Nemo Memo
At First Glance

Taylor Kew and Rich Baker developed and self-funded the concept in 2000, and opened for business in 2002. Veterans of PictureTel, a video conferencing company, they “just wanted the 10:00 a.m. meeting to be able to start at 10:00.” Their product, Glance, is being used by over 2,600 paying customers from eighty different industries in forty countries, for live, remote, screen observing “all day and all night.” Glance is not in competition with Netopia’s Timbuktu, which is a remote screen controlling application. With Glance, you look but don’t touch.

No, it’s not a chat client either. You bring your own phone, iChat, Skype, or conferencing method when you use Glance. Taylor tells MyMac.com they wanted screen demos to be “easy, reliable, and fast.” Being a web interface, they have “tight discipline on the whole user experience.”

When your company, small or large, needs to develop customers and markets, you use Glance to present your offering from across the world or across the room, via a live Internet connection routed through Glance’s data network. Currently, most licenses are purchased by businesses with 100 or fewer staff. Twenty percent of on-screen contact is devoted to selling, and eighty percent to subsequent training. Typically a technology-based business uses Glance to present to non-techie customers and users.

Guests just launch their browsers to view the host’s computer screen. Glance automatically uses Java (on a Mac or PC) or ActiveX (PCs only) technology for the viewer. To get started, download the software from: http://glance.net “Download latest version.” Readers of MyMac.com are offered a one-month free trial here with the special card code: 1280000. You’ll be given a Glance Address, such as “yourname.glance.net” and password: “yourname.” I recommend you spend time with their QuickStart guide: http://www.glance.net/site/support/quickstart.asp. Also play with the tutorial: Click through the application’s “Help” file, or see the online tutorial at http://www.glance.net/site/support/tutorial.asp (choose the one for the Mac).

Let’s meet company president and cofounder, Taylor Kew.

Please tell us, Taylor, about your pricing structure:

The best option for an individual or small company is a “named user subscription,” also known as a Glance Personal subscription, which costs $49.95 per month. Also, Glance offers a promotion with this option — buy two and the monthly rate is reduced to $39.95 each, per month. Users can cancel anytime. Customers can save even more with an annual subscription — 12 months for the price of 10.

Can people install and run Glance on more than one computer, from a single license?

You definitely can. Customers can install it on any number of PCs or Macs. The only restriction is one session at a time per subscription.

Why would individuals want or need to use and pay so much for Glance?

You mean so little, right? Our typical customer uses Glance as a sales tool to demo a product or show a deck of slides. The people seeing the demo quickly forget they’re miles or oceans apart. Glance helps them “feel” like they’re sitting side-by-side.

In most cases, closing just one additional sale pays for a whole year of Glance. An individual can use Glance all day for less than an order of fries. Glance lets many of our customers close business deals that would otherwise require traveling to a customer’s site, saving them a tremendous amount of money and time.

How often do you plan to update your client and server software? What’s in your future?

One thing we love about the software-as-a-service model is that it lets us continually improve and refine Glance. We have architected the service so that we can constantly add, update and refine it without our users even being aware of the improvements being made.

We have fun hearing a customer say to us, “By the way, our users never seem to run into such-and-such issue any more. Did you do something?” It’s a great feeling!

As far as the future goes, we anticipate continuing to add enhancements that bring a lot of value in very subtle ways. However, the challenge is to add capabilities in a manner that does not burden the user experience. You could say our mantra is “elegant simplicity.”

Can you give us an example of how Glance is used in an academic environment?

We have a secondary school teacher in Alaska who tutors kids who live in very remote regions. She conferences her students over the phone and works through math problems using a graphics tablet that paints on her computer screen. Glance lets the kids watch everything she writes, as though they were in a classroom with her.

What are your recommended (free?) voice conferencing solutions for more people than iChat can handle?

A lot of our customers use www.freeconference.com. The audio bridging service itself is free. Each guest just dials a long distance number, which for most people is free anyway. Freeconference.com and its competitors make their living thanks to an archaic telecom law that gives them a fraction of a penny per minute for each long distance call they “answer” at their bridge.

In my professional work as private computer tutor and group Photoshop instructor, how can I take advantage of Glance to improve my content delivery?
Actually, about half of our customers are software companies. The second most popular use of Glance (after Web demos and sales presentations) is customer training. In the same vein, Glance would make it possible for you to provide computer tutoring to anyone, anywhere. Since Glance now works on Macs, it’s great for training people on some of the fantastic applications you can run on Macs, like Photoshop.

How was you experience at January’s Macworld Expo?

It was a great show for us! The Mac community has been largely ignored by the Web conferencing industry. A frequent comment we heard was, “It’s about time we had a tool like this.” We found that the minimalist design of our desktop sharing tool really appeals to Mac users.

What is the division of labor between you and Dr. Rich Baker?

We’re a great team. I’ve got the clean desk; he has the messy one. So I do most of the detail-oriented stuff needed to keep the business running, while Rich and our engineering staff take care of technology and product development and “blue sky” stuff.

How responsive is your tech support and why are people requiring it?

Great question. Here at Glance, we don’t have any automated phone queues. Every phone call is answered within two or three rings by someone who knows how to solve nearly any technical or account management problem. Customers with questions don’t have to deal with voice prompts or automated attendants. Whoever answers the phone can provide BOTH sales and tech support. I should add that no one here works for commission. We believe that commissions would conflict with how we feel customer care should be done.

So why do we get calls? Customers call when something prevents them from using Glance.  Ironically, in all but the rarest cases, it’s not a Glance issue — it’s all the Internet “goo” strung between our users and their guests. Glance can work only as well as the network in between.

If the network doesn’t work, Glance can’t magically cure it.  But we make it our responsibility to do whatever it takes to help troubleshoot and fix whatever issue prevents our users from having a great experience. Since many small businesses — which make the bulk of our customer base — don’t have the expertise or IT resources to figure it out on their own, we fill that need. We end up being remote IT experts. Often they find that once we fix whatever is affecting Glance, other tools they’ve had problems with suddenly work again as well.

We feel that too many companies make the mistake of “disowning” customer problems. We have found the absolute best “marketing” investment we can make is delivering stellar technical support. Referrals that come from customers who called our support line are golden!

What are your parting words for readers of MyMac.com, to encourage them to do more than take a parting glance at Glance?
Next time you wish someone could “see what you’re saying,” grab some free Glance at http://glance.net!

Thanks, Taylor. Let’s stay in touch. We’ll be keeping our eyes on you.