SiteScape Zon is an online collaboration platform with a strong presence awareness component. The tool is targeted at organizations whose employees need to be able to create instant meetings with their peers.
Coworkers' contact details are automatically synchronized with instant messaging buddy lists, Outlook/Exchange address books and with corporate directories (LDAP). The integrated contact lists allow employees to detect whether a prospective meeting attendee is actually available or not. Meetings can be made conditional to the availability of specific invitees: a web conference or teleconference will start promptly as soon as all of their phones become free.
The system also allows phone calls to be forwarded to mobile phones.
SiteScape Zon's main features are
- Presentation delivery
- Co-browsing
- Audio-conferencing (VoIP and PSTN)
- Application and desktop sharing
- Remote control
- Whiteboard and annotations
- Text chat
Zon meetings can be spontaneous or scheduled, they can be password protected, public, private or unlisted. Submeetings can be created while a meeting is in progress. The system allows a moderator to monitor which invitees have actually joined in and who hasn't. A meeting administrator can define groups of attendees for recurring events; this considerably smooths the invitation process.
SiteScape Zon uses a client-server operation model; it requires a Red Hat Linux server installation and on the client end only runs on Windows machines (Win98 or newer). The Zon system resides behind the customer's firewall or can be accessed through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel connection.
SiteScape Zon can be used as a stand-alone product or be integrated with SiteScape main product Forum, a scalable document/knowledge management and team collaboration system that can be accessed using a web browser.
Zon was originally developed by Imidio, a provider of audio and Web collaboration products. Imidio was acquired by Sitescape in November 2004. The Imidio website still offers the same product under the name Instant Collaborator.
References
SiteScape Zon home page:
http://www.sitescape.com/site/content/products/ss_zon.php
SiteScape Zon data sheet (2-page PDF)
30-Day trial available through the trial registration form
Pricing is available on request; it is not publicly available on the company's website.
