2017 Global Web Event Services Growth Excellence ...€¦ · scalability. HTML5 allows mobile and desktop viewers to join webcasts without downloading an app, which encourages greater

2017 Global Web Event ServicesGrowth Excellence Leadership Award

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2017 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Growth Performance and Customer Impact ............................................................. 4

Criterion 1: Growth Leadership Excellence ..................................................................... 4

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 7

Significance of Growth Excellence Leadership ................................................................ 8

Understanding Growth Excellence Leadership .......................................................... 8

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 9

Best Practices Award Analysis ...................................................................................... 9

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 9

Growth Performance ........................................................................................... 10

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 10

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 11

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 12

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 13

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 13

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 13



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

The global web events market, which includes webcasts, webinars, and virtual events,

continues to see solid growth as customers seek better ways to take their message to a

large audience in a more compelling and cost-effective way. Frost & Sullivan research

confirms that key market drivers spurring growth in this industry are solutions that offer

ease of use/self-service while driving greater attendee engagement, along with interactivity

helping organizations to manage, organize and distribute content in flexible formats

(ranging from live to on-demand and persistent experiences). Customers worldwide report

to Frost & Sullivan how they are leveraging web events for their marketing events, sales

enablement, training environments and corporate communications.

Shaped by trends such as mobile and social webcasting, cloud proliferation, and real time

reporting and analytics, web events are seeing significant technology evolution. HTML5 and

WebRTC are becoming the cornerstone technologies lowering the barriers to user adoption.

Simple integrations with business workflows (e.g. Salesforce, Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot and

LMS), as well as social platforms and social media sites, are also driving the effectiveness of

web events. As the technology continues to advance, and as user awareness grows, so are

the overall opportunities and revenue for providers in this space. Frost & Sullivan expects

considerable momentum in the future from wider adoption within enterprises as well as

SMBs. However, providers must still contend with several pressures.

Today’s global web events landscape is becoming complex to navigate. Customers have

numerous providers and types of solutions to choose from. Specifically, webcasting

providers are struggling to differentiate their solutions from web conferencing and webinar

services. Next-generation, all-in-one collaboration services that integrate live broadcast

capabilities are also posing a threat to established web event vendors. As users migrate to

more self-service events, pricing pressures have grown. Frost & Sullivan also expects to see

annual price declines greater than 10 percent. Last but not least, the availability of low-

priced webinars that are full featured is causing further competition for webcasting services.

The end result is the fact that maintaining and enhancing revenue growth in this market is

quite challenging.

In a competitive market, Frost & Sullivan believes that growth excellence leadership is only

achieved when a provider can clearly address the user needs and drive value to customers.

INXPO is properly addressing the emerging needs of the market by offering a webcasting

platform that allows the company to extend its reach, drive engagement and maximize ROI.

The Frost & Sullivan Global Growth Excellence Leadership Award recognizes INXPO’s focus

on innovation and technology improvements, the way that they drive a clear business

advantage, and how they enhance the true value that its customers receive.



Growth Performance and Customer Impact

Growth Leadership Excellence

The global web event services market, which includes cloud-based webinars and

webcasting services, reached $554.7 million in 2016 growing at 12.5 percent. Frost &

Sullivan expects the market to almost double in five years. In 2016, the fastest growth in

the market came from pure-play webcasting solutions at 13.7 percent - followed by

webinars at 11.0 percent. The number of webcasts skyrocketed by 31.7 percent in 2016.

INXPO has been in the web events space for over 12 years. In 2016, INXPO grew at the

highest pace among major web events vendors and, as a result, significantly enhanced its

market share. Driven by fast customer acquisition and its innovative platform, INXPO’s

revenue grew at over 25 percent over the prior year. INXPO’s revenue market share grew

to 8.5 percent of the global webcasting market (up from 5.8 percent two years back).

With an estimated 15,000 webcasts in 2016, it grew the number of events at a rapid 66.7

percent, the highest in the webcasting market. In 2017, rapid product innovation and the

launch of INXPO STUDIO are keeping INXPO on track for continued momentum, which Frost

& Sullivan expects to further solidify its market position.

Frost & Sullivan ongoing research reveals that the key performance driver for INXPO’s

success include its industry leading and comprehensive solutions portfolio that effectively

meets customer needs for webcasts, online events and web-based enterprise video

communications for both B2B and B2C applications.

Pace of Innovation

With innovation in its DNA, the INXPO team is constantly looking to disrupt the webinars

and webcasting market by developing products that provide ease of use, along with rich

engaging experiences that lead audiences to take action and drive business results.

In Q1 2017, INXPO launched its next generation webcasting platform, INXPO STUDIO.

