Add-ons put Web conferences on same page

Virtual meetings and collaborations just got easier for MicrosoftOffice users.

Microsoft and its conferencing partners, including two companieswith Chicago ties, have integrated Internet- and audio-meetingcapabilities with popular Microsoft Office applications, including e-mail, instant messaging, scheduling, PowerPoint and word processing.

Microsoft has launched add-ons to its Office suite linked withservices from Chicago-based InterCall, MCI's Chicago-basedconferencing group, and BT, the United Kingdom phone carrier.

"The whole process has become more efficient and productive," saidRobert Wise, InterCall's vice president of marketing and strategicdevelopment. "Say you're working on a Word document and want todiscuss it in real time with co-workers. You simply go to a pull-down menu and click to launch a Web conference, and go over thedocument."

Natasha Haubold, MCI spokeswoman, said: "We are seeing a lot ofinterest in this in the marketplace. We think this kind ofcollaboration is the wave of the future."

A Microsoft spokesman said the software giant has been focusing inrecent years on extending its applications, such as PowerPoint, Exceland Outlook, to communications programs, such as its Live Meeting Netconferencing software. The conferencing companies provide audioservices while reselling Microsoft's Live Meeting net-conferencingand other services.

Wise said the simplified link to conferencing "is going to have ahuge impact. We look for our revenue from Net conferencing businessto grow significantly."

Net conferencing represents about 10 percent of InterCall's $300-million-a-year business. Wise would not say how much growth heexpects. InterCall has about 1,700 employees worldwide, includingabout 150 in Chicago.

MCI doesn't break out conferencing revenues or employees. It hasmore than 700 employees in Chicago.

Wainhouse Research, a conferencing industry consulting firm, hasestimated that Web conferencing will grow at a 21 percent rate peryear through 2007, while conferencing overall, including audio, videoand Net conferences, will grow at a 12 percent annual rate.InterCall, which is owned by publicly traded Omaha-based West Corp., said its growth rate already exceeds these estimates.