Overview
Glowpoint, Inc. (“Glowpoint” or “we” or “us” or the “Company”) is a leading provider of cloud managed video services and the only “pure play” service provider in the video space. We are dedicated to exclusively providing hosted or managed services to the enterprise users of video conferencing and telepresence, and not making, selling or reselling hardware or software solutions for video. Our services, delivered via our cloud-based OpenVideo™ platform (as discussed in further detail below), are securely accessible via any network (private or public) and are technology-agnostic. The Company pursues its recurring revenue business model by delivering services to more than 500 different enterprises in over 35 countries supporting thousands of video endpoints, immersive telepresence rooms, and infrastructure for business-quality, real-time, two-way visual communications. Glowpoint’s managed services solve the challenges associated with achieving consistent high-quality video experiences and controlling the total cost of ownership related to technology and support, while increasing the return on investment (ROI) of its end users’ video equipment by providing seamless access to video equipment outside of their immediate enterprise network.
Glowpoint provides wholesale programs and private-labeled resale options for hardware manufacturers, network operators and systems integrators seeking to offer video services as a value-added addition to their collaboration and communications offerings. The Company maintains multiple strategic partnerships that are core to its global go to market strategy.
Glowpoint’s solutions are hardware-agnostic (e.g., the video equipment may be manufactured by Cisco, Polycom, Logitech, Sony or others) and network-neutral (i.e., connectivity may be via native Internet or network provided by AT&T, Verizon, TATA Communications, British Telecom or others), supporting all recognized video standards across any IP network.
With its carrier-grade, multi-tenant OpenVideo™ platform built in-house, Glowpoint provides a range of remote monitoring and management services that increase the utilization of the video deployment by ensuring all systems are on, all the time, and calls start on time with the highest possible quality.
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Glowpoint’s core value proposition for customers includes the enablement of integration of their video deployment into the unified communications environment, allowing wide adoption and usage of video communications, increasing ROI and lowering the total cost of ownership. With its multi-tenant infrastructure in the cloud, Glowpoint provides an alternative to capital-intensive, premise-based infrastructure, which customers traditionally have had to purchase for the video environment to function, as well as the tools and services to enable wide adoption of video communications throughout their business. Glowpoint is a leader in managed video and global video exchange services that provide businesses and service providers a way to link together their “islands of video” across third party private networks and enable organizations to drive adoption.
The Company has been recognized in the industry for focusing on providing an innovative customer experience through our use of IP-based video functionality and innovation. Industry awards and recognition over the last few years include: Excellence in Globalization Award (Frost and Sullivan); Top Ten Managed Service Provider (MSP mentor); Best US Managed Conferencing Services Provider (Telepresence and Videoconferencing Insight Newsletter); PACE Award for contributions to the advancement of video communications (Telespan); and Growth Company of the Year, Finalist (New Jersey Technology Council). We are also widely followed and discussed in market research by the leading industry and research analyst firms, including Gartner, Forrester, Frost and Sullivan, and Wainhouse Research.
As the video conferencing, telepresence, and unified communications industries continue to mature, Glowpoint believes it has established itself as the “go-to” provider for organizations and other service providers to support their video communication needs.
Glowpoint, a Delaware corporation, was formed in May 2000. The Company operates in one segment and therefore segment information is not presented.
Glowpoint Services and Features
Today’s telepresence and video conferencing environments have become a key part of a complete unified business communications strategy. For organizations that are already using video, and for those exploring its benefits for the first time, OpenVideo™ is a unique platform that can help them achieve a successful video collaboration program.
Traditionally, video has presented challenges by presenting a complex maze of systems and networks that must be navigated through and closely managed - and although most of the business-quality video systems today are “standards-based,” there are inherent interoperability problems between different vendors’ video equipment, resulting in communication islands. Glowpoint’s suite of cloud managed video services can be accessed and utilized by customers regardless of the technology and network they are using. Customers who purchase a Cisco, Polycom, LifeSize or any other HD video solution, for example, may all take advantage of the Glowpoint OpenVideo™ cloud regardless of their choice of network. Glowpoint’s core services are offered as part of OpenVideo™ to generate monthly recurring revenue for the Company.
OpenVideo™ is a cloud platform that offers telepresence, video and unified communications and collaboration users a way to meet and communicate across the varying hardware/software platforms and carrier networks in a secure and seamless fashion. OpenVideo™ combines years of best practices, experience and technology development into video collaboration platform that provides instant connectivity, self-serve and managed help desk resources, and the ease of use that makes video collaboration seamless and effortless. Beyond the technology and applications, OpenVideo™ is built around security protocols to ensure that enterprises and organizations of any size can communicate to any other desired video users in a secure, high-quality and reliable fashion.
