What did we ever do without GoToMeeting?

If you're an administrator of Salesforce.com -- or even if you aren't -- GoToMeeting is one of the "must have" tools for the office. In this article I'll talk a little bit about the application, and why I've come to depend on it.

WHAT IS GOTOMEETING?
If you don't know about GoToMeeting, it's built by Citrix Online, which has become the fourth largest Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) provider in the world. Their product is a web conferencing tool, similar to WebEx (by Cisco) and LiveMeeting (by Microsoft) -- but in my experience cheaper, and easier to use.

GoToMeeting allows conference call organizer(s) to share their desktop screen with all of the remote conference call participants, as long as they all have access to an internet connection. This is web collaboration software, which is getting a lot more market buzz in our slowing economy.

Ok, so why is GoToMeeting such a cool thing for Salesforce.com Administrators? Think about Salesforce.com, or more specifically, giving a training topic on a new application that you've rolled out for Salesforce.com. You could take dozens of screenshots of the various page layouts in your application, and then weave those screenshots into a PowerPoint presentation. You could then send that PowerPoint presentation to all of the far-flung members of your Sales Team and walk through it page by page at the next team conference call.

Or -- you could use GoToMeeting and give a demo of the application live. Every member of the GoToMeeting web conference can see the application, as you click through the various user screens. If they have questions about the application, you can deviate from your "training script", and demonstrate the answer to their question within the app, right on their screen. They can be 3 floors above you in the same office building, or on the other side of the world. As long as they have an internet screen, your screen is their screen.

The GoToMeeting organizer can share all of their screen, or only certain applications. I'll often share my browser (which has Salesforce.com running in it) but keep my notes / talking points hidden from the other users. I can see the notes on my own screen, but other users only see my browser screen.

In addition, the meeting organizer controls who has access to the keyboard and mouse. So you could give a training presentation on a particular topic, for instance, and then turn control over to one of the meeting participants. Have the participant walk through the exercise themselves, while you monitor them. It's a good way to see what information was "retained", and what areas you may need to focus additional talking points on in your next training session.

One of the most valuable aspects of GoToMeeting is that you can record your session in a Windows Media Player format. Store these recorded sessions on a file server, and you can gradually build a library of training sessions. Meeting participants (or individuals who couldn't attend the conference call because of a meeting conflict) can review the recorded sessions at their leisure.

I'm fortunate to be part of a company that has several Corporate GoToMeeting accounts. The Corporate GoToMeeting Account allows me to host GoToMeeting sessions for up to 25 users, or GoToWebinar sessions for up to 1000 users. Standard GoToMeeting accounts top out at 15 remote users per session.

Whether it's a corporate or standard GoToMeeting account, you pay a recurring $50 monthly fee, or a 20% discounted annual fee. That fee allows you to setup unlimited GoToMeeting sessions. If you want to try it out, the first month is free (and you can probably find promo codes for extended trials on the web, or from your local advertising media).

One warning -- use your own phone conferencing system for the audio portion. GoToMeeting does provide a audio conference service, but the audio quality is terrible. I'm not sure what call conference platform they're using, but it stinks!GoToMeeting must recognize this, because they provide a very easy way for users to override their conference call service, and use their own.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
You can get more information from www.gotomeeting.com.


You can watch a product demo (I love demo's!), check out pricing, etc.

GoToMeeting is a really slick tool, and I highly recommend it to all my Customers.