Enterprise Telepresence and Videoconferencing Forecast

 If you're like many multinational business leaders today, then your company exists within a complex network of vendors, customers and other collaborators. This business ecosystem is as vital to you as your employees and intellectual property. Keeping it healthy helps you maintain and grow your market share, navigate challenging economic conditions, and explore new business opportunities.

In many commercial scenarios, conducting international business and staying in touch with all your key stakeholders requires regular face-to-face communications. But sometimes you can accomplish your personal interaction objectives without the need to travel to distant places.

Infonetics Research released its current Enterprise Telepresence and Video Conferencing report, which provides insight and analysis of dedicated videoconference infrastructure and endpoints -- which includes the latest immersive telepresence applications.

Collaborating in a Global Distributed Organization

"Communicating via video continues to be one of the top trends, as evidenced by strong growth in the enterprise video market. Businesses worldwide are looking for richer means of communications with their employees, partners, and customers, and enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence solutions are a natural fit," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.

According to the findings from their latest market study, Infonetics says they believe that the biggest winners in the enterprise communications market will be those who offer solutions that are multi-modal, visual (video-based), and support the collaboration requirements of globally distributed organizations.

 Highlights of the Infonetics market study include:

• Annual enterprise video conferencing and telepresence system revenue grew 18 percent in 2010 to $2.2 billion worldwide.
• Infonetics expects the enterprise video conferencing and telepresence market to more than double by 2015, when it will reach $5.0 billion.
• Due to their versatility, multi-purpose room systems account for the majority of enterprise video conferencing equipment.
• Immersive telepresence systems are expected to have the highest growth rates of all video conferencing equipment.
• Based upon their low cost and availability on PBXs, software-based endpoints out-ship hardware by 10:1
• The acquisition of Tandberg propelled Cisco to the top position – based on the overall enterprise video conferencing market, with 50 percent of revenue in 2010.
• Polycom maintains its second position for revenue, and leads for units shipped.

Value-Added Benefits of Video Collaboration

You may recall, we've reported on the compelling cost savings associated with TelePresence service usage. It's proven to be a key motivator for increasing adoption. That said, a new market study has uncovered value-added benefits -- such as building trust, improving group collaboration, and increasing competitive advantage.

Cisco unveiled the findings of a global study of perceptions of video collaboration technologies in the workplace. The research, conducted by Ipsos Mori, polled an international sample of workers from across 12 countries and found that the benefits of TelePresence and video conferencing are extending well beyond the highly touted benefits of cost and travel reduction.

Among the key findings, 90 percent of respondents believe video collaboration saves them at least two hours of valuable work time a week. One-third of respondents who frequently use video collaboration solutions estimate they save close to one full day -- seven hours or more -- per week.

That adds up to more than two months of time a single employee can gain back over the course of a year.

The Ipsos Mori market study highlights include:

• Although both users and nonusers recognize the value of video collaboration technologies (76 vs. 60 percent, respectively), workers who frequently use the technology overwhelmingly value some of the qualitative benefits more than nonusers; for example, increasing competitive advantage (73 percent of frequent users vs. 42 percent of nonusers), bringing people closer together (71 percent of frequent users vs. 40 percent of nonusers), and improving work-life balance (70 percent of frequent users vs. 37 percent of nonusers).
• All respondents, including users and nonusers, agree that video collaboration enhances the communication experience when they are working from home (68 percent), helps maintain operations if work is disrupted (67 percent), improves group collaboration (67 percent), reduces confusion (67 percent), and projects a forward-looking view of an organization (64 percent).
• Globally, the highest percentage of workers who believe they can experience time savings of seven hours or more per week is China (46 percent). 20 percent of Russian workers report they are able to save more than seven hours per week through the use of video collaboration and telepresence.
• More than half (56 percent) of the respondents in China use video collaboration technology, more than double the respondents of any other country.
• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of all respondents perceive environmental benefits to using video collaboration technology, either through enhancing environmental responsibility or as a benefit of reduced travel. Across all 12 markets, at least half of the workers see some environmental benefit.
• One-third of those polled who are not currently using video collaboration solutions say they would be likely to do so if it were available to them. The percentage of workers who have the technology available but do not currently use it is much higher in France (54 percent) than other markets, such as the United States. (21 percent), Sweden (13 percent), Germany (13 percent) and Spain (13 percent).

