The Santa Clara, California-based company also has signed a deal with BMC Software Inc to more tightly integrate its Remedy software into WebEx’s hosted service by years’ end, ComputerWire has learned. And WebEx is working to strike similar deals with several other enterprise software makers, said WebEx chief executive Bill Heil.
The company’s push into enterprise support collaboration and the small business market is part of an overarching strategy to broaden the depth and width of its hosted offerings. The move comes at a time of growing competitive market pressures.
WebEx’s upcoming enterprise support suite would have a number of applications for IT managers, including asset management, back up and remote IT support and repair, through a hosted provisioned website, Mr Heil said. It would potentially replace proprietary remote control systems and enterprise applications, such as Altiris’ Carbon Copy.
WebEx’s support suite also would include an expertise-on-demand function that would essentially match an online query with an available online enterprise expert. For example, a company’s customer could make an online query and WebEx would locate the expert within the company who is available and has the skill set to handle the enquiry. Mr Heil said WebEx would be the first to offer this capability as a hosted online service.
The company, which for some has become a household name, stands to extend its enterprise reach with these new functions. It already counts most of the Fortune 1000 companies among its 12,500-strong customer base. Boeing, General Motors, the US Department of Defense and three of the top five US financial institutions are among its users.
WebEx also hopes to bring small businesses on board with its upcoming suite designed for companies with two or more employees. The suite, slated for launch early in the fourth quarter, combines WebEx’s hosted online collaboration with technology from Intranets.com, a Massachusetts-based company it bought last month for $45m in a deal that closes today.
Intranets.com has various Web-based collaboration tools, such as e-mail, calendar, scheduling and polling, which are offered as part of a hosted, customer-branded Web site. (It becomes WebEx’s first product that is not used in real-time). Intranets.com currently has about 9,000 customers, Mr Heil said.
The goal of the new suite is to help small businesses manage collaboration IT functions without an IT manager. Mr Heil would not disclose monthly pricing for the service, but hinted that it would be low.
We think the market is elastic, he said. We think lower prices drive volume.
Mr Heil said WebEx’s biggest competitive threat is the market’s relative youth, which leaves larger untapped areas for growth up for grabs by other companies.
Mr Heil said larger players entering the market have not rattled WebEx. Macromedia Inc, which has agreed to be purchased by database giant Oracle Corp, for instance, has a less than 3% share of the market with its Breeze application, Mr Heil said.
And Microsoft Corp has backed off its hosted services business, according to Mr Heil, by partnering with British Telecom. We believe Microsoft is getting out of the on-demand services business, Mr Heil said.
Mr Heil said WebEx would continue to go deep in the enterprise with new applications and wide in the market by tapping new verticals one at a time.