INXPO STUDIO keeps the best elements of its predecessor, the XPOCAST platform, and

adds to it the power of HTML5 and video. Many of INXPO STUDIO’s enhancements involve

new video capabilities that enrich the webcasting experience for both the presenter and

the attendees. It offers key enhancements (such as replacing Flash with HTML5) and the

ability to present multiple speakers in the webcast, including a split screen option for

presenters allowing broadcast using multiple video sources. INXPO STUDIO automatically

shifts the person speaking into a larger window, which makes it easier for viewers to see

who is speaking. Also new is a picture-in-picture function that can insert a talking head

video into a slide or a screencam demo. In addition, this simplifies presenter controls and

enables an accommodating viewer experience that will expand the use of video in

marketing and training webinars. Lastly, a new benchmark reporting feature provides

simpleaccess to contextual reports allowing customers to gauge overall performance



compared to their own events, or the INXPO STUDIO. This helps the company’s clients

better gauge the success of their events and programs across the industry.

INXPO has clearly taken the lead in the market for the transition from Flash to HTML5,

providing IT professionals peace of mind when it comes to ease of use, accessibility and

scalability. HTML5 allows mobile and desktop viewers to join webcasts without

downloading an app, which encourages greater adoption and higher attendee

participation. With adaptive bitrate delivery, mobile viewers can still view the presentation

(even when watching on Wi-Fi or cellular connections).

Frost & Sullivan has observed over the years how video conferencing is evolving into a

mainstream communications tool. Technology advancements, improved cost-benefit ratio,

availability of video over mobile devices, and a greater flexibility in deployment models

have all resulted in viral adoption triggering not just B2B, but also B2C use cases that

have led to pervasive video for everyone. However, its use in webcasts has been riddled

with usability, scalability and quality issues. INXPO’s innovations are making video front

and center. INXPO’s differentiator and emphasis is on live presenter video, with a large

percent of its events having a live video component. Video is particularly relevant for

applications like marketing, training, and sales enablement, where adding video to the

messaging adds tremendous value.

INXPO continues to stay on a strong R&D track, which will lead to further strengthening of

the company’s solution. In June, it will add features such as a producer tool allowing

flexible video layouts; a social streaming feature which will allow live video streaming

across social media platforms, giving audiences more flexibility to watch webcasts; mobile

presenter capability; and advanced real time performance monitoring for proactive

diagnostics and management of the quality of webcasts for each attendee.

Comprehensive Portfolio for Varied Use Cases

While many leading webcasting vendors today focus on demand generation and customer

engagement as the dominant use case, INXPO’s platform supports multiple use cases in

an organization - marketing, sales enablement, training, corporate communications and

more. This allows INXPO to lead with a single platform approach for large enterprise

customers that are now consolidating purchases and standardizing across departments on

a single solution. As a result, INXPO has aggressively pursued a land and expand strategy,

which has served it quite well.

Web event customers report to Frost & Sullivan that they are looking for stronger end-to-

end capabilities to extend the life of their events. The lines between live webcasting and

on–demand content are blurring. Customers are increasingly looking for one to flow into

the other through platforms that offer end-to-end capabilities. Enabling users to share

content amplifies the reach of the message and offers a dynamic environment for the

audience to get involved. As a result, there is a growing user demand to make the web



events and videos available in one location, creating content portals or hubs where the

content can live for easy access.

INXPO’s broad solutions portfolio clearly addresses these needs. INXPO’s Video Platform

for the Enterprise offers next generation webcasting; online virtual events including hybrid

events; and a video portal platform called INXPO Business TV. INXPO Business TV

Solution allows customers the ability to set up a private and secure “Corporate YouTube”

portal, where the content created from live and recorded webcasts and other videos can

live on for on-demand consumption by internal and external audiences, extending the life

of events. In addition, INXPO has an equally strong focus on fully managed services that

are often required by its enterprise customers. INXPO refers to it as Event as a

Service(EAAS), providing end-to-end support including event strategy, audience

acquisition, video production (capturing and streaming), speaker training, and technical

support.

Strong customer acquisition

INXPO has seen rapid customer acquisition. Its customer roster includes prominent

companies like Autodesk, AON, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Red Hat, Microsoft,

Hyatt and CNBC. INXPO grew its new customer acquisition in 2016 and strengthened and

broadened its current business relationships. The company has a broadening global

footprint, and the reach of its technology has extended to 157 countries today. In

addition, INXPO’s Video Platform for the Enterprise supports localization in 19 different

languages, providing a personal experience for attendees anywhere.

Examples of successful deployments include the following prominent customers.

Large Fortune 100 Global Consumer Goods Manufacturer

Use Case - Marketing, Training, and Corporate Communications

The company has been a customer of INXPO’s for over 8 years now and is a

perfect example of its land & expand business model.

Marketing Solution: INXPO began its relationship with the Marketing

Department, doing external webcasts annually for about 4 years. The program

grew into hosting virtual events for diversity recruitment fairs for students

globally through its online events product. At the same time, the company

started using INXPO’s online events product to organize webcasts, videos and

documents for knowledge sharing symposiums with internal audiences.