Orange Business Services Promotes Telepresence

Companies are increasingly turning to videoconferencing solutions, whether to reduce travel costs, ensure business continuity in the event of a natural disaster, or reduce their environmental carbon footprint. Service providers are also progressively working together to advance the adoption of new video communication capabilities.

Orange Business Services is offering its Telepresence Community, a solution that provides direct access to Cisco TelePresence in 800 existing meeting suites around the world, on a free trial basis. They are also promoting service interoperability with other global service providers.

As an established global provider of fully managed Telepresence solutions, Orange Business Services offers video communication solutions for on-demand collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers -- using the immersive virtual meeting experience of Telepresence.

"Through Telepresence Community, our B2B Telepresence solution, opening our network and customer base to work with enterprises connected to other operators' networks will create a global video community," said Marc Blanchet, senior vice president, Global Communication Services, Orange Business Services.

Working Together on a Common Cause
Orange Business Services has signed an agreement with Cisco to access its service platform. Customers in the Orange Telepresence community will thereby have access to an additional 800 private and public Cisco Telepresence rooms around the world, as well as to companies already connected via Cisco.

To encourage the B2B use and adoption of Telepresence, Orange Business Services is inviting its customers to experience their Telepresence Community solution free of charge until April 1, 2011, without any commitment.

With Orange Business Services, customers benefit from the largest Telepresence network, accessible in 140 countries, and the only one certified by Cisco in 46 countries. In order to give its customers the opportunity to maximize their return on investment in Telepresence, they are pursuing an active partnership policy with several global operators.

This interoperability is already in place with one partner, recently enabling a customer of Orange Business Services -- a leader in the pharmaceuticals industry – to apply Telepresence meeting capabilities to successfully connect to one of its partners via a different service provider.

"We aim to have at least three major interconnections in place before the end of the year and will continue adding to the community as required by the demands of our growing customer base," according to Blanchet.

Solving Economic and Environmental Challenges
As French Minister of State for the Digital Economy Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet emphasized in her commentary following a Telepresence debate held on June 9 "This conference was in itself an illustration of what Telepresence can achieve. It avoids many long and costly journeys which managers in globalized companies often need to make. This not only represents a major saving but also an obvious gain in terms of sustainable development. I can also imagine the possible effects of such a tool on remote working."

The debate entitled "The Rise in Digital Communications: a lever for emerging from the crisis" was organized in partnership with Cisco and involved 50 Orange Business Services customers spread over six sites in France and abroad.

Hannover Re Adopts Tata Managed Telepresence

The reinsurance business is evolving. Traditionally, reinsurance transactions are between two insurance entities: the primary insurer that sold the original insurance policies and the reinsurer. The companies in this industry are long-standing users of advanced communications technology, now including video collaboration.

Tata Communications announced that it has been chosen by German reinsurance company, Hannover Re, to deploy and run its Telepresence facilities -- serving the group’s internal teams in 18 locations across 16 countries, worldwide.

Tata Communications will deploy the Cisco TelePresence high-definition, immersive video collaboration systems to help employees based in Europe, North America, Asia, Middle East and Africa collaborate with each other on a daily basis.

Under this agreement, Tata Communications will provide Hannover Re with a solution that includes deployment and installation of rooms, maintenance, management and concierge service for scheduling and reservations, the world's first public rooms, open global Telepresence exchange as well as the Cisco-certified TelePresence network.

Reliable Integrated Telepresence Solution
Tata Communications' Telepresence services include managed private Cisco TelePresence rooms, public Telepresence rooms that can be rented by the hour -- and the ability for these private and public rooms to connect with each other.

