As the volcanic ash cloud crisis provides another reason for organisations to consider video conferencing, what is out there and which Irish companies are using the solutions? asks IAN CAMPBELL

TECHNOLOGY VENDORS will give a long list of reasons why you should invest in conferencing solutions but until this week volcanoes were not among them. BT alone reports a 27-36 per cent rise in the usage of its audio and video conferencing products by customers while Citrix claimed “a dramatic increase in demand” for GoToMeeting, its online video conferencing software.

Such tools offered an impromptu solution for stranded business travellers, highlighted at an Ibec conference in Dublin where two speakers stuck in Brussels were still able to give their presentations to 200 delegates using Microsoft Live Meeting.

Now that the volcanic dust has settled, organisations might be more inclined to put technology in place to avoid repeating a week of missed meetings and costly delays. Uptake in these products has been steady for a number of years. Organisations looking to cut costs have found an easy way to reduce travel with desk-based solutions that keep employees in the office. At the same time, lowering the carbon footprint has ticked a useful box around corporate and social responsibility.

Many firms already have audio conferencing, sold as a self-managed service by telecom companies, and a standard part of day-to-day business where groups of people are invited to dial in to a shared call.

The next step up is internet-based software, using video as well as audio and enabling participants to share files and view the same desktop simultaneously. Products like GoToMeeting, WebEx and Live Meeting can be hosted from any desktop as long as it has a webcam and an internet connection.

The software is downloaded directly to the host’s computer and is designed to be intuitive to use. On-the-fly meetings can be set up in minutes, pulling in teams from disparate locations to quickly collaborate without having to book a room. All the leading vendors offer free 30-day trials, after which you can subscribe from anywhere between €19 and €39 a month.

At the top end of video conferencing are high-tech suites of cameras and monitors that need a dedicated room. In this category is telepresence, the conferencing equivalent to executive class flying which needs a 10-15Mbps connection and uses large screens and high definition picture quality to replicate the intimacy of face-to-face meetings. Expect to pay a minimum of €25,000 and €37,000 for Cisco TelePresence and HP’s Halo respectively.

Food and dairy company Glanbia is an Irish firm with three options at its disposal. This week, company chairman John Molloy was using its BT audio conferencing solution to brief employees and potential investors on the de-merger that hit the headlines. “And our people use it on regular basis to report into their managers from our 70 plus locations,” said Nickey Brennan, group purchasing manager.

The company has Live Meeting on desktops and a Damovo-built video conference room, but the use of video is more intermittent and selective, according to Brennan.

“It’s a very relevant mode of communications and our executives use it to talk to the States, but it suits some functions more than others. For sales, it’s a bit impersonal. To interact appropriately with customers, they still have to meet face-to-face.”

Audio conferencing and Live Meeting were already embedded in the culture of the Irish office of financial services group Citi, but when the company embarked on a project with its New York office it took the leap up to Cisco TelePresence rather than ramp up air travel.

“TelePresence removes all the time delays that travel would incur. You can schedule to meet the next day and all you have to do is book the room,” said Richard Dowsett, Citigroup’s head of corporate operations and technology. “Ten years ago business travel was seen as a job benefit, now it’s just a pain.”

While he is not suggesting the technology is a replacement for face-to-face meetings, he argues that it’s a pretty good substitute. “It really is like being in the room and a different experience to traditional video conferencing. You get the eye contact and it’s as real as if you were sitting around a table together.”

Accenture is another international firm that has invested in telepresence. Three 60in screens with cameras and microphones occupy a dedicated room that is furnished and painted the same way as equivalent conference rooms in its global offices. The aim is to facilitate virtual meetings that make participants feel as if they are sharing the same physical space.

The Dublin facility was kitted out two months ago for internal use as well as for clients. “We have teams all around the world delivering solutions but rather than have to fly them in, we can bring the clients in here and connect them to our experts,” said Cathal Quigley, head of Accentures local communications and high technology practice.

The challenge for video conferencing is changing a culture. Almost every business will say it is a people business where face-to-face meetings are considered paramount. While no vendor suggests they can be completely replaced, the argument is that they can be reduced.

Colm O’Neill, managing director of BT business, had one customer who successfully made the change. “For six months they completely stopped travel while it deployed a video conferencing solution. When the ban was lifted, travel rates settled at 30 per cent of what they had been.”

According to Richard Moore, business group leader at Microsoft, the change will ultimately be driven by a new workforce. A generation of social networkers are coming through that use video on web platforms like MSN and Skype.

“The whole of idea of using the computer as a telephony device and a tool for meeting up is very well understood by people in their twenties,” he said. “They know how to use the technology already and they will expect it in the workplace.”