Intranets.coms addition of Web and audio conferencing rounds out its namesake collaborative suite at a compelling price and is well worth looking at, even for companies not using Intranets.com. This latest release includes a redesigned group calendar user interface, which simplifies scheduling meetings.
The updated suite will be available this month. Pricing for just the intranet components (calendaring, discussions, databases and tasks) of Intranets.com ranges from $3 to $10 per user per month, depending on volume.
I like the pricing for the Web conferencing component. At $100 per month for 25 simultaneous participants, Intranets.com is considerably less expensive than WebExs conferencing services or Microsofts LiveMeeting. The service has an optional audio conferencing component that costs 12 cents per minute per connection—again, much lower than WebEx or LiveMeeting.
As a Web conferencing solution, Intranets.com covers the essentials, delivering presentations effectively. Uploading presentations is simple, and I had little difficulty sharing an application or a whiteboard during tests. I could poll attendees and interact with them using the question-and-answer and chat tools, although these three dialog boxes can take up a large section of real estate.
Despite this annoyance, I found the user interface to be simple and clean. While it lacks the bells and whistles of some competitors, such as videoconferencing and presentation archiving, it does automatically create meeting transcripts.
Intranets.com has simplified the calendar component in this update. Scheduling meetings with individuals is much easier and is akin to the group scheduling feature in Microsofts Outlook.
More information is at www.intranets.com.
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