Speek, over the course of the last year or so, has already done some impressive things in terms of the conference calling market on the strength of a combination of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) and sheer simplicity that's been hard for many users to turn down. Speek offered up an easy way for users to set up a conference call, all without the need for software downloads, special numbers, or anything like that; just a Web browser. Now, however, Speek wants to bring that same brand of simplicity to the online meeting space, and to do that, it's got a rather exciting idea in place.
The company, back in March, concluded successfully a Series A funding round that brought in fully $5.1 million for the company, and with that fresh loadout in play, the company has some major ambition to go along with it: specifically, as reports from Speek's co-founder and president Danny Boice suggest, the company wants in on the same market as names like WebEx and GoToMeeting. Thus, the company is bringing out “Speek for Business,” a product that will allow the company to go past conference calling and go into online meetings.
Early reports about Speek for Business suggest that the product starts with a complete dashboard system, going so far as to include branding options like logo display, social media account access and other accompanying links, and even the option to change color scheme according to a particular firm's needs. Users get a custom URL for conference calling, and access to screen sharing features is easily on hand, a major part of nearly any online meeting application that allows users to easily upload and share documents for the other users in the conference.
Pricing is set to run $19 per user per month, and it's paid by the organizers of the meetings. So those who are invited to join a meeting, like clients or press figures, can join in at no charge, meaning that the meetings can be opened up as needed to get out information where it needs to go. Those interested, meanwhile, can get in on Speek for Business right now.
Speek for Business likely won't have an easy time of things, as there are—as noted previously—several competitors in the field. The online meetings market has plenty of alternatives in it that will make it tough for Speek for Business to land a niche. However, it has at least one critical advantage in that it's already been a major part of the conference call market, and so has some name recognition on that front. Parlaying that name recognition into a new market won't be seamless or absolute, but it should help smooth out a few rough spots, so to speak, and give Speek for Business a chance to show off what it can do. The comparatively low licensing costs shouldn't hurt either, and that flexibility of per user per month pricing might be just what some companies needed.
Only time will tell, ultimately, how well Speek for Business does in the field, but considering how well Speek's done in conference calling, it should be reasonable enough to say that Speek for Business can keep the streak alive.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
