Confer & Inform Meeting
Features and Comparisons


(with WebEx and GoToMeeting)


Confer & Inform Meeting , powered by TurboMeeting, provides three applications in one package.
  1. Web Conferencing (implemented as the Interactive Meeting Type in TurboMeeting) 
  2. Seminar
  3. Remote Access to My PC
  4. Others
  5. Pricing

WebEx and Citrix deliver their services in separate packages for different applications. The following comparison is based on the Confer & Inform Meeting 3-in-1 package and the most commonly used packages from WebEx and Citrix.

 
1. Web Conferencing 

Common use cases include:

  • Sales presentations
  • Product demos
  • Remote support
  • Remote training & seminars
  • Engineering collaboration
  • Any real-time collaboration where desktop sharing is needed
Features Confer & Inform Meeting WebEx
MeetMeNow
Citrix GotoMeeting
PC:      
     Present and  control remotely
     Application sharing
     Application only focus  
     Firewall friendly
     Chat
     File transfer  
     Change colors from 256 to 32-bit
     true color for special applications
   
     Pause meetings
     Whiteboard  
     Annotation
     Schedule meetings
     Auto-reconnection
     Fit-to-screen display
     View-only with No-download
Patent pending
   
     Remote control speed* 3X
Three times fast
1X 1X
     Recording Available in Q1/08
     Video    
     Audio
     US phone - long distance rates apply

(Or use free CI Skype-to-Skype)
Mac:      
     Present and  control remotely  
     Application sharing  
     View only
No-download
 
Require download
     Firewall friendly  
     Chat  
     Change colors from 256 to 32-bit
     true color for special applications
   
     Pause meetings  
     Whiteboard    
     Annotation  
     Schedule meetings  
     Auto-reconnection  
    Support PPC (Power PC)  
    Support Intel    
    Speed Fast Unacceptably slow  
 
2. Seminar
Features Confer & Inform Meeting WebEx
MeetMeNow
Citrix GotoMeeting
Meeting host and panelists (PC only):      
     Presentation by panelists
     Application sharing
     Firewall friendly
     Pause meetings
     Whiteboard  
     Annotation
     Schedule meetings
     Auto-reconnection
     Recording Available in Q1/08
Attendees:      
     Windows
No-download

Require download

Require download
     Mac
No-download

Require download

Require download
     Linux
No-download

Require download
 
     Unix
No-download

Require download
 
     iPhone
No-download

 
    Windows Mobile (PDA & Phone)
No-download

 
 
3. Remote Access to My PC
Features Confer & Inform Meeting WebEx
MeetMeNow
Citrix GotoMeeting
PC:      
     Always on after power recycled **    
     Non-reversible meeting
     password encryption
   
     Remote lock computer **    
     Remote reboot **    
     Chat    
     File transfer    
     Change colors from 256 to 32-bit
     true color for special applications
   
     Schedule meetings    
     Auto-reconnection    
     Fit-to-screen display    
 
4. Others 
Features Confer & Inform
Meeting
WebEx
MeetMeNow
Citrix GotoMeeting
Security:      
      Transmission security SSL & Proprietary SSL & Proprietary SSL & AES
      Access security Meeting ID and password Meeting ID and password Meeting ID
Misc.      
     Hybrid mode - Interactive attendees
     (meeting panelists) mixed with
     view-only attendees for the best user
     experience and performance
   
     Unlimited users to host meetings  
5. Pricing
Pricing Confer & Inform Meeting WebEx
MeetMeNow
Citrix GotoMeeting
Unlimited meetings
in one meeting room
200+ viewers plus
$16/mo - 2 panelists
$19/mo - 3 panelists
$25/mo - 5 panelists
$35/mo - 10 panelists
$45/mo - 15 panelists
$85/mo - 25 panelists
(call for more rooms per plan)
$49/mo - 10 panelists $49/mo - 15 panelists
Pay-per-use 200+ viewers plus
$8 - 5 panelists
$12 - 10 panelists
$20 - 25 panelists
(4 hour length)
$0.33/minute per user  

* Confer & Inform has not conducted any accurate tests for speed comparison. The remarkable speed advantage for remote control is based on our user feedbacks and may vary for different users. You should do your tests based on your own Internet connection, your monitor setting and the typical applications you are using for the speed comparison.

Confer & Inform Meeting system architect is specifically designed for fast interactive meetings (attendees can present) with less than 25 attendees, which count for 99% meetings most users can experience. Most leading vendors design their systems for very large meetings and choose to sacrifice the interactive speed for smaller meetings. 

For a large meeting with over 25 attendees, it is impractical to have all attendees to present. You should use TurboMeeting's view-only function to invite most attendees and have only a few attendees to join your meeting interactively as the meeting panelists who can present. This hybrid mode of mixing view-only attendees with interactive attendees for the best user experience and performance is one of the unique functions of Confer & Inform Meeting.

** Not available for Vista