Foley. "We were able to accomplish much more with far less effort."

White refers to ViewCentral as a "robust registration front end." For the Proof Source Sales Tool CD project, he used it to register participants for one of five Sales Tool CD-launch Webinars. This was accomplished by first announcing the events on an internal Xerox sales staff portal that White says Xerox salespeople visit daily. The portal announcement encouraged people to sign up and gave a link to ViewCentral where all five scheduled events were listed.

White says he liked the way ViewCentral allowed him to "communicate with all prospective attendees from one central site." It also helped streamline the CD fulfillment process. "The registration insured a valid database (current active internal and external sales force with correct addresses) of people who wanted to receive the CD and were willing to attend the Webcast," he notes.

The Sales Tool CD launch Webinars were hosted live from the Xerox "Proving Ground" lab featuring Xerox training/marketing session leaders. The events lasted about an hour, 20 minutes of which consisted primarily of a presenter giving a slide show. But the events also included about 20 minutes of video clips from the CD, says White, and about 20 minutes were left at the end for live questions and answers.

The main incentive for taking the Webinar was that those who didn't take it didn't get the cool CD tool. White insists that the value of CD Sales Tool is self-apparent and obvious, and no coercion was necessary to get salespeople to participate in the Webinar and register for the CD.

Of course, there are always some motivated people who are forgetful. "Inevitably, people who ignored the e-mail invitations that contained the link to the registration page will start asking their management why they didn't get a CD," says White. At that point they can register in ViewCentral to view a recorded "replay" of the live event.