The story behind Demodesk
Why the world needs a Screen Sharing Revolution
Why screen sharing? Why this market? We’ve been hearing that question quite a few times. So here is our story.
Online meetings are a pain. Currently available screen sharing solutions are complex, ineffective and not built for the cloud age. We found a way to solve that pain with a new technology that is not only easier, faster and more secure but has the potential to redefine remote customer interaction as it is today.
In this blog post, I’d like to share our very own story with you and explain how we finally solve the online meeting pain.
Feeling the pain in sales for B2B SaaS — How we got the idea
The initial impulse for questioning the status quo of online meeting technology came when we started working in inside sales for B2B SaaS.
For those of you who are not familiar with B2B SaaS and inside sales, I’ll quickly provide an overview:
B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) stands for enterprise software that is hosted in the cloud and can be accessed via a browser, typically in exchange for an account-based subscription fee. Unlike traditional software that needs to be installed and hosted on premise, no downloads are necessary.
Inside sales is professional sales done remotely and relies on phone calls, remote presentations, email and other online channels — rather than meeting face-to-face.
Advances in technology have reshaped the face of sales and triggered a massive shift from traditional field sales to inside sales. There were a total of 5.7 million professional sales people in the U.S. in 2017. Inside sales made up 47% of that number (37% in Europe) and inside sales roles are growing — 300% faster than traditional sales to be exact.
At the same time, inside sales is a cost intensive field. Improvements in supporting tech can provide high-quality prospect data, enabling smarter conversations that help inside sales reps to close more deals. In 2017, the average U.S. company utilized 5.8 sales technology solutions that cost $4,581 per sales rep ($5,950 in Europe).
The remote product demo
Those numbers represent the enormous amount of money that flows into smart and efficient prospecting, lead generation and pre-qualification. When the prospect has been finally targeted with ads across all platforms, provided with email drip campaigns including highly relevant content, ripe and ready to buy he gets tagged as qualified lead — SQL to be exact. The well qualified prospect receives a call from the SDR (Sales Development Representative) who schedules an online meeting with an Account Executive to pitch the product in a personalized product demo.
The product demo is the most important step in the entire sales process. It typically refers to run a formal presentation or demonstration of the software being sold. The demo is tailored to meet the prospect’s unique use case and pain points.
And here the issues begin: Participants having severe difficulties in joining the meeting due to download issues, firewall problems, and bad conferencing information provided. Across all industries the majority of meetings is starting late with up to 15 minutes delay. When the meeting finally starts, the presentation itself suffers from transmission lags, bad resolution and clunky, punishing interfaces.
Screen sharing technology is way too complex
Reasons? Well, there are many. But the core issue is that screen sharing is excessively complex because of the inherent technology: Today, screen sharing always refers to local desktop sharing. To do that you have to install an application on your local device that basically records a video of your local desktop screen. This video is being uploaded to a server in the cloud via a constant stream. Participants receive the video stream in turn by downloading it from that server, again in a constant stream.
Sounds extremely inefficient? In fact it is.
And it gets even more inefficient: Since more and more content is moving to the cloud — be it documents, applications or the entire IT infrastructure — there is not even a need anymore for sharing your local desktop screen.
In software, cloud migration represents a significant shift across industries and practices. SaaS adoption has skyrocketed over the past decade. In 2011, just 13 percent of companies used SaaS. Today, that number is 74 percent, and 45 percent of businesses say they already, or plan to, run their entire company from the cloud.
Demodesk developed a new screen sharing technology that finally solves the online meeting pain
Demodesk makes screen sharing and conferencing a painless process. Other screen sharing apps require a local desktop. We’ve eliminated that entirely through the use of cloud-based virtual desktops. This makes for a cleaner, easier, and simpler screen sharing experience that helps overcome common problems you face when using traditional solutions.
Demodesk is purely cloud-based, easy to use, runs on all browsers and devices without any downloads or plugins, is >5x faster than traditional technologies, doesn’t lag, and enables collaborative browsing and editing.
Users can instantly join, securely share content inside a browser tab, and participate in interactive meetings.
1. No downloads
Demodesk doesn’t require any downloads, installations, or plugins. It works out of the box with any device that has a browser. Neither you nor your invitees have to install or download anything. Participants join the meeting by clicking a simple link. Once clicked, the application will load through the browser.
2. Works with any device, browser and firewall
Our platform runs on all devices and smartphones and works with all browsers, down to Internet Explorer 9. Because Demodesk acts like a normal website, even the strictest firewalls won’t block it.
3. Easy and intuitive interface
Meetings automatically open in the participants’ default browser with click on the meeting link. We use a unique link for every meeting so no logins or codes are necessary. Audio conferencing options will be provided in the meeting window. Customers can join with computer audio or dial a local conference number. Your guests don’t need PINs because we create a unique conferencing line for each meeting. Participants can even join meetings through a simplified dial-out system by answering a call.
4. Fastest transmission
By using an entirely new approach to sharing content, Demodesk vastly outperforms traditional screen sharing in both latency and throughput. Transmission is significantly faster than with traditional technologies. We eliminate lags by synchronizing transmission to all participants with our unique virtualization algorithm.
5. Professional meetings and resolution optimized for your guest
It doesn’t matter what industry you work in, the customer experience is important. Demodesk keeps you in control by allowing you to adjust the resolution of your content to fit whatever screen your customer is using. Imagine the CEO of the company you want to sell to is joining your online meeting with his iPad — with Demodesk you can make sure that resolution is adjusted to his particular screen size.
6. Secure sharing inside a browser tab
Demodesk runs securely inside a browser tab, letting you open new tabs without your customers noticing. You can leave all your other applications and notifications running to check your facts on the fly with anonymity.
7. Interactive meetings
Make your meetings more interactive by sharing mouse and keyboard control with your customers for collaborative browsing and editing. Demodesk even lets you share control with multiple parties at the same time. This allows for an entire new onboarding or support experience. Now your customers can try your services in a controlled environment that lets you intervene at any time.
8. State-of-the-art audio conferencing technology
Demodesk leverages best in class audio conferencing infrastructure providers to ensure HD quality. To ensure everyone is able to dial in, we always provide a local dial in conference line for every meeting. Your participants can either dial in with their browser or dial in with the phone and all be in the same meeting.
And that’s not even it. There are way more exciting benefits and features to come. We are on a mission to create the very best and most reliable online meeting tool out there.
Are you missing a certain feature or looking for anything in particular that I was not mentioning. I’d be thrilled if you let me know. Please send me an email via contact@demodesk.com.