Training Solution: Over the last 8 years, the company has used INXPO for skills

development starting in one division and then expanding into 8 other learning

and development groups with on-boarding and blended learning programs.

These programs are hosted through INXPO’s online events – 365 day



environments for their R&D and Manufacturing divisions.

Corporate Communications Solution: Over the last couple of years, INXPO

began working with the company on their internal corporate communications

through INXPO’s Video Portals product with 9 Divisional Networks and 20

Channels of programming. The company’s video portal station has over 100

annual video webcast programs including Quarterly Town Halls, and 15

different managerial/divisional groups hosting town halls monthly or quarterly.

HIMSS – Healthcare Information Management Systems Society

Use Case - Marketing & Training

Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) started running

individual virtual events with INXPO in 2009.

Each event would focus on a specific subject matter that would consist of 4-5

interactive webcasts over the course of 1-day. Over the years, the HIMSS

audience has increased, which has led to a greater demand of relevant industry

content. This demand led to a transformation of how they are using the INXPO

platform.

In 2016, HIMSS launched an always on, 365 virtual community called the

HIMSS Learning Center. The HIMSS Learning Center consists of more than

1,000 hours of recorded conference presentations, live and on-demand

webinars, and online course models that cover a variety of topics. Today they

have over 80,000 subscribers to the Learning Center and are seeing an

increase in attendance and overall engagement from their user community.

Conclusion

INXPO’s innovation and unique, yet simple approach are truly changing how webinars and

webcasts are being used and perceived. Frost & Sullivan firmly believes that INXPO’s

strong focus on the customer needs for enhanced and intuitive event experiences is

leading to fast growth in its revenue and market share. For these reasons, INXPO has

received the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Global Growth Excellence Leadership Award.



Significance of Growth Excellence Leadership

Growth Excellence Leadership is about inspiring customers to purchase from a company,

and then to return time and again. In a sense, then, everything is truly about the

customer, and making those customers happy is the cornerstone of any long-term

successful growth strategy. Companies that excel in driving growth strive to be best-in-

class in three key areas: meeting customer demand, fostering brand loyalty, and carving

out a unique, sustainable market niche.

Understanding Growth Excellence Leadership

Companies that creatively and profitably deliver value to customers ultimately set up their

businesses for long-term, rapid growth. This is what Growth Excellence Leadership is all

about: growth through customer focus, fostering a virtuous cycle of improvement and

success.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Global Growth Excellence Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts

independently evaluated two key factors—Growth Performance and Customer Impact—

according to the criteria identified below.

Growth Performance

Criterion 1: Growth Strategy

Criterion 2: Above-market Growth

Criterion 3: Share of Wallet

Criterion 4: Growth Diversification

Criterion 5: Growth Sustainability

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Best Practices Award Analysis for INXPO

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation.

Ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Growth Performance and Customer

Impact (i.e., these are the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the

definitions for each criterion are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team

confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which

confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a

significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key

participants as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Growth Excellence Leadership

Growth

Performance

Customer

Impact Average Rating

INXPO 9.2 8.8 9.0

Competitor 2 8.6 8.8 8.7

Competitor 3 7.8 7.8 7.8

Growth Performance

Criterion 1: Growth Strategy

Requirement: Executive team has a shared vision for the organization’s future growth and

has created and implemented a strategy that is consistent with that vision.

Criterion 2: Above-market Growth

Requirement: Company’s growth rate exceeds the industry’s year-over-year growth rate.

Criterion 3: Share of Wallet

Requirement: Customers allocate a greater percentage of their total spend to purchasing

products or services produced by the company.

Criterion 4: Growth Diversification

Requirements: Company is equally able to pursue organic (e.g., distribution channel

optimization, new product innovation) or inorganic (e.g., acquisitions, partnerships)

growth opportunities consistent with the long-term objectives of the organization.

Criterion 5: Growth Sustainability

Requirement: Company has consistently sought out opportunities for new growth,

enabling the organization to build on its base and sustain growth over the long-term.

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market.

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Requirement: Customers feel they are buying the most optimal solution that addresses

both their unique needs and their unique constraints.

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service.



Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality.

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty.

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

High

Low

Low High

Cu

sto

mer I

mp

act

Growth Performance

INXPO

Competitor 2

Competitor 3



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,

Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan analysts follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and

assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the

Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify Award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors

Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning of all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized Award candidates

6

Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on Award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible Award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official Award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice Award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select recipient

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform Award recipient of Award recognition

Present Award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of Award and plan for how recipient can use the Award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company is able to share Award news with stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess Award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s Award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best

Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry

participants and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of

experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses, and the

investment community from 45 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership,

please visit http://www.frost.com.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

THE CHAOS

http://www.frost.com/

Documents

2017 Global Web Event Services Growth Excellence ...€¦ · scalability. HTML5 allows mobile and desktop viewers to join webcasts without downloading an app, which encourages greater