Multimedia Analyst Releases “First Looks” Review of Free Collaboration Solution OpenACircle.Com
ESPRE Solutions, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: EPRT), a Dallas-based company with patented best-in-class video compression technology, today announced that its spin-off, OpenACircle.com, has received another positive first looks report. The review of OpenACircle.com, which offers free collaboration environments called “circles,” is from well-known industry analyst Steve Vonder Haar, Founder and Research Director of Interactive Media Strategies (www.interactivemediastrategies.com).
Interactive Media Strategies focuses its research on the enterprise Web communications sector, online multimedia, Web conferencing and rich-media conferencing. Vonder Haar is therefore extremely familiar with the online collaboration market, which encompasses all of these areas.
“OpenACircle is a Swiss Army Knife of hosted Web communications, offering a range of integrated technologies designed to create an anchor spot for a specific group’s live and on-demand communications that are related to a specified project. OpenACircle represents a creative integration of Web technologies that holds promise for fostering a new breed of online communications activity structured around a project-oriented or team-based metaphor,” states Vonder Haar.
OpenACircle is a unique collaboration environment for on-the-go business professionals at small to medium-sized companies, providing free online collaboration spaces called “circles.” These collaboration “circles” provide users both asynchronous and synchronous communications tools that are all free of charge.
In March 2008, Interactive Media Strategies published a research report entitled “Blending Web Technologies for Business Benefit: How Collaboration, Multimedia & Interactivity Can Combine to Enhance Online Communications.” The study included a field survey of 1,209 respondents, one-quarter of whom use either Web conferencing or online multimedia for business communications on at least a weekly basis. Five years ago, only 10% of respondents used online multimedia weekly. Additionally, forty-four percent of respondents reported that they were either interested in combining or already planning to combine webcam video with Web conferencing. In the conclusion to his report, Vonder Haar states, “The integration of Web technologies to enhance online business communications is inevitable. Existing corporate spending and usage patterns already point to a market demand for blended Web communications capabilities. No killer application exists: the applications with the widest future appeal will likely incorporate a broad swath of online features that draw the interest of a broad set of business users.”
In his report, Vonder Haar points to two particular factors that will be important in delivering a successful business collaboration solution. First is a focus on the fastest-growing segment in Web collaboration and multimedia — small to medium-sized organizations; and secondly, the recognition that pricing will be a driving factor of adoption. “Small and mid-sized organizations show a significant interest in adopting blended versions of Web conferencing and webcam video solutions,” says Vonder Haar. “The biggest barrier is the expense of implementing them. If vendors are able to find ways to trim the cost of deployment (possibly through the development of more cost-effective ‘software as a service’ product models), adoption of Web communications solutions could spike significantly higher among mid-sized and small businesses.”
With its free model, OpenACircle.com is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the price-consciousness of small and mid-sized businesses interested in Web collaboration.
Visit www.openacircle.com/reviews for a copy of the Interactive Media Strategies’ first looks report. Additionally, please visit www.openacircle.com/whitepapers to view the entire Interactive Media Strategies research report: Blending Web Technologies for Business Benefit.
About ESPRE Solutions, Inc.:
Plano, Texas-based ESPRE Solutions is a public company (PINKSHEETS: EPRT) that is reinventing how enterprises work and exchange information and ideas by providing a truly viable solution for live, high-quality multi-media video collaboration. ESPRE Solutions harnesses the power of collaboration to extract the benefits of visually connecting global work groups and individuals to create, share, and deliver live video content over the Internet. At the core of ESPRE Solutions is the revolutionary video encoding and decoding (codec) services provided by the patented wavelet based Lightning Strike LSVX(TM) Codec. ESPRE’s business strategy focuses on building strong partnership and investing in companies that define the leading edge of video collaboration. To learn more about ESPRE Solutions, or to experience the company’s pioneering video compression technology, visit www.espresolutions.com
About OpenACircle.com
Incubated and spun off by ESPRE Solutions, Inc., OpenACircle(TM) is being developed as the first fully equipped, completely FREE online collaboration environment for small and medium-sized businesses.
SAFE HARBOR
Forward-looking statements made in this release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provision of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements made by ESPRE Solutions, Inc. are not a guarantee of future performance.
PRESS CONTACTS: ESPRE Solutions, Inc. Katrina McBride Email Contact OpenACircle John Rizzuti Email Contact
SOURCE: ESPRE Solutions, Inc.