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Excerpt: Sedky continued, “Considering airfare, car rental and hotel stay, we expect the average domestic trip to increase 2.8 percent, or $31 USD, to a total of approximately $1139 USD. An increase of 4.3 percent, or approximately $147 USD, is expected for international trips to bring the average cost to $3556. However, if you include the costs of additional travel expenses including baggage fees, dining, airport parking and even package shipping, it can add an estimated $400 to the total trip cost.” … As economic conditions continue to draw attention to meetings as a source for savings, senior business leaders are expected to seek further visibility into meetings spending and aim to measure the return on investment of meetings and events for their companies. Technology developments offer cost-effective ways to supplement meetings and events schedules. Teleconferencing and social networking sites are gaining popularity as tools to strengthen the interpersonal relationships created through traditional meetings. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=AXP%3AUS&sid=akLmbji0W4I8 ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: "Our current meeting and collaboration tools provide significant increases in productivity, but are no substitute for in-person meetings," said Chief Information Officer Ken Harvey. "Cisco Telepresence gives us the experience and benefit of actually being in the room with colleagues on the other side of the world, without having to pack a suitcase." HSBC's Cisco Telepresence rooms will initially be available at six HSBC locations worldwide; London, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York, and Dubai. Suites include a specially-designed table for up to six participants and incorporate cameras and displays, lighting, speakers, microphones and projection capability or, in smaller rooms, smaller equipment which can be used with existing office furniture. For every 2000 miles of personal air travel, one tonne of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. A single Cisco TelePresence meeting that might have required three employees to travel from Hong Kong to Chicago, can HSBC save up to $50,000 in airfare and travel costs. Source: http://www.hsbc.com/1/2/newsroom/news/news-archive-2008/hsbc-opens-global-network-of-virtual-conferencing-rooms ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: Travel has become the bane of many companies' existence, thanks to escalating fuel and travel costs, unpredictable and increasingly frequent air travel delays and metropolitan gridlock. A face-to-face meeting can cost thousands of dollars and several hassle-filled days, yet small businesses often have customers at great distances. No wonder that video conferencing was ranked the third hottest business technology of 2007 in a survey conducted by consulting group Ashton, Metzler & Associates. The technology offers small and midsize businesses (SMB) an interactive, audio-visual solution to overcome travel issues. According to Wainhouse Research, a research firm specializing in Real-Time Unified Communications, the videoconferencing industry saw a 39% increase in revenue in 2007 over 2006, hitting $1.14 billion. Gartner projects that video conferencing will be worth $12.8 billion by 2011… -Travel cost savings: Not only do businesses save on airfare but also on hotels, meals, phone charges and other incidental expenses, which are easy to identify and track. -Productivity: Employees who are not standing in airport security lines or delayed at airports can be more productive, and the general wear and tear of travel won't wear them down… -Timeliness: Businesses are able to schedule important meetings on short notice and make decisions faster, increasing the efficiency of operations and processes. Source: https://www.linuxworld.com/columnists/2008/050908-cdw-video-teleconferencing.html ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: BTN: Has the use of remote conferencing increased significantly? Reid: Definitely. At present there's four studios: Houston, London, The Hague and Singapore. The difficulty is arranging someone to be in one of those four cities crossing those time zones. For instance, my manager had to be in at 4 a.m. Houston time to be involved in a review based in the London office, so there's a little bit of inconvenience using it, but it's definitely cut back travel. The clarity on it is crystal clear. The audio is crystal clear. The hard part is getting access to the studio, because it's booked so often. My level seems to be using Live Meeting. I'm becoming a big fan of Live Meeting and doing a lot more Webcasts, which curbs travel. Jageman: We've always taken advantage of conference calling and WebEx. In New York and in (McGraw-Hill location) Hightstown, N.J., there is a place to hold the videoconference. It's really not new. It's something we've done for years… BTN: Are you getting better pricing on that premium traffic? Reid: The problem with that is your airline deals are done every few years, so depending on when your contracts are up, that's when you go and discuss that. We are getting the best possible prices on airline deals, but some are not budging. We just came out of a phase when fuel prices were so high, so that's what they were leveraging against us. We're trying to control internally that money we spend on airlines. Domestically, we're pushing a lot of communication to travelers on advance-purchase fares, having them confirm their travel plans early enough to take advantage of advance purchases. Even if you have to change it, with the change fee, the theory goes, in the long run it's the least expensive. We began recommending that to the businesses earlier this year. Source: http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003963784 ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: Cisco last month announced a series of upgrades to its unified communications and telepresence portfolios. With the unified communications upgrades, Cisco has improved mobile access, video collaboration and extended interoperability across multiple applications and devices from Cisco, Microsoft, and Apple. With its second announcement, the company extends its solution to the mid-market business with Cisco TelePresence from any conference room environment, standards-based video conferencing session or Web-based video session… The new Cisco TelePresence System 1300 Series is designed for use with existing meeting rooms that can fit up to six people. It uses one screen, three cameras, and a 65-inch plasma screen. Expanding its capability to work with other video systems, Cisco TelePresence meetings can now include video from “any standards-based high-definition videoconferencing system as well as standard-definition video conferencing, WebEx and other desktop video applications like Microsoft Office Communicator,” according to the company’s prepared statement. The company also disclosed that Cisco TelePresence is Cisco's fastest-growing new product category, with more than 300 customers and 2,000 systems deployed worldwide. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/converg/2009/041309converge2.html |
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