Productivity by camera

Patricia Moore reports on how videoconferencing is enabling collaboration over greater distances and bringing down travel costs.
iwis in business today are communicating with more people, in more places and in more ways, than ever before. A New Zealand based enterprise may be working with manufacturers in Asia, suppliers in Europe, customers in the US, designers in Queenstown or Warkworth. Globalisation is the most significant breakthrough to have impacted New Zealand businesses in the past 100 years, according to the IBM Centennial survey released in May. 
Factor in branch offices and the growing number of employees working remotely and it’s clear communication has become more complicated – phone calls and emails don’t always cut it and the cost of travelling for face-to-face meetings and the consequent effect on productivity can be formidable.
Enter videoconferencing; it’s cost-effective, it’s clean, it’s even green. 
Global spending on videoconferencing and ‘telepresence’ technologies rocketed by 18 percent to US$2.2 billion last year. And it’s still in its infancy. Greater globalisation, and the availability of more products at lower prices, combined with the need for businesses to cut expenses wherever possible, indicates this figure will double by 2015.
A few years back telepresence, via specially designed videoconferencing suites, was affordable by only the most successful corporates. But today the technology is within reach of even the smallest enterprise. Dave Gee, visual communications manager at Canon Business NZ which markets the Tandberg range, says the introduction of desktop solutions – personal telepresence equipment – has changed the market.
“Today we’re talking anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars up.”
For many SMEs, video technology in the workplace is often via Skype. Workz4u director Donna Vincent says Skype software facilitates regular meetings with people working in their company’s three different locations and enables them to see exactly what is required when discussing visual concepts such as amendments to design and print work. She used more sophisticated videoconferencing technology when working with a large international company.
“Being able to see who you are talking to helps build relationships and, more importantly, seeing facial expressions, tells you they understand what you’re talking about.”
But Skype has its limitations in a business environment; predictions are the recent acquisition of the company by Microsoft will mean interesting changes to the product offering.
Business users need to consider why they want to use videoconferencing, then look at the technology available. Desktop systems tend to be more one-on-one whereas room-based provide a more traditional meeting environment for multiple participants, says Eric Greenop, MD at Asnet Technologies, a Polycom reseller. “This is why systems, be they desktop, room or full telepresence systems need to be standards based so they can adapt easily as the business users recognise opportunities for further implementation.” Greenop says this is where propriety systems fall down. “Interworking is limited or non-existent and growth is restricted to those systems – unlike those such as Polycom where all systems are standards based.”
If system development is limited ROI is greatly affected, he says, as well as usage and interface to external parties. “If not standards based, solving interface challenges is expensive if not technically almost impossible. The user experience has to be extremely positive – both in ease of use and quality of communication, as well as cost-effective, to encourage further use within an organisation.” Simon Downey, LifeSize product sales manager at Atlas Gentech, also stresses the importance of standards-based H.323 or SIP systems. “This will mean the business can communicate with hundreds of thousands of other videoconferencing units around the world.” Once people start using high quality VC they want to use it to communicate with everyone, he says. “With LifeSize you can start off with the LifeSize Desktop client and go to full telepresence with the same user interface and HD quality.
“Inter-operability is an important requirement today,” adds Downey. “Businesses don’t want to spend money on videoconferencing without knowing they can speak to most other systems out there; industry standards are very important. Ease of use is another high-priority requirement.
“The ability to schedule a videoconferencing meeting from your Outlook client and walk into a room with the call already up makes it easy to use. We can now have video at 1080p, 60 frames per second and AAC-LC audio – basically video better than the eye can see and audio better than the ear can hear, so the real improvement has to be in ease of use.”

People-centric

Muneyb Minhazuddin, Avaya AP Unified Communications head talks about ‘people-centric’ solutions. “The needs of the user are considered first.” Videoconferencing has moved on from codes and pin numbers, he says. “It’s now far more simplified and can be completed from the desktop. Solutions should be user intuitive and should ultimately result in increased staff productivity.”
Videoconferencing quality is directly related to bandwidth; that’s probably the clincher here, says Gee. “A lot of companies don’t have the spare bandwidth to run video at full speed so they run what I classify as business speed. It’s a lot less than HD but still business grade.”  HD quality is amazing, says Gee, but notes there’s little difference in price between HD cameras and standard models.
The availability of training is an important aspect of any video
conferencing purchase decision and takes away much of the fear around using the technology, says Greenop.

“It’s also an opportunity to discuss uses apart from internal meetings such as training sessions, direct connections with clients, partners and suppliers.”
Training should also include videoconferencing etiquette – the dos and don’ts – although the high quality of modern HD equipment means many of the previous don’ts are now redundant. And of course it can be done by VC.

Video managed services

There are already some big users of videoconferencing in New Zealand but it will really takeoff as the network improves and costs come down, says Simon Downey. At that stage demand for video managed services will increase, he predicts.
Overseas it’s big business for telcos; companies like British Telecom run a massive managed service business, and it will happen here, he says. Essentially management of the system is outsourced. This can become important as a company increases their number of sites and expands the uses of videoconferencing. A fixed monthly fee gives users access to end-points, the network and unlimited use of a multi-point control unit – and one phone call should be all that’s needed if anything goes wrong.
While the most significant initial savings to accrue from videoconferencing are related to travel costs, it can also make significant differences to development of new products and give a business the edge on their competitors, says Dave Gee.
“We work with a Christchurch manufacturer who has cut development time down from six weeks to less than two by showing their factory in China exactly what they want on camera. They’re making more money because they’re getting to the market faster.”
Surveys (US university business schools) have shown the vast majority of people either multi-task or lose focus during audio-conferences. Videoconferencing forces them to remain actively involved resulting in an increase of up to 200 percent in the amount of information learned and up to 40 percent in the speed of information absorbed.
Patricia Moore is an Auckland-based freelance writer. Email [email protected].