Peer-to-Peer

Webinars through WebEx

Implementation of Cisco's WebEx enterprise-wide collaboration solutions has helped MetricStream to reduce costs and share information with its clients more effectively, writes Renuka Vembu

MetricStream, started in 1999, is engaged in providing solutions allied to Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and quality management to various industry verticals like the banking and financial sector, IT, healthcare, manufacturing, government, etc. It provides a multitude of services, right from implementation and support, to validation, hosting and training, to a slew of other compliance and quality management solutions. These solutions help companies in maintaining their quality processes, adhering to regulatory requirements, and being complaint with the governance standards.

With a paradigm shift from independent disparate silos to the criticality of synchronization and amalgamation, there has emerged a need for companies to have a systematized and synchronized functioning and consolidated management. MetricStream has thus enabled corporates in diverse industrial sectors to move from departmental silos of risk-related information to integrated enterprise-wide strategy for GRC and quality management. All of MetricStream’s multitude of solutions like GXP and SOX compliance and other quality management solutions are integrated on a single GRC platform.

Multiple objectives

Sujeet Sankar, Program Manager, MetricStream, said, “GRC is a vital, as well as a complex platform and tends to require more than one interaction to achieve resolution, especially for large scale, complex analytical models.”

The changing dynamics of different industries and thereby the client demands, call for constant formulation and fine-tuning by MetricStream to upgrade to newer advancements and modify its GRC products as per its customers’ needs. Thus, to keep clients abreast of the ever-evolving phases, and for information sharing and training too, meetings and discussions through webinars and teleconferencing solutions play an increasingly significant role.

Sankar added, “Hi-tech analyst webinars and events, followed by extensive training sessions require highly skilled resources to conduct them. At times, coordinating with an international customer can prove to be a time, cost and resource consuming process. In case of implementation of a new release or up-gradation of the existing model at the end of all customer-base, it can be an exhaustive process and a major drain on the company’s resources.”

He said that as their product became more advanced, so did the customers’ installations and models. Also, many issues are design (compliance norm) specific, which can prove to be difficult to be carried out in one session. Moreover, there are modules which need coordination from various domain experts and all of them going over to each customer are highly improbable.

The selected solution

To leverage the benefits like real-time impact and lower costs, arising out of these solutions, the company decided to implement Cisco’s WebEx enterprise-wide collaboration solutions. This would thus enable them to deliver content, implement best-practices, formulate templates, enable access to compliance training programs, and integration of business processes with regulatory notifications and industry alerts. Cisco’s WebEx Enterprise Edition gives customer access to WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Event Center, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Sales Center and WebEx Support Center.

After trying and testing multiple solutions MetricStream opted for WebEx, which was the most user-friendly of them all, and also security protected.

A look at the set-up

Sankar went on to explain that as they are engaged in providing global solutions, product integration with other software applications became equally essential. Cisco WebEx applications are delivered on demand over the MediaTone™ Network which offers 99.99% reliability and high security. With WebEx’s full, native support for all major platforms, most popular browsers, they need not worry about outside attendees accessing meetings or subscribing to the organization’s corporate standards either. WebEx has enabled MetricStream to efficiently conduct even the most sensitive meetings online as 128-bit SSL and 256-bit AES encryption ensures complete privacy during transmission. WebEx has earned both WebTrust and SAS70 certification, which requires rigorous annual audits.

Benefits accrued

The advantages MetricStream has gathered from this implementation have been manifold. The company’d sales and marketing efforts are now carried out on a more real-time basis as WebEx’s Sales Center Suite helps in shortened sales cycle with online team selling. It has proved to be effective in handling presentations and demonstrations during online meetings, thereby bringing decision-makers and subject matter experts instantly together—and as issues get addressed readily, questions get answered quickly, clarifications sought on-the-spot, the sales cycle gets shorter. This also fastens interaction between different sales portals. The immediacy of the entire process aids in easier and faster generation of reports, and giving a clearer picture of the forecasts that assists in meeting sales targets and organizational needs.

Sankar explained, “At MetricStream each module has a workflow, which needs to be shown to the customer and their quality personnel for better understanding of the product. With WebEx, it becomes very easy for MetricStream’s sales personnel to demonstrate product features to prospects. WebEx features like sharing a customer’s desktop almost feels like conducting a face-to-face demo session. As sales demos are usually piloted at a very preliminary stage of identifying a prospect, it’s not always conducive to spend on travel and time, WebEx has helped MetricStream to pare down these costs considerably.”

MetricStream now conducts its webinars through the Event Center, while training sessions are undertaken by way of the WebEx Training Center. This gives them the power to reach widespread locations, numerous participants, all at a relatively lower cost. The unparalleled experience that MetricStream has been extracting and experiencing out of this makes the company a satisfied customer. Sankar added, “It adds some unique virtual characteristics that make them a natural fit for lead generation, including the creation of a low pressure sales environment, the use of registration data to qualify leads and the ability to involve presenters from a number of locations and a low cost profile. With WebEx, the number of leads generated has increased by about 750 per quarter, and we have about 10 fresh opportunities added to our client base every quarter.”

Apart from reduction in operating costs, administration expenses, traveling and boarding budgets, there has been a reduction of 1000-man hours per annum. A comparative statistic shows that software companies using WebEx typically save approximately $100 per meeting; MetricStream conducts about 45 meetings each quarter—giving a picture on the savings that they have been able to create.

As it has been effective in creating the necessary impact and savings on resources, the company aspires to use it for future engagements as well.

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com