Citrix Online launched its GoToWebinar service on Wednesday with the hope that the time was right for the Webinar technology, which was first introduced by other companies in the heady late-1990s but failed to gain traction.
Citrix told InfoWorld times had changed, and pricing was key to its expected success. Familiarity with the company's GoToMeeting technology, on which it's based, should help too.
"The market's enthusiastic response to our June announcement of GoToWebinar has been very exciting and interest continues to build as companies see the value of easy, affordable do-it-yourself Web events," said Brett Caine, general manager of Citrix Online.
The service joins a strong field of Webinar products, including ON24 and WebEx.
Citrix said GoToWebinar has a leg up because the service is easy to set up, allowing on-demand use via the Web. But the clincher is flat-fee licensing of $99 per month, which covers unlimited usage for the service, which includes application sharing, annotation tools, desktop session-recording, and playback, the company said.
GoToWebinar allows one-click attendee entry, and the company stressed its planning, presentation and reporting functionality. One feature allows a presenter to know when an attendee has tuned out by minimizing their screen. (Ahem, time to step up the presentation a notch.)
Aimed at presenting to large audiences, the company said GoToWebinar is designed for holding marketing, sales and training sessions, as well as for delivering product presentations and demos.
A free 30-day trial is available here.
Posted by Mike Barton on August 30, 2006 02:30 PM
