REDMOND, Wash., June 9, 2003 — PlaceWare Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a Real-Time Collaboration Solutions provider, today announced that Sigaba, a leading provider of secure messaging solutions, including e-mail, instant messaging and document delivery, has seen incredible results using PlaceWare to hold public Web seminars, saving up to $25,000 per event.
Sigaba holds two public virtual events per quarter to help it establish thought leadership in vertical markets such as healthcare and financial services. A Sigaba customer is invited to be the featured guest speaker, and a company spokesperson acts as host. Before adopting PlaceWare, Sigaba had planned to do face-to-face seminars in major cities, but when the company compared the cost with that of a PlaceWare event, it found the difference to be up to $25,000 per event. In addition, the company found that drawing attendees to an in-person event, which means taking them away from their offices for at least a few hours, is much more difficult than attracting them to a one-hour PlaceWare event they can participate in from their own offices. Attendees can connect using a Web browser and Internet connection, and get the desired information in a fraction of the time via PlaceWare.
“A PlaceWare event costs significantly less than an in-person event and is more efficient for everyone — the presenter as well as the attendees,”
said Tanya Candia, senior vice president of marketing and chief strategist at Sigaba.
“These events have been extremely successful for us, and we plan to grow our use of PlaceWare for this type of event in the future.”
Sigaba also uses PlaceWare daily for sales meetings with prospects to save time and money.
“In order to achieve the same result, you’d have to send someone to meet with the customer face to face, which costs thousands of dollars per sales call,”
Candia said.
“The other alternatives would be to conduct an ineffective phone call or send the prospect a PowerPoint®
presentation, neither of which achieves the powerful results of a PlaceWare meeting.
“The difference between PlaceWare and its major competitors is striking,”
Candia added.
“We were shocked at the difference when we compared PlaceWare with the rest. If I were shopping for a Web conferencing vendor, I’d first look at stability: You can’t afford to have the line go down when you’ve got 100 people on the conference, and with PlaceWare that’s never a problem. Professionalism is another area where PlaceWare shines. They have employees who care and want to make this successful for you. On the technical side, the way the interface is presented is very professional and useful. PlaceWare puts itself in both the seat of the attendee and the seat of the presenter; their customer focus makes an enormous difference. It gives you peace of mind.”
“PlaceWare Web conferencing strives to stand out from the competition, and we’re glad our customers such as Sigaba can see and speak to the differences between us and other vendors,”
said Dustin Grosse, vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy at PlaceWare.
“Sigaba clearly has compared the vendors in the Web conferencing space and chosen PlaceWare for its stability, professional interface and ease of use. PlaceWare prides itself on listening to its customers to provide the best service for them and their audiences.”
About Sigaba
Secure Data in Motion, dba Sigaba, is the leading provider of secure message management solutions, including e-mail, instant messaging and document delivery, for the enterprise market. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., the company was recently named by SC Magazine and CIO Magazine as a
“Company to Watch.”
Sigaba Secure Email, Sigaba Secure Statements and Sigaba Secure Instant Messaging are the most flexible, easy-to-use solutions for securing all corporate, financial services, healthcare and government communications over the Internet and wireless networks. Using Sigaba, secure messages can be sent to virtually anyone, anywhere, without requiring users to download special software. Sigaba (si-ga-ba) takes its name from the SIGABA encryption machine, used by the United States during and after World War II. It was the only device of its kind that was never compromised by the enemy. Additional information about Sigaba can be found at http://www.sigaba.com/ or by calling (800) 475-8226.
About PlaceWare Inc.
PlaceWare Inc., a Microsoft company, is a leader in real-time,
“carrier class,”
multimedia platform and application services for Web-based communication and collaboration both inside and outside corporate firewalls. Enterprise customers prefer PlaceWare Web conferencing because of its scalable, reliable and secure browser-based architecture, which is based on technology developed and tested at Xerox PARC. The company offers unparalleled performance for all types of Web-based communications, from large-scale meetings with up to thousands of attendees through small collaborative meetings, presentations and e-learning sessions. Founded in 1996, PlaceWare Inc. has already attracted more than 3,500 leading organizations that see Web conferencing as a natural evolution in helping their businesses compete more effectively in the global marketplace. PlaceWare Inc. helps companies host thousands of simultaneous Web meetings simply using Web browsers and telephones. More information about PlaceWare Inc. is available by visiting http://www.placeware.com/ or calling (888) 526-6170 to reach the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software –any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and PowerPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
PlaceWare Inc. and the PlaceWare logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of PlaceWare Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. PlaceWare Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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