Exclusive Interview with Bill Benoit, Co-Founder Videre Conferencing
Dr. Saba:
How did you become interested in videoconferencing and what lead to self-financing Videré with your partners?
Mr. Benoit:
I was in the conferencing industry for a decade working in various sales roles at companies such as Viewtech, USTeleCenters, Chancellor Corporation, and Nynex Systems Marketing. I was constantly on the road and got tired of all the travel and time away from my family. I developed a lot of great relationships with my customers and kept in touch with many of them after I left the industry. The one thing that they consistently mentioned was that they missed a high-touch, service oriented partnership with their conferencing vendor. They felt as if they were on their own to make this stuff work. Companies were increasingly placing the service burden on the customers already strained IT staffs and this became a problem. Videre’s co-founders Todd Luttinger and Steve Cogliano were at similar place. They had spent many years in the industry and were ready to get off the road and spend more time with their young families. We started talking about the industry and we all agreed that that high-touch customer service was missing. Many of our old customers had the same complaint. We felt strongly that there was a big market, especially here in New England, for a company that managed every aspect of the conferencing project, from best practices consultation, to product selection, installation, training, maintenance and support. We felt so strongly we each invested $50,000 to get started and we have been very pleased with that decision.
Dr. Saba:
What is the focus of your company now and how do you see your client list expanding in the future?
Mr. Benoit:
Our focus is working with customers who want Videoconferencing, Custom AV Integration and e-learning solutions implemented right the first time by a partner with a long term commitment to service and support. Because of our physical location here in Boston we have a strong client roster in the financial services, healthcare, education and legal industries. In those areas where we have gained specific insight and understanding of their particular application needs, such as working with large national law firms, we have established a new practice area focused on the specific conferencing needs of the legal community.
The majority of our work continues to be through referrals of which we take immeasurable pride.
Dr. Saba:
How to you approach the needs and expectations of your clients? What is unique about your approach?
Mr. Benoit:
We take a big picture approach to evaluating the company’s needs. An effective conferencing solution is not about selecting technology. In fact, that comes last. We don’t consider “product†recommendations until we understand the entire dynamic of the customer. These issues include such things as what they trying to accomplish from a business and program perspective to the skill levels and talents of their personnel who are most likely to be involved in the use and operation of the system. Videré has established partnerships with the conferencing industry’s leading suppliers in order to provide their customers with the best products on the market today. By providing complete product objectivity, we able to offer best-in-class technology tailored to meet any application, requirement or budget.
Many times we start with a consulting relationship doing a basic assessment of their existing deployments. Often, customers are shocked at how much more they could be doing with their existing technologies.
Dr. Saba:
How are your clients using web-conferencing within the rubric of eLearning? What have you learned in this growing area?
Mr. Benoit:
Clients like the University of Massachusetts distance education program, UMASS Online, are using web conferencing as their core technology platform. We find most of our clients are using it as part of a blended solution in continuing education applications.
Dr. Saba:
In recent years, information technology has changed dramatically, how do you see the future of videoconferencing as a viable means of communication for business users, as well as for teaching and learning purposes?
Mr. Benoit:
There have been tremendous improvements in just the past five years. On the network side, manufacturers have learned that they had to make the products easier for the average worker to operate while at the same time incorporating features that would emulate “real life†meetings. They moved further away from proprietary systems to standards-based equipment and began to incorporate PC functionality. This new “media-conferencing†approach enabled the use of PowerPoint and other desktop applications typically used in a meeting environment to now be available in a videoconference. This added functionality together with easier to use systems has made the need for dedicated IT resources rare.
All aspects of the customer experience have been transformed since the mid-1990s. The products are much less expensive, easier to operate and provide far better audio and video quality. All of these improvements come at a time when outside events such as travel concerns and economic weakness are driving people back to videoconferencing.
A key ingredient will be companies such as ours that can design, implement and support solutions along with the best practices & procedures to put our clients “at the head of their classâ€.
Dr. Saba:
Thank you.
Bill Benoit has enjoyed a highly successful sales career for close to 20 years in the High-Tech industry.Specializing in Videoconferencing and custom AV Room Integration along with IP, ISDN and ATM networking solutions, he is one of the area’s most knowledgeable sales executives on conferencing solutions.Prior to co-founding Videré Bill held senior sales positions at Viewtech, USTeleCenters, Chancellor Corporation, and Nynex Systems Marketing.He holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
For more information about Videre visit http://www.videreconferencing.com/indexVidere.html
