A Primer on Telepresence

With the economy the shape it is in right now, companies will be looking for an edge in cutting costs.  Watch for more companies to implement telepresence and video collaboration solutions in the effort to reduce corporate travel, improve global operations, and drive remote workforce productivity.

Video technologies and organizational capabilities have improved in the corporate environment.  As a result, companies are finally able to realize strong business benefits to support efforts in business uses as varied as reducing the corporate environmental footprint, promoting globalized workforce collaboration, accelerating complex product development initiatives, and aiding remote talent acquisition.

Telepresence Overview:  Telepresence – a kind of video conference providing the sensation that all participants are actually in the same room – is set for explosive growth.  TelePresence delivers real-time, face-to-face interactions between people and places in their work and personal lives using advanced visual, audio, and collaboration technologies.  These technologies transmit life-size, high-definition images and spatial discrete audio.  Telepresence delivers video that makes it easier than ever to discern facial expressions for those crucial business discussions and negotiations across the "virtual table." The telepresence illusion is so real that many execs forget the person they’re talking to is not really in the same room.  See a video of how this looks.

Opportunity: According to recent research by ABI, the whole market, which includes telepresence equipment, network services and managed services, is forecast to grow from a 2007 level of not quite $126 million to nearly $2.5 billion in 2013.  Telepresence solutions can cost in the neighborhood of $300,000, but many telepresence operations are handled as managed services.  And less expensive “executive” systems designed for one or two people mean that telepresence technology is now migrating down to middle managers, expanding the market.

Driving Forces:

• The high cost of travel (in money, wasted time, and carbon emissions).
• Increased need for a remote workforce to participate in time-sensitive collaboration sessions.
• Demands of worldwide outsourcing
• Improved and lower cost technologies for video, audio and collaboration

Inhibitors: Videoconferencing has traditionally been a difficult technology to implement in the enterprise, with problems: latency, jitter, poor video equipment, insufficient concern over the videoconferencing environment, lack of business purpose, organizational commitment, and comfort with using this technology.

Segmentation: According to a report by IDC (Worldwide Telepresence 2008–2012 Forecast and Analysis), there are three primary markets for telepresence solutions:

• CEO and senior executive travel reduction (whether corporate jet or commercial airline travel),
• Teamwork, and
• Room rentals for companies unable to afford their own rooms.

Vendor Landscape: According to ABI Research, (see their vendor matrix - registration required) the top five telepresence vendors to watch are:

1. Cisco Systems - Cisco is positioned very well to participate in the future telepresence market and they are pushing their solutions at this website.
2. Tandberg - http://www.tandberg.com/totaltelepresence/
3. Teliris - http://www.teliris.com/
4. Polycom Incorporated:  http://www.polycom.com/usa/en/products/telepresence_video/telepresence_solutions/index.html
5. Digital Video Enterprises:  http://www.dvetelepresence.com/

Future Vision: It is easy to imagine a future where we use video conferencing as easy as we use instant messaging today.  The adoption will move from simple employee to employee webcam video calls to social networking and collaborative solutions that connect not only employees to one another, but CEOs to CEOs.  Future business applications will be video conference enabled, allowing businesses to collaborate seamlessly with their vendors, partners, and customers.

Future Challenges: Looking forward to the future, the biggest obstacle facing the mass adoption of telepresence is interoperability.  Although telepresence vendors have begun to broach the issue of interoperability, the market is far from allowing complete federation across all systems to allow for room-to-room calling.  Vendors are pushing forward very slowly interoperability, saying that standards, modularity, and interoperability are at odds with the art and science behind creating telepresence experiences and the potential for continued innovation in this space.  So at least for awhile, interoperability will take a back seat to innovation.

Hungry For more information?

• See Aberdeen's report published "Being in Two Places at Once: Telepresence vs. Videoconferencing in the Enterprise," a benchmark report on enterprise telepresence and videoconferencing usage based on the input of over 40,000 data points from over 180 corporations.  Note:  report underwritten by Tandberg and Polycom.
• Wikipedia article:  Telepresence
• IDC Report Worldwide Telepresence 2008–2012 Forecast and Analysis
• ABI Research report:  The Global Telepresence Market:  Leaders, Drivers, Opportunities, and Forecast
• IBM Sametime Web Conferencing

Comments

[Video and Teleconferencing Products Rental]

Video conferencing will definitely cut some expenses for the company, whats more when it is obtained trough rental fee. The company will really save a lot from this two business strategy.

[Bill Chamberlin]

Thanks for stopping by adamlexpotter. Yes, rental is just one way of paying for video/telepresence equipment. While it would some offer short term savings for those experimenting with video conference, long term, I bet owning the equipment would probably be the best way to go.