Webcasting and Push Technology Strategies: Effective Communications for Intranets and Extranets

This new 254-page CTR report provides a management analysis of the emerging webcasting and push technology markets. The report discusses how intranets and extranets are developing into E-commerce infrastructures and how they will benefit from webcasting and push technologies.

How Webcasting and Push Technology Differ

The amount of information available on the Internet is rapidly becoming unmanageable, and manually searching the Web is no longer a productive option.

CTR's new report, Webcasting and Push Technology Strategies: Effective Communications for Intranets and Extranets, discusses how webcasting and push technologies are being used to overcome information overload and provide new possibilities for intranets and extranets.

Webcasting, which is broadcasting over the Web using the Internet protocol (IP), significantly reduces the time required to locate specific information. This emerging technology uses narrowcasting principles to turn the Internet into a personal broadcasting system with individualized programming capabilities.

Push technologies such as PointCast involve the periodic transmission of flat information such as text and graphics. Push is passive from a user's perspective because once scheduled, the information arrives periodically without user intervention. To hear or watch a webcast, by contrast, users must actively tune-in to the Web page where the content is available.

Webcasting Tools, Techniques, and Applications This report assesses the latest webcasting development tools and provides key information on using these tools to implement intranet and extranet applications. The webcasting applications discussed include financial services, trading support systems, competitive intelligence, and multiuser conferencing.

The various forms of Internet data transmission are explored, including unicasting, broadcasting, multicasting, and narrowcasting. Webcasting alternatives such as pure push, selective pull, and distributed push/pull solutions are also detailed.

The report provides case studies of 24 companies that represent a selection of webcasting application categories, including software distribution, hardware support, financial services, and project management. Special attention is given to the recent webcasting ventures of Microsoft and Netscape.

Creating a Webcasting Business Strategy

Intranets and extranets are being used to capture the attention of key employees, business partners, and customers. Through webcasting, information such as company policies, new product introductions, and stock market updates can be broadcast to a specific audience. To fully utilize these technologies, however, companies must first develop an effective webcasting business strategy.

CTR's Webcasting and Push Technology Strategies: Effective Communications for Intranets and Extranets report provides specific suggestions for planning and operating a webcasting application. This advice applies to intranet and extranet implementation of push technology as well as the establishment of webcasting channels for marketing products and services on the Internet.

The report outlines specific choices that must be made with regard to push components, bandwidth availability, multimedia content, intrusiveness, and client software features. The revenue-creating potential and drawbacks of webcasting as a business undertaking are also detailed.

The Business Value of Webcasting

The ability to continuously distribute information is imperative to the success of large organizations. Through webcasting, companies will be able to cut costs and function more efficiently by reducing the bandwidth and time required for employees, business partners, or customers to locate this information. The report will help information technology (IT) personnel do the following: develop a webcasting strategy, search for effective E-commerce solutions, choose and implement appropriate webcasting tools and applications, and understand the benefits of push technology.

Webcasting and Push Technology Strategies: Effective Communications for Intranets and Extranets provides the tools and information necessary to plan, implement, and maintain webcasting and push solutions for the enterprise.

Bohdan Szuprowicz is an authority on leading-edge, interactive multimedia technologies. He is the president of 21st Century Research, a consulting firm specializing in strategic technology research and investment. He also directs Interactive Multimedia Communications, a continuous research program dedicated to investigating new markets, ventures, and strategic implementation of new technologies.

He developed numerous concepts, applications, and product reports for McGraw-Hill/DATA PRO and is a member of the Workgroup Computing Multimedia Solutions services advisory board and completed "Multimedia Databases" and "Portable Multimedia Applications" reports. He is also the author of "Multimedia Networking" book published by McGraw-Hill Professional Book Division.

Mr. Szuprowicz hold a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology of the University of London and studied Industrial Management and Photojournalism at Columbia University in New York and UCLA. He was born in Poland, educated in France and England, and has traveled throughout the world in more than 60 different countries.