March 6, 2006
Screen test | Changing technology and lower costs entice businesses to look at video conferencing
By Whit Richardson
Once a month, the employees of Stormwater360 gather in a large conference room at their main office in Scarborough for a company-wide staff meeting. The gathering navigates the same course as a typical meeting, with department heads giving reports and discussing goals; what sets this meeting apart, though, is that a majority of the participants aren't actually in Scarborough.
Monthly meetings are conducted via video conferencing, thanks to dual 30-inch plasma screens and a camera at one end of the conference room that transmits images to Stormwater360's other 160 employees in Portland, Ore., and Baltimore, Md. Such gatherings would be prohibitively expensive and logistically challenging, to say the least, for the company that was formed last spring when Scarborough-based stormwater system manufacturer Vortechnics acquired its Portland, Ore.-based competitor, Stormwater Management Inc. But now, the equipment, including an additional pair of 50-inch plasma screens in another conference room, isn't just enabling monthly meetings ˆ it's used daily by the sales staff, department heads and upper management to meet with distant coworkers, says Mike Haskell, Stormwater360's IT director.
The decision last summer to equip Stormwater360's three offices with video-conferencing equipment came shortly after the merger, when managers found themselves drained from regular coast-to-coast flights, says Haskell. Now, all it takes for a Maine-based employee to have a face-to-face meeting with a West Coast coworker is the push of a button. "The value that [video conferencing] added to our company is not easily calculated in dollars and cents," Haskell says, though he estimates the system saved the company $15,000 in travel costs in its first three months.
Eliminating the need for expensive and time-consuming employee travel is just one appeal of video conferencing. But since the technology was first developed in the mid-1980s, the promise of virtual meetings has eluded all but the largest corporations, due to systems that were expensive, unreliable and complicated, says Claire Schooley, a technology analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. In the last few years, though, video conferencing has moved closer to becoming the mainstream business technology long promised, thanks to a number of factors. For starters, say IT experts, the equipment is easier to use and requires less technical assistance. At the same time, the costs of implementing a video-conferencing system have decreased, due to inexpensive electronics as well as a shift away from using dedicated phone lines to transmit images and sound. Instead, companies can now use Internet protocol technology ˆ the same technology that handles e-mail and Web pages ˆ to transmit data.
The latter shift plays into a growing trend for companies to merge all communication onto one Internet-based system, says Allen Cornwall, senior account manager at Portland-based business technology provider Systems Engineering. Years ago, limited bandwidth prevented companies from transmitting much more than e-mail over the Internet. Today, though, a broadband Internet connection can carry voice, video and data all on one network, Cornwall says. "That [convergence] is going to make [video conferencing] technology more prevalent," he says.
With more flexibility in setting up systems, Maine businesses are testing ways to incorporate video conferencing into their own operations. While some, like Stormwater360, are developing fixed systems with big screens, other small businesses such as Burgess Advertising in Portland are eyeing computer-based video conferencing that would give each employee the chance to hold video meetings with clients and coworkers from their desks. Along the way, though, those businesses are discovering that several hurdles are keeping the technology from becoming as seamless a part of the business world as the phone or e-mail.
Face time
Fifteen years ago, video conferences were highly-produced events, complete with technicians and rehearsals, Schooley says. And companies that wanted regular video-conferencing capabilities needed to purchase an ISDN line ˆ a separate data connection much like a telephone line. That line had to be paid for like a telephone line as well, costing roughly $100 per month for the line and about 60 cents a minute during conferences, says Cornwall.
These days, the equipment has become much more user-friendly. At Stormwater360, Haskell says it took longer to unwrap the equipment than to actually set up the system. The company still had to spend about $40,000 for the two 50-inch plasma screens, plus an additional $10,000 for a border controller, a piece of equipment that simplifies dialing and helps traverse corporate firewalls.