Glowpoint’s services are categorized as follows:
Monitoring & Management Services and Collaboration Services (“Managed Services Combined”)
We provide end-to-end cloud managed services for telepresence, conference room, desktop, mobile solutions, and video infrastructure. We have a team of video experts utilizing the latest in remote management technologies, with Video Network Operations Centers (VNOCs) and Points-of-Presence (PoPs) all over the world.
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We offer a complete portfolio of remote monitoring & management services that can help make video more widely available, improve up-time, drive higher usage, off-load IT teams, or all of the above. Our service packages can be customized to suit the needs of the business, whether for a large enterprise, small or medium sized business.
All of Glowpoint’s unique features and services have been designed so that the entire suite can be private labeled by other service providers or companies who want to integrate video communications into their existing products quickly and cost effectively. Glowpoint will provide all of the video infrastructure and support, including customer portals and billing applications, as a private label service for a third party. This means that our services are branded with the other company’s name, logo and other information, our live operators answer calls using the other company’s name, and the other company’s end user customers view the service as provided by that other company even though it is actually “powered by Glowpoint.” Glowpoint has been involved in a number of private label opportunities, branding various services for multiple strategic global partners. Many strategic global companies in the unified communications industry have recognized Glowpoint’s value to their own sales and marketing efforts.
Glowpoint’s collaboration services, hosted via the OpenVideo™ cloud, are designed to connect video users all over the world whether they are on immersive telepresence, conference room, desktop or mobile devices. Customers that are registered to the OpenVideo™ cloud can connect to any other customer in the OpenVideo™ cloud and get access to Glowpoint's full suite of cloud managed video services, including the Virtual Video Room, video bridging, and webcasting services.
Network Services
In order to provide customers with access to the OpenVideo cloud, Glowpoint maintains a dedicated video overlay network. We have partnered with Tier 1 MPLS providers, including Global Crossing, Masergy, XO, Qwest, TATA, PCCW and Verizon Business, to provide a global access footprint with flexible options to consume our suite of OpenVideo services. Our OpenVideo cloud is also connected to the Equnix Ethernet Carrier Exchange to provide native Layer 2 Ethernet services to enterprise customers.
Glowpoint leverages the last mile and network connectivity of carriers and provides an option for business to purchase a full overlay network for their video only needs. The network bandwidth that we provide for these dedicated overlay networks ranges from 1.5Mbps to 1Gbps. As a result of this, our network services business carries variable costs associated with the purchasing and reselling of this connectivity.
With our network services, we provide customers with the flexibility to either source the entire network from a single provider, maintain existing network and extend a logical connection to the OpenVideo cloud or bring bandwidth to OpenVideo datacenters. Although a declining component of our revenue stream, we believe that network services will continue to be an integral part of our revenue mix in the future, driven by new connectivity needs to connect and peer with Glowpoint’s OpenVideo cloud.
Professional and other services
As with technology hosting and management services, we sought new revenue sources using our network and video engineering capabilities. With the growing interest in convergence and the desire by some enterprises to add the transport of video to their enterprise networks, we have provided professional services and believe the market for such services is growing. Additionally, our extensive knowledge of all leading video conferencing equipment makes our video engineers a valuable resource for manufacturers on an outsourced basis. While our primary focus is generating monthly recurring revenue from our subscription services, our professional services have been a valuable lead for video communication opportunities leading to sales of our managed video services.
We have bundled certain components of our managed services to offer video communication solutions for broadcast/media content acquisition and event services. Customers have used our managed video services during events to cost-effectively acquire video content for broadcasters, cable companies and other media enterprises, especially in the sports, news and entertainment industries. While it includes our core managed video services, IP-based broadcasting and event services require more project management and dedicated operational and engineering personnel than our standard subscription services. Rather than using an expensive satellite feed, companies can acquire broadcast-quality standard definition footage at a fraction of the cost from Glowpoint over a dedicated IP connection. Since 2002, we have provided this service to ESPN during the professional football and basketball drafts. ESPN has used our service for interviews from team locations with coaches, players and analysts during their coverage. In 2007, we launched a High Definition (HD) content acquisition solution that we branded TeamCamHD and RemoteCamHD. This offering provides two-way HD video communication for content acquisition from remote locations. Glowpoint now provides a full suite of HD solutions for the broadcast, entertainment and media industry and is considered a high-quality alternative to the traditional means of acquiring content in many applications, including interviews and even full motion video.
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Intellectual Property
Glowpoint has invested in research and development, engineering and application development in the process of building our managed service and cloud platforms. Some of this development has led to awarded patents and a number of patent applications, as described below, along with ongoing recognition in the industry as having unique tools and applications to enable their video applications.
Cloud Architecture
Glowpoint’s OpenVideo™ cloud is based on a Service Oriented Architecture (“SOA”) that enables us to create unique unified communication service offerings. SOA is a foundation framework that abstracts the physical layer from the service application to enable the virtualization of resources. Glowpoint’s cloud based video services can be delivered as a software and infrastructure service in a hosted environment or can support a hybrid with a mix of public and private clouds.