Barriers One technical barrier to conferencing with people from outside the organization has been firewalls. While expected to continue to be an issue for a small number of organizations with high security needs, the impact of firewalls on RTC is rapidly declining. Firewalls themselves are becoming more adaptable, and the technology to connect through firewalls is becoming more mature. In addition, MP99 has a feature that can distinguish firewall issues from other connection problems, saving the company and its client's time and effort needed to identify underlying causes of problems that occur. Because the RTC chosen by SPSS has proven to be both easy to use and adaptable to many situations, the organization has high expectations for its future impact.
Most people quickly expand on what they've been taught and can intuitively explore new features.
Because of the ease with which people can master and adapt the technology to their specific situations, Tom sees members in every area of the organization creating new and unanticipated uses for RTC tools which will enhance their own and the organization's functioning in multiple ways. He believes SPSS will not be able to accurately assess the value and impact of this RTC technology until a much larger percentage of the organization has been trained and has begun to use it in many situations. Like Tom, we believe the possibilities offered by RTC technologies have only begun to surface. Tool vendors are working to make these tools more familiar and easier to use while changes in related hardware and software make them increasingly accessible. All these factors together are accelerating the dissemination and adoption of RTC products.