Video Conferencers Vie to Keep Clients as Air Travel Rises

By Ken Schachter

Long Island Business News

6/15/04

HAUPPAUGE - Video and Web conferencing providers, whose growth has been stoked since 9/11 by jitters over terrorism and SARS, say their value proposition will help them retain their new clients even as business travelers return to the skies.

The Travel Industry Association of America forecast business travel— which represents 20 percent of travel overall— will increase 5.7 percent this summer versus a 3 percent decline in the summer of 2003.

Jeff Austin of Austin Travel pointed to the lengthy security waits at airports as an indication that business travelers have returned to the fray.

"When the economy bounced back, businesses started traveling again," Austin said. "Businesses still find value in being out on the road, seeing customers face-to-face. They may replace some nonessential travel with Web conferencing."

Chris Bottger, vice president and general manager at the IntelliNet managed conferencing services unit of Hauppauge-based IVCi, acknowledged that business travel allows for handshakes and the opportunity to share a meal—things that conferencing can't match.

"We don't see video-conferencing as replacing travel completely," Bottger said. Still, he said that video-conferencing is "starting to play an ever-increasing role as a critical business tool."

An April survey by Wainhouse Research of 480 respondents in business, education, government and the military found that 63 percent said they took fewer trips in the past year because of terrorism and security inspections, while 70 percent said conferencing is relatively more affordable.

Mark Galanti, a meeting consultant at the Bayport office of Chicago-based InterCall, a provider of conference hosting services, agreed that Web and video-conferences don't take the place of business meetings. "People like to shake hands and close the deal," he said.

But Galanti said the affordability of conferencing options has embedded the technology into InterCall clients such as Pall Corp., Computer Associates and Henry ScheSchein. "No matter how good the economy is, companies will try to run lean and mean," he said.

Bottger said IVCi, for instance, has rolled out bundled products including unlimited video-conferencing aimed at the small-to-midsize-enterprise market. The $899-per-month service includes a free hardware upgrade every three years, he said.

Closely held IVCi, whose customers include Symbol Technologies, Entenmann's Bakeries and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, began as a reseller of video-conferencing hardware but has added audio, video and Web hosting services to its portfolio.

The 9-year-old company has grown its revenue 60 percent, from $15 million in 2002 to $24.4 million in 2003.

Recent entrants into the fast-growing Web conferencing market are technology giants such as Microsoft and Oracle.

Research-firm IDC forecast that 250 million people will be using Web conferencing software by 2007.

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