"Tata Communications is the vendor that meets our expectations in respect of Telepresence operations and services. We are confident that Tata Communications will prove its reliability both in the course of the implementation project and in the operations phase," says Mr. Hartmut Fuchs, Hannover Re, CIO and Managing Director, Information and Technology.

"What convinced us is the option to integrate our internal Telepresence network into the general Telepresence infrastructure provided by Tata Communications. We expect that this will allow us to extend Telepresence based communication to business partners in a second phase."

Global Telepresence as a Managed Service
Tata will manage all aspects of Hannover Re's Telepresence needs, supported by its world-class global network. Tata Communications' open exchange also means that coverage can be extend to any public Telepresence rooms that Hannover Re chooses to use in the future, catering to external users such as customers, prospects and partners.

Tata Communications' Global Meeting Exchange enables meetings between any connected private or public rooms, and moves Telepresence from a private intra-company experience to a broader based inter-company collaboration tool of choice.

It meets the market demand for Telepresence meetings, regardless of the service provider network. With this collaboration, customers on either network can connect to each other extending their Telepresence coverage across their business ecosystem.

Claude Sassoulas, Tata Communications' Managing Director for the Europe and Africa Region, says, "This deal with one of the world's largest global reinsurance groups is a significant milestone for our organization. It will strengthen our position as a global provider in the German market, where we are looking to continue our expansion."

The Cius Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet

In today's fast-paced world, the need to be constantly connected and always accessible has made mobility a strategic corporate asset across the enterprise. Business can come to a halt when employees do not have access to network services and when they cannot easily reach the people they need -- or be reached by the people who need them.

Cisco has unveiled Cisco Cius, a first-of-its-kind mobile collaboration business tablet that delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video.

Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform.


In addition to full telepresence interoperability, Cisco Cius offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud.

Based on the Android operating system, Cisco Cius is an open platform for communication and collaboration whose form factor and applications are designed to more securely connect employees on-the-go with the right people in real-time, and to provide those workers with the ability to access and share the content they need from any place on the network.

Cloud-based Collaboration and Communication Services
Cisco Cius offers IT professionals new options when it comes to equipping mobile workers with computing devices. Through virtual desktop integration, Cisco Cius offers flexible computing options with cloud-based services -- providing dramatically lower capital costs and cost-per-user for desktop maintenance.

Businesses can also tap into the growing Android developer community that is building business-class productivity applications with appropriate IT controls. The combination of applications and flexible computing options provides a compelling alternative to today's PC-on-every-desktop paradigm.

Cisco Cius provides support for the comprehensive suite of Cisco collaboration applications including Cisco Quad, Cisco Show and Share, Cisco WebEx Connect, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Cisco Presence, and interoperability with Cisco TelePresence.

Customer trials of Cisco Cius will begin in the third quarter of calendar year 2010, with general availability in the first quarter of calendar year 2011.

Green, Financial Gains from TelePresence

Telepresence video communication systems enable groups of people to meet and collaborate in multiple locations worldwide -- while feeling as if they were all in the same room together. Executives can now equate the full positive impact from several tangible benefits of utilizing telepresence systems, according to the results of a new market study commissioned by the Carbon Disclosure Project.

U.S. and U.K. businesses that substitute some business travel with telepresence meeting services can cut CO2 emissions by nearly 5.5 million metric tons in total -- the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing more than one million passenger vehicles from the road for one year -- and achieve total economy-wide financial benefits of almost $19 billion, by 2020.

Other conclusions of the global market study determined a business with $1 billion or more in annual revenue that utilize four telepresence rooms could:

• Achieve a financial return on investment in as little as 15 months.
• Save nearly 900 business trips in the first year of using telepresence.
• Reduce emissions by 2,271 metric tons over five years -- the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 434 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
  

The study also revealed that telepresence solutions can help speed decision-making, improve employee productivity, and provide workers with a better work-life balance.

