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If business travel is wearing you down, or if your firm is spending too much money winging executives across the globe for meetings, you've probably already taken a close look at WebEx. In its short life, WebEx has risen to the top of the online meeting pack, and continues to add new services to appeal to different business segments.

The latest addition is the WebEx Enterprise Edition, and it's not so much a new service as a new way of organizing existing services. Enterprise Edition groups WebEx's four services — Meeting Center, Support Center, OnStage, and Training Center — into one unified tool, which is easier to implement and manage.

Requesting online support with WebEx Support Center is as easy as clicking a button. (Click for high-resolution image.)

Companies that already have more than one WebEx account will find it easier to administer and will likely find it cheaper, as well, since Enterprise Edition has a new pricing structure that specifies the number of hours of use per month, like a cell phone plan. (The old pricing plan, still used for customers of other WebEx services, specifies the number of users who may use WebEx, but not the time they may use it.) Because any amount of users can access Enterprise Edition with the new price plan, it will be easier to bring people from other departments on board and show them the benefits of WebEx.

How to Get It

All WebEx services work through a standard Web browser, so there's no software for overtaxed IT guys to install. WebEx will run on all Windows, Mac, Unix, and some Linux platforms. And the interface couldn't be simpler; no matter what their level of computer confidence, your users will find WebEx a snap. WebEx can be linked to from your intranet, so accessing it will take just a click and a password. And as you can see from these screen shots, features are well laid-out and easy to find.

In WebEx's Training Center, users can pull up a schedule of available online training sessions, then click a link to join one. (Click for high-resolution image.)

Getting WebEx running is a quick process. In fact, for many customers, there won't be anything to install. It all depends on how well you want it to blend in with your existing intranet and what level of integration you need. No matter what combination of services you buy, the WebEx pages reside on the WebEx servers, so your employees will simply link to them and there will be nothing to install.

The staff at WebEx will make a template page that echoes the look of your intra- or extranet (they'll make it in only one business day, so that's all the time you need to get going; if you want the WebEx pages to feel exactly like your own pages, with a strict template and links, allow for three business days of development time). While these pages don't reside on your servers, certain modules might. For example, WebEx can pass date book items back and forth with Outlook Express, so if you need that tight integration, you'll need to install a WebEx Exchange server module on your server.

WebEx Enterprise Edition users buy a chunk of time each month, rather than buying user licenses. Prices start at $10,000 per month for 425 meeting hours of usage. Clearly, WebEx Enterprise Edition is meant for sizable corporations. Still, if that sounds like a lot, think what you pay for just one business trip (which probably entails two meeting hours). The savings could add up quickly.