Reluctant Users Slow O Take Up Videoconferencing Essay

The public relations executive was enthusiastic on the ph peerless. The IT company he represented had started installing super C entropy centres and energy-efficient computers. Would I like to fly to calcium to see for myself? That would be a 2500 burl round hit from my home in Midwestern Canada. According to the online calculator from Terapass, the trip would release 1,1232 pounds(about 500 kilos) of CO2 into the atmosphere. If youre really into green engineering, couldnt we do a videoconferencing instead? I asked. Sure, state the PR person. We are totally into green issues.He promised to arrange it. Months laters, nothing had happend. The sophisticated industry is quick to praise the benefits of malleable communication, but videoconferencing is one area where things father failed to live up to the hype. Videoconferencing has not importantly displaced travel, say Frank Modruson, CIO for global applied science consulting firm Accenture. As the IT sