Vidivic Development Updates?

It has been a while since we updated Vidivic with some brand new features. Nevertheless, we are working continuously on a new Vidivic version. The core of Vidivic, the Intellivic SDK, has received a major software updated since january this year. The impact of these changes made it necessary to create a new API around the SDK-functionality.

At this point, all Vidivic pages are reviewed, and converted to use the new API, which will solve a lot of connection and equipment problems. After this update, we will start working on new features. These features will include (but are not limited to) powerpoint sharing support and an easier update/installation wizard…

To be continued.

International use

Since the start of Vidivic, it is remarkable to notice the use of Vidivic on a geographical basis. Although the press-release we did last year was mainly focused on Europe, we are contacted by users all over the world.

This morning I received a support question from Australia. Australian users seem to have some trouble with delays, since our servers are hosted in the Netherlands. When Vidivic grows and becomes a paid solution, we will consider moving some servers to other continents. At this point, this is not possible, and the delay for non-europeans is inevitable.

Free competitors

Competitors seem to pop-up, like Videoconferencing is the next big business. Of course let’s hope it is, but let’s see what they offer…

• MeBeam : Very easy to use video chat, just pick your room name, and you get a link that you can share. Doesn’t offer the scheduling of meetings like Vidivic does. Flash-based. Also offers an embeddable component, MiniMe.
• Vawkr : Another very simple, flash based Video Conferencing tool. Easy to use, clear website. Also embeddable in other websites. Idem to MeBeam, not offering scheduled conferencing.

I’ll try and post some more now and then, whenever I come across one.

Vidivic Statistics

Development start: December 2006

Official Launch: October 24th 2007

1000th conference: December 19th 2007

Number of conferences: Avg. 5 a day

Number of active users: 1400

Where we met the 1000th conference pretty soon after the official release (we did a press release in cooperation with PRNewsWire), we aren’t satisfied with progress and growth rate. Where we use Vidivic ourselves pretty often, we see others do not benefit from Vidivic the way we do. Our CEO last told me he saved at least 20 hours a month in travelling time by using Vidivic.  That’s 2 full days that can be spent to better goals!

At this point we are not sure why Vidivic isn’t used more intensely. You don’t need expensive equipment, 100$ for a webcam and headset is more than enough, you don’t need too much bandwidth, 256kbps guarantuees full quality Video Conferencing. There is always a backup, you can use the dial-in code to call into the conference with your regular telephone or cell-phone and join that way.

We must admit that Marketing efforts haven’t been our strongest focus. In a development focused company, Sales and Marketing is not always the first goal. New features and developments are – I’ll discuss those topics in a future post. In the next coming weeks, I’ll be looking for ways to increase our Marketing efforts, and combine those with the strong features I believe we can offer.

Another question I ask myself is whether we are ready to switch to Videoconferencing to do our meetings. People need to see the time they can save using Videoconferencing, and the money this can bring to them. If they are not able to see this, or are not willing to shift their state of mind, all our efforts will be wasted…

Let’s hope I will be able to show some more pretty statistics by the end of this year…

Welcome!

Welcome on my Vidivic blog.

I’ll try and keep you updated as much as possible on new Vidivic evolutions/developments/business cases.

Have fun, and feel free to comment!