Alex Lewis from Hyperconnectivity recently wrote a piece on how the economy will drive Telepresence use. Seeing as reduced travel costs and increased productivity are key benefits of video conferencing (and Telepresence is, after all, just a natural evolution of it), it seems reasonable that in times where the economy is struggling, video conferencing can help organizations communicate more cost-effectively than ever before.
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One can argue that the ROI model of Telepresence is still not clear enough due to the high cost of Telepresence systems. But organizations with big IT budgets have already proven that Telepresence pays off in the long term, when compared to comparative costs stemming from air travel, hotel fees, and other travel-related expenses.
Alex gives a simpler example of how “innocent” business travel from San Francisco to London for one meeting can cost a company a few thousand dollars, a cost that can be eliminated using video conferencing. This might have been acceptable in other times, but in a tight economy it surely isn’t.
This is why organizations with big IT budgets will continue to turn to Telepresence or High Definition Video Conferencing in the near future. But what about SMBs?! In tight times small businesses can benefit from video conferencing even more than those big corporations – entrepreneurs can meet with VCs, customers, business partners, even job candidates without spending those hard-to-get dollars on business trips (assuming all are using video conferencing systems, of course).
Although spending on Telepresence infrastructure within organizations should be a growth market, I believe that “personal Telepresence” (or “affordable Telepresence”) will be the real killer app for the Video Conferencing market. The recent press release from Cisco about a new service of rent-by-the-hour Telepresence suites is a step in the right direction.
Cisco’s Telepresence suite. Source: Cisco.
Cisco will be rolling out these suites together with Tata Communication of India. The suites, which will be located in more than 100 locations by the end of next year, will be open to the general public, and will offer Telepresence-equipped meeting rooms for $300-$900 an hour, depending on room size.
Together with similar suites offered by HP and Marriott International, businesses now have a valid option of replacing costly air travel expenses with affordable by-the-hour meeting rooms. In addition, these suites allow companies to postpone large investments in video conferencing infrastructure in the near future, basing their conferencing use on those suites.
Tata Communication has added another benefit to Telepresence system owners. As their public suites are launched globally, they are actually extending Telepresence out of those “secluded islands” to businesses and locations that in-house systems couldn’t reach before. Peter Quinlan, director of managed Telepresence services with Tata Communications, says “This dramatically increases the value of the private room that companies have implemented”.
Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s Chief Globalization Officer, believes that the slower economy will be “a big boost” for Telepresence. As the pressure continues to grow on enterprises to cut their costs, employees will travel less. At the same time, video conferencing systems and services are becoming more affordable, and we might indeed be heading for a “hyper growth” in the use of video conferencing, as suggested in the recent Interop panel.
But I believe that a more “private”, more “personal” solution is needed for a REAL boost to happen. A solution that will put video conferencing clients at the disposal of everyone in and around the organization, and not a high-end, high-cost solution such as Telepresence, would provide that boost. Maybe this financial crisis is finally going to make it happen. If so, I guess Fannie and Freddie haven’t plunged in vain.
Tags: Alex Lewis, Cisco, economy, Globalization, HP, hyper growth, Hyperconnectivity, Marriott International, personal telepresence, Peter Quinlan, rent-by-the-hour telepresence suites, ROI, SMBs, Tata Communications, Telepresence, travel costs, Wim Elfrink
Comments and trackbacks
1. David Parr | November 5th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Ok, I’m biased, but it seems to me that we come close to fulfilling the “more private, more personal” requirement. JustMeet.com brings a 3d virtual telepresence experience to your PC, cheaply and simply, without any need for expensive hardware or high bandwidth network connections. A webcam, headset and basic broadband are all that you need.
2. Sagee Ben-Zedeff | November 11th, 2008 at 12:13 am
@David:
Thanks for your comment and interesting link.
Your service is virtual, and sort of 3D, but I still think of something much more personal and much more impressive when I think of “3D Virtual Telepresence”.
Anyway, I am not sure a corporations, even SMBs, would rent such rooms and not purchase a VC system. But I guess time (and the economy) will tell who’s right.
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