New Glance 2.0 Turns Phone Calls Into Instant Web Demos and Sales Presentations

Glance Networks, creators of the "one-button simple" Glance(TM) screen sharing service, today announced version 2.0, which adds full 24-bit color, faster screen update speeds and easy customer website integration. Used primarily as a sales tool for hosting instant web demos and presentations, Glance provides a quick and dependable web demo service. It includes "Guests Connect for Free" flat-rate pricing and the ability to connect instantly to nearly any PC, Mac or Linux computer without downloading software.

"Simplicity and ease of use have been two challenges inhibiting mass adoption of web conferencing," observes Mike Gotta, principal analyst, Burton Group. "There's an underserved audience within this market that simply wants to deliver a richer communication experience by combining a phone call with the sharing of a screen. The ability to present a sales pitch or demo an application should be a natural part of the conversation."

Sales professionals know they need to make every call count. A single botched demo or presentation can cost them a sale. Whether showing a software application, pitching a presentation, filling out a form or walking through a website, sales people need a demo service that is as reliable as their phone. Their ideal service would be:

-- Dependable -- Their 9:00 a.m. demos need to start at 9:00 a.m., not 9:15 a.m. The service needs to connect the first time, every time.
-- Fast -- Their prospects should enter demos instantly from their own website, without wasting time downloading complicated web conferencing software.
-- Simple -- Their guests should be able to focus on the demo, without distractions from unnecessary web conferencing buttons and menus.

"When we needed a simple, reliable sales tool to walk clients through a demonstration of our software applications, we turned to Glance," commented Steven Green, president at PollStream Inc., a direct response software solution that makes it easy to engage customers in a two-way conversation. "We tried other conferencing services with frustrating results, experiencing technical problems with downloads and such. All we wanted was reliability and ease of use at a reasonable price. Glance 2.0 fits the bill for quick web demos and sales presentations."

Over 2,000 companies worldwide use Glance for demonstrating their products online and giving sales presentations. Glance recently interviewed users from over 100 of these companies. The most common reasons they cited for having selected Glance are that the service is:

-- Reliable -- Their prospects can connect instantly from nearly any PC, Mac or Linux computer, even highly secured machines that cannot download software.
-- Fast -- They nearly always connect without installing any software.
-- Customer-centric -- Prospects can join their demos from the sales person's own web page or company website. The demos start and end on web pages customized with their company's look and call-to-action.
-- Colorful -- Their sales staff can show any application, PowerPoint illustration, graphic art design or 3D rendering to prospects, now in full 24-bit color, directly from their PC screen.
-- Easy -- Customers report that even people uncomfortable with technology find Glance easy to use. Their sales staffs often master its one-button menu in their very first demo.

"Nearly every salesperson who has used a traditional web conferencing service to host sales demos can tell some gut-wrenching story about a hot deal that went cold when their web demo didn't connect," says Dr. Rich Baker, CEO of Glance Networks. "We increasingly find that sales prospects are not allowed to download the software needed to join a web conference or they are on a traditionally unsupported machine, like a Mac or UNIX box. And often, they get confused or frustrated by a bunch of unfamiliar buttons or windows. Companies need a web service designed specifically for sales demos. Glance 2.0's simple design makes it possible for prospects to connect instantly from nearly any computer, without the risk or confusion of downloading unfamiliar software. And the better their demo experience, the more likely the sale."[list][/list]