Modeling the Benefits of Telepresence Applications
The study was produced by Verdantix, who conducted in-depth interviews with executives of 15 Global 500 firms that are early-adopters of telepresence. They used the findings of those interviews to develop a detailed model to calculate the financial return on investment (ROI) and carbon reductions of telepresence.

The model looks at projected telepresence adoption among companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue and forecasts how the financial and carbon reduction benefits achieved by early adopters of telepresence would translate into economy-wide financial and environmental benefits in the U.S. and U.K. by 2020.

Carbon emission reductions among U.S. companies with annual revenues over $1 billion were forecast at approximately 4.6 million metric tons by 2020 -- the equivalent of removing more than 875,000 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

Among large U.K companies, carbon emission reductions by 2020 were forecast at approximately 940,000 metric tons -- the equivalent of removing more than 179,000 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

Total economy wide financial benefits that could be generated by 2020 as a result of large companies using telepresence in place of some business travel were forecast at over $15 billion for the U.S. and almost $4 billion in the U.K.

"Companies that invest in carbon cutting technologies and re-engineer the way they do business will not only be better placed to succeed as we transition to a low-carbon economy but can experience considerable business benefits during this transition," said CDP chief executive officer Paul Dickinson. "Telepresence is a good example of a low-carbon solution that can bring financial savings and increase productivity while reducing emissions."

Study participant Zelda Bentham, senior environment manager of global insurance company Aviva, said, "We compared executives traveling from the nine months prior to telepresence with the nine months following implementation. From an air travel perspective, we observed a 25 percent carbon footprint reduction."

Managed Telepresence Gains New Converts

As the European aviation sector encountered major disruptions, online business meeting services attracted growing interest and new demand. Apparently, few traditional globetrotters plan for, or even anticipate, the effects of a natural disaster so many were searching for last-minute alternatives to international air travel.

Online visual collaboration platforms -- that enable just-in-time face-to-face meetings -- were a natural choice for the informed business travelers who, like most of us, only recently discovered that Iceland has an active volcano.

According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, renewed awareness of videoconference solutions will create further opportunities for TelePresence service providers.

Telepresence Market Growth Predicted
Frost & Sullivan estimates the global Telepresence market value was $396.2 million for 2009, and forecasts this market to reach $825.9 million in 2015. Their research assessment included both ready-built Telepresence room solutions, and component parts that are used by third parties to construct customized Telepresence room solutions.

The effectiveness of the latest technologies and the impact of the global economic downturn are impelling businesses to re-assess Telepresence -- as a viable solution to facilitate reduced operation costs and create new sources of productivity increases.

"The volcano ash clouds from Iceland are just the latest in a long line of issues that have impacted business travel," says Frost & Sullivan principle analyst Dominic Dodd. "Telepresence in particular, has played a pivotal role over the last two to three years in helping build greater awareness and in re-focusing executive-level attention on visual collaboration."

Frost & Sullivan believes that Telepresence offers a unique proposition that can deliver effective and reliable visual communications. Its development and growth in popularity parallels advancements in other forms of collaboration as a service. Visual collaboration is also an essential part of a comprehensive Unified Communications (UC) strategy.

Immersive Experience will Accelerate Demand
The majority of Telepresence systems continue to rely on significant network bandwidth and quality of service management to perform up to their maximum potential. Globally, managed service offerings remain an essential ingredient for many users, as service providers continue to add new meeting room locations to their expanding networks.

Visual collaboration endpoints are expected to do well in the long term. Although, according to Frost & Sullivan, while the product format by which immersive Telepresence is delivered is likely to change, the overall demand for its unique features and benefits will continue to gain new user converts.

"While the latest research indicates that the market for today's ready-built systems will ultimately reach its upper-limit within the next five years, it also shows how growth demand for the immersive experience can accelerate as it is fed by other product sets such as high definition videoconferencing and custom Telepresence solutions," concludes Dodd.