WEB CONFERENCING WEBEX www.webex.com $0.45 per minute

Lou Iuppa's search for a collaboration tool ended when he discovered WebEx Communications Inc., the online meeting service that's attracted attention as business travel has declined since Sept. 11, 2001. "It was immediately effective," says Iuppa, VP of business development with content-management vendor Xyvision Enterprise Solutions Inc.

WebEx lets workers set up online collaboration sessions--complete with whiteboarding, chat, application sharing, and presentation capabilities--without special software, hardware, or IT support. Someone wanting to initiate a pay-per-use session can use his or her credit card to cover the 45-cents-per-person, per-minute cost and expense it later. A 30-minute session involving five people costs $67.50, potentially saving hundreds or thousands of dollars in travel expenses.

Companies can also opt for a subscription that allows for unlimited use by a predefined number of users. With prices starting at $100 per port, per month, a company can have up to five employees using WebEx every minute of every day for $500 a month.

Iuppa started using WebEx two years ago on a pay-per-use basis, working with one member of Xyvision's sales team to provide product demonstrations to prospective customers. As use grew, a subscription made more sense. Today, about 50 people at Xyvision use WebEx regularly, with Iuppa sometimes running sessions for four hours a day.--Tony Kontzer