Gen-i benefits from telepresence videoconferencing

Savings estimated at $210,000 in first year

Saving on travel costs and time was the core of the business case for telepresence installations in Telecom division Gen-i’s major offices, but with just over a year’s experience of the medium the company has found it is holding productive meetings that would not have been possible or even thought of with physical travel.

More short meetings are held where a “reasonable sized group of people” reviewing a plan or progressing a project can hold direct discussions with one another and the managers to whom they report, rather than sending one of their number to another centre to represent the team.

“We would never have considered three to five people travelling to be part of a team for a half-hour meeting,” says Selwyn Rimmer, Gen-i’s head of integrated communications services.

On some large projects, the minor members of the team might never meet each other without the telepresence facility, Rimmer says. With telepresence everyone can attend the meeting, without taking too much time out of their day. They become more in touch with the project as a whole.

Read more at Computerworld.