Cultivating a Collaboration Society

By Harold German

T@G (Telecom Agents Group)

2/2/05

Remember those bulky, expensive video conferencing systems you would see in well-equipped conference rooms not too long ago? You know, the ones the office manager never allowed you to touch? Every now and then, you were invited to sit in on a video meeting and you would curiously await the pixely face on the screen. The one-time fuzzy, unreliable and inaccessible collaborative technologies are now much improved and making a pronounced and permanent impression on organizations of all sizes seeking efficient ways to work.

The appeal of collaborative capability is not new. Collaboration technologies like Web and video conferencing have been around for some time, the latter for more than a decade. Face-to-face meetings are vital to the success of business relationships and work-related projects. However, collaborating in today’s fast-paced, ever-connected world demands that we be at all places at once. A way to maintain this level of communication without ringing up hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel costs and losing hundreds of valuable hours in productivity every year is through conferencing technologies.

Over the course of three years, Wainhouse Research conducted a detailed study into the incorporation of collaborative technologies in the work environment. The data revealed that people are increasing their reliance on these technologies and this demand is coming from various industries, including legal, government, education and manufacturing, among others.

There are several trends that have spurred the recent growth in conferencing. These include:

Increased Reliability

Most companies using video conferencing conduct their meetings over integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines. Although it has always been the most affordable medium for video communication, ISDN is plagued by performance, reliability and image quality issues. For years, the typical conferencing user has had to deal with the dreaded dropped call. Imagine being in the middle of an important board meeting with senior-level, international attendees and the call abruptly ends due to a service interruption. For this reason, large corporations accepted the initially higher costs of IP networks and enjoyed relatively uninterrupted service.

For the last few years, however, there has been a significant migration to these IP networks, a medium that is much more robust and now more affordable. Used almost exclusively by larger organizations to date, video over IP is rapidly gaining adoption among medium and small companies. The image quality of the video calls is superior, the point-of-entry is significantly lower and the call connections are more reliable. Some service providers even guarantee their networks’ uptime. Conferencing integrator IVCi, for instance, touts a 99.99 percent guaranteed network uptime behind its flagship service IntelliNet, which is used by some of the nation’s largest companies.

Improved Quality

Video call quality constantly is improving, with this trend continuing due to H.264, a newly ratified video compression standard by the Switzerland-based International Telecommunication Union. H.264 aims to cut the necessary bandwidth for sending video during a video conference in half. This translates into improved call clarity/definition and an increase in simultaneous call capacity. It also means there is a substantial reduction in the bandwidth needed to hold video conferences. This year, a call placed over a 256kbps IP connection (substandard economy class) looks as good as if it was placed on a 384kbps IP connection (quality business class) last year.

As a result, companies of all sizes now can enjoy the same quality only larger corporations previously could access. IT departments also now devote fewer departmental resources and reduce the recurring operating costs associated with implementing video conferencing.

Video conferencing technology has improved so drastically that it’s literally like being in the room with the person you are meeting. Polycom recently released a product called the VSX 7000, which touts television-like video quality and integrated speakers that deliver sound crisp enough to make you forget that your meeting participants are actually not in the same room.

Expanded Uses

Companies of all sizes are employing a combination of conferencing technologies, as each serves its own purpose. For instance, companies use video conferencing to supplement face-to-face meetings, where the tangible elements of human presence, body language and eye contact are all active components of the meeting. This differs somewhat from Web conferencing, which companies are using almost exclusively to collaborate and share documents. In other words, video and audio conferencing are being used to make faster, smarter decisions, whereas Web conferencing is being used to get work done rapidly in a collaborative environment.

Increased Affordability

What is happening in the conferencing technologies space is akin to the boom of the home computer in the ’80s. It was only a couple of years ago that revolutionary technologies like video conferencing were only available to large companies with equally large budgets. This has changed in the advent of the consumerization of conferencing technologies.

Two years ago, you could have expected to spend $30,000 on two video conferencing units and many thousands of dollars on monthly network usage fees for a modest package linking two offices. Although big firms were happy to pay these prices to eliminate travel cost and productivity loss, the formidable upfront costs were a barrier to entry for smaller companies.

Today, entry-level products start at as little as $400 and maintenance-free, unlimited-use services packages start at $500 per month. One year ago, a simple package linking two offices in different geographical regions with the high-end IP service would have cost tens of thousands of dollars in setup, network integration and maintenance. Today, the same package can be purchased for as little as $4,000.

Last year, a study by Wainhouse Research showed that companies could expect to break even 12 months after implementing a video conferencing system, factoring in cost savings associated with business travel, lodging and dining. With recent price decreases, companies now easily can break even two to three months after implementation.

Changed Priorities

With the continuing violence in the Middle East, escalating outbreaks of violence in Africa and Europe and the creation of a national terror alert, there is more resistance to fly than ever. Communication in today’s business world is different; it’s riskier and costlier. A recent report showed that employees still would prefer not to fly to their next out-of-town business meeting. Employers also prefer that their employees not fly since it is estimated that companies can reduce their traveling expenditures by more than 50 percent every year with video conferencing. In many cases, the savings equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About the Author

Harold German is marketing director for IVCi, which has created the IVCi Educational Webinar Series, where you can learn all about the numerous conferencing technologies and products available to your company. Some titles include: Video Conferencing for Small/Medium-Sized Businesses, Run Your Own Low-Cost Web Seminar and Streaming Video Today. All are available online free at http://www.ivci.com/international_videoconferencing_news_webinars.html.

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