Investing in fixed video-conferencing equipment makes sense for Stormwater360, says Forrester's Schooley, because of the distance between its offices and its large sales force. For the latter, the company can uses the system to demonstrate new products and new procedures before sales people head out on sales calls. But businesses with different needs are finding other ways to incorporate similar technology into their day-to-day operations.
Biddeford Savings Bank is considering investing in video-conferencing equipment when it builds its fourth branch in Scarborough in the spring. A few weeks ago, Keith Gosselin, the bank's IT officer, began tabulating the costs and time constraints of convening large meetings at the main office in Biddeford. Bank employees need frequent training sessions because of changing regulations, for example, which the bank would like to conduct more efficiently. "Not that we have a huge area that we cover for travel," says Gosselin. "But the more time our branch managers spend out of the bank, the less time they have to spend with their customers."
Although he's unsure exactly how much a system would cost, Gosselin says additional uses for the technology could make the investment pay off. One idea is to let customers use the system as well. For example, video-conferencing terminals in each of the bank's branches could allow customers to easily meet with one of the bank's commercial loan officers, who are based in the main branch in Biddeford, rather than being unable to accommodate a customer's request on-site. "We're trying to find ways to better serve the customers the first time they come in," Gosselin says. "We're just finding that's not an efficient way for us to do business in the competitive nature that banking is today."
Burgess Advertising in Portland is experimenting with video conferencing as a means to reach a wider audience. The company wants to use desktop technology ˆ essentially Apple computers that come with iChat and iSight networking software and sport a small, add-on Web camera ˆ to foster more communication with clients. Although nothing can replace face-to-face communication, says Mary Beltrante, Burgess' PR director, occasional meetings conducted between desktop computers would free Burgess' account executives from traveling several hours for monthly meetings with clients, while still allowing them to show visual material to clients. "Right now clients I speak with are more likely to pick up the phone or travel an hour," Beltrante says. "It's almost giving a nudge to clients to embrace this new technology."
The disconnect
For now, desktop-to-desktop video conferencing remains saddled with some technical difficulties. Apple computers are not easily compatible with Microsoft-based machines that many of Burgess' ˆ or any company's ˆ clients are likely to use. For that reason, Burgess's technology still only has a very limited use within the office or with clients with compatible technology. "Everybody uses different protocol, different software," says Marc Beltrante, Burgess' IT director (and Mary Beltrante's husband). "So it's not a standard thing. That's a big shame."
However, in five years, convergent technology like an Internet-protocol phone with video conferencing will be an everyday feature in offices, bets Cornwall from Systems Engineering. Schooley from Forrester Research agrees that desktop video conferencing will be a common occurrence in years to come, as the resolution of video communication systems becomes better and bandwidth becomes cheaper. At the moment, though, she says bandwidth requirements and the cost of equipping every workers' desktop with video conferencing capabilities ˆ which could cost $300 to $1,000 per month, per user ˆ are holding it back. "They say [desktop video conferencing] makes a lot of difference in terms of communication and getting to know people better," Schooley says. "But in the business world people are concerned with cost."
Beyond cost, another factor holding back desktop-to-desktop video conferencing is a human factor. Employees can see the purpose of video conferencing in the conference room for large, company wide meetings, but moving it to the desktop makes people "feel very, very nervous," Schooley says. "It's a cultural thing."
Cultural issues and business strategy questions also are a concern for Biddeford Savings Bank. From a technical side, Gosselin believes video conferencing would make the bank more efficient, but says management must consider how it would affect customer relations. "It would really change the way we approach doing business," Gosselin says. "Is video conferencing going to take away from that personal contact that community banks have always treasured?"
For companies that plan only to use video conferencing among employees, the technology still raises policy questions ˆ such as when and where their employees need to travel. At Stormwater360, for example, managers and employees must still meet in person for occasional multi-day planning and policy-setting meetings related to last year's merger.
So far, though, employees seem to have adapted just fine to the new, virtual meeting system for most of their interaction. In fact, Haskell says, employees are now so reliant on the technology that they become "flustered" when the equipment is being used by others or down for technical reasons. "They've become so dependent [on the equipment]," Haskell says, "I think they've forgotten how to use the telephone."
Monthly meetings are conducted via video conferencing, thanks to dual 30-inch plasma screens and a camera at one end of the conference room that transmits images to Stormwater360's other 160 employees in Portland, Ore., and Baltimore, Md. Such gatherings would be prohibitively expensive and logistically challenging, to say the least, for the company that was formed last spring when Scarborough-based stormwater system manufacturer Vortechnics acquired its Portland, Ore.-based competitor, Stormwater Management Inc. But now, the equipment, including an additional pair of 50-inch plasma screens in another conference room, isn't just enabling monthly meetings ˆ it's used daily by the sales staff, department heads and upper management to meet with distant coworkers, says Mike Haskell, Stormwater360's IT director.
The decision last summer to equip Stormwater360's three offices with video-conferencing equipment came shortly after the merger, when managers found themselves drained from regular coast-to-coast flights, says Haskell. Now, all it takes for a Maine-based employee to have a face-to-face meeting with a West Coast coworker is the push of a button. "The value that [video conferencing] added to our company is not easily calculated in dollars and cents," Haskell says, though he estimates the system saved the company $15,000 in travel costs in its first three months.
Eliminating the need for expensive and time-consuming employee travel is just one appeal of video conferencing. But since the technology was first developed in the mid-1980s, the promise of virtual meetings has eluded all but the largest corporations, due to systems that were expensive, unreliable and complicated, says Claire Schooley, a technology analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. In the last few years, though, video conferencing has moved closer to becoming the mainstream business technology long promised, thanks to a number of factors. For starters, say IT experts, the equipment is easier to use and requires less technical assistance. At the same time, the costs of implementing a video-conferencing system have decreased, due to inexpensive electronics as well as a shift away from using dedicated phone lines to transmit images and sound. Instead, companies can now use Internet protocol technology ˆ the same technology that handles e-mail and Web pages ˆ to transmit data.
The latter shift plays into a growing trend for companies to merge all communication onto one Internet-based system, says Allen Cornwall, senior account manager at Portland-based business technology provider Systems Engineering. Years ago, limited bandwidth prevented companies from transmitting much more than e-mail over the Internet. Today, though, a broadband Internet connection can carry voice, video and data all on one network, Cornwall says. "That [convergence] is going to make [video conferencing] technology more prevalent," he says.
With more flexibility in setting up systems, Maine businesses are testing ways to incorporate video conferencing into their own operations. While some, like Stormwater360, are developing fixed systems with big screens, other small businesses such as Burgess Advertising in Portland are eyeing computer-based video conferencing that would give each employee the chance to hold video meetings with clients and coworkers from their desks. Along the way, though, those businesses are discovering that several hurdles are keeping the technology from becoming as seamless a part of the business world as the phone or e-mail.
Face time
Fifteen years ago, video conferences were highly-produced events, complete with technicians and rehearsals, Schooley says. And companies that wanted regular video-conferencing capabilities needed to purchase an ISDN line ˆ a separate data connection much like a telephone line. That line had to be paid for like a telephone line as well, costing roughly $100 per month for the line and about 60 cents a minute during conferences, says Cornwall.
These days, the equipment has become much more user-friendly. At Stormwater360, Haskell says it took longer to unwrap the equipment than to actually set up the system. The company still had to spend about $40,000 for the two 50-inch plasma screens, plus an additional $10,000 for a border controller, a piece of equipment that simplifies dialing and helps traverse corporate firewalls.
Investing in fixed video-conferencing equipment makes sense for Stormwater360, says Forrester's Schooley, because of the distance between its offices and its large sales force. For the latter, the company can uses the system to demonstrate new products and new procedures before sales people head out on sales calls. But businesses with different needs are finding other ways to incorporate similar technology into their day-to-day operations.
