Centra Expands Service Options to Target New Business Opportunities in Growing Web Conferencing Market
LEXINGTON, Mass (October 29, 2002) – Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA), the world’s leading provider of software and services for real-time business communication, today announced enhancements to its popular Web conferencing service, offering an expanded array of workflow modules designed to streamline the administration of large-scale Web events. Available immediately, these comprehensive new event management options address the end-to-end needs of a growing number of sales and marketing professionals who rely on Web conferencing to drive greater productivity and lower costs. Unlike other Web conferencing services, Centra augments interactive, Web-based delivery with easy-to-use tools that reduce user reliance on additional third-party services for online event creation, marketing, reporting, and registration.
Available for on-site deployment or accessed through Centra’s secure global network, Centra Conference( enables market-facing organizations to conduct high-touch online business interactions with large groups of employees, partners, and customers. Centra Conference is the only Web conferencing solution available today that gives users a choice of audio conferencing options for lower total cost of ownership – including reliable, toll quality voice-over-the-Internet conferencing designed to eliminate user dependency on costly, minutes-based telephone conferencing services. Integrated video capabilities, an easy-to-use interface, and shared workspace for application sharing and presentations, further enhance the end-user experience and engage users online through a simple browser interface. The ability to support up to 1,000 simultaneous users in a single event over low bandwidth dial-up connections makes Centra Conference the ideal solution for effective Web conferencing over the public Internet.
Event management enhancements to the Centra Conference Web service include:
* Self-service Web event configuration form enabling users to set up large-scale Web seminars easily, including speaker assignment, content identification, custom registration page creation, and an auto-generated registration URL for email invitations.
* Integrated Web event approval feature enables greater management control, requiring designated administrator to approve event registration page content before posting.
* The ability to view Web conferencing activity across the organization at-a-glance, featuring an interactive, graphical calendar to find the most convenient date and time.
* Auto-generated, custom HTML event registration page, including event description, speaker photos, and attendee registration form with fields for prospect profile information and an optional pre-event survey. Page can be linked to the host’s Web site or branded to match user’s corporate image.
* Scheduled pre-event email reminders that are automatically sent to registrants one week prior to the event, and again one day before the live event. Email capabilities include “thank you” and “sorry we missed you” post-event email messages to registrants and attendees that embed event recordings links.
* Detailed, real-time registration reports track attendees by source to gauge list response rates, and enable users to view prospect information after the event – including profile, registration survey, and attendance information – to identify the best sales leads.
“Enhancements to the Centra Conference ASP significantly streamline large-scale event management, enabling us to create, customize, approve, market, deliver, and measure our online events in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost,” said Sanjay Ejantkar, Marketing Systems Engineer for Epicor(r) Software Corporation, a leading provider of integrated enterprise and eBusiness software solutions for midmarket companies. “Centra’s new self-service tools not only help us to address every step of the event process logically and efficiently, but have enabled us to establish a more powerful and cost-effective marketing communications vehicle for our growing business.”
Scaleable Software Solution for Enterprise Collaboration
Used by more than 950 companies, government agencies, and universities worldwide, Centra’s scalable application suite provides workflow modules for sales, marketing, and training that enable more efficient and cost-effective business communication over the Web. CentraOne(tm) brings together voice, video, data, and graphics in easy-to-use interfaces for Web conferencing, meetings, and virtual classrooms that can be deployed on-site or accessed through a secure global service network. Centra integrates with existing infrastructure to help organizations align enterprise IT strategies with key business processes to enhance productivity, lower costs, and drive revenue. Centra’s solutions are available in 13 language editions and in 29 countries worldwide.
“Today, Web conferencing and collaboration, videoconferencing, instant messaging, document management, and streaming media have become central to the communication strategies of many companies. Yet, as stand-alone applications, these technologies don’t reach their full potential. The CentraOne suite of enterprise applications provides a single, scalable solution for real-time communication and collaboration needs across the enterprise. In fact, our integrated solutions sit right on your desktop and seamlessly interface with your existing workflow,” said Leon Navickas, Centra’s Chairman and CEO. “In addition to meeting a comprehensive set of needs, we make these capabilities available to our customers as a behind-the-firewall solution or ASP offering, giving organizations more choice in how they acquire these important technologies.”
Limited-Time Special Offer
Event management capabilities come standard with all Centra Conference ASP event and subscription services. Flexible hourly and per-seat pricing options are available for Centra Conference ASP. A typical 100-seat annual subscription is $450 per concurrent user, including both data conferencing and toll-quality IP-based audio. Through December 31, 2002, Centra is offering special introductory pricing, enabling first-time users to experience Centra Conference at $25 per seat for fully managed events, including event moderation, practice sessions, registration confirmations and event reminders, online registration forms and surveys, feedback forms, attendance reporting, and session recording with 90-day online availability. For further details and special offers, contact a Centra Product Specialist at 1-800-414-3591.
About Centra
Leading with an undisputed track record of helping millions of users to increase revenue and improve overall business performance, Centra enables global corporations, government agencies, and universities to drive greater productivity and lower costs through the industry’s most extensible enterprise software application for real-time business communication and collaboration. Today more than 950 organizations across every industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cadbury Schweppes, Citigroup, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, Merck, Nationwide Insurance, Sysco, and Stanford University. Centra’s products are bolstered by a vital ecosystem of strategic partners, including IBM Global Services (formerly PwC Consulting), Deloitte Consulting, EDS, Microsoft, Siebel, Cisco, and Oracle. Headquartered in Boston, Centra operates throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.centra.com.
Sharon Dratch
Centra Software, Inc.
Tel: 781-994-1151
sdratch@centra.com
430 Bedford Street
Lexington, MA 02420
http://www.centra.com
phone 781-861-7000
fax 781-863-7288