Biddeford Savings Bank is considering investing in video-conferencing equipment when it builds its fourth branch in Scarborough in the spring. A few weeks ago, Keith Gosselin, the bank's IT officer, began tabulating the costs and time constraints of convening large meetings at the main office in Biddeford. Bank employees need frequent training sessions because of changing regulations, for example, which the bank would like to conduct more efficiently. "Not that we have a huge area that we cover for travel," says Gosselin. "But the more time our branch managers spend out of the bank, the less time they have to spend with their customers."
Although he's unsure exactly how much a system would cost, Gosselin says additional uses for the technology could make the investment pay off. One idea is to let customers use the system as well. For example, video-conferencing terminals in each of the bank's branches could allow customers to easily meet with one of the bank's commercial loan officers, who are based in the main branch in Biddeford, rather than being unable to accommodate a customer's request on-site. "We're trying to find ways to better serve the customers the first time they come in," Gosselin says. "We're just finding that's not an efficient way for us to do business in the competitive nature that banking is today."
Burgess Advertising in Portland is experimenting with video conferencing as a means to reach a wider audience. The company wants to use desktop technology ˆ essentially Apple computers that come with iChat and iSight networking software and sport a small, add-on Web camera ˆ to foster more communication with clients. Although nothing can replace face-to-face communication, says Mary Beltrante, Burgess' PR director, occasional meetings conducted between desktop computers would free Burgess' account executives from traveling several hours for monthly meetings with clients, while still allowing them to show visual material to clients. "Right now clients I speak with are more likely to pick up the phone or travel an hour," Beltrante says. "It's almost giving a nudge to clients to embrace this new technology."
The disconnect
For now, desktop-to-desktop video conferencing remains saddled with some technical difficulties. Apple computers are not easily compatible with Microsoft-based machines that many of Burgess' ˆ or any company's ˆ clients are likely to use. For that reason, Burgess's technology still only has a very limited use within the office or with clients with compatible technology. "Everybody uses different protocol, different software," says Marc Beltrante, Burgess' IT director (and Mary Beltrante's husband). "So it's not a standard thing. That's a big shame."
However, in five years, convergent technology like an Internet-protocol phone with video conferencing will be an everyday feature in offices, bets Cornwall from Systems Engineering. Schooley from Forrester Research agrees that desktop video conferencing will be a common occurrence in years to come, as the resolution of video communication systems becomes better and bandwidth becomes cheaper. At the moment, though, she says bandwidth requirements and the cost of equipping every workers' desktop with video conferencing capabilities ˆ which could cost $300 to $1,000 per month, per user ˆ are holding it back. "They say [desktop video conferencing] makes a lot of difference in terms of communication and getting to know people better," Schooley says. "But in the business world people are concerned with cost."
Beyond cost, another factor holding back desktop-to-desktop video conferencing is a human factor. Employees can see the purpose of video conferencing in the conference room for large, company wide meetings, but moving it to the desktop makes people "feel very, very nervous," Schooley says. "It's a cultural thing."
Cultural issues and business strategy questions also are a concern for Biddeford Savings Bank. From a technical side, Gosselin believes video conferencing would make the bank more efficient, but says management must consider how it would affect customer relations. "It would really change the way we approach doing business," Gosselin says. "Is video conferencing going to take away from that personal contact that community banks have always treasured?"
For companies that plan only to use video conferencing among employees, the technology still raises policy questions ˆ such as when and where their employees need to travel. At Stormwater360, for example, managers and employees must still meet in person for occasional multi-day planning and policy-setting meetings related to last year's merger.
So far, though, employees seem to have adapted just fine to the new, virtual meeting system for most of their interaction. In fact, Haskell says, employees are now so reliant on the technology that they become "flustered" when the equipment is being used by others or down for technical reasons. "They've become so dependent [on the equipment]," Haskell says, "I think they've forgotten how to use the telephone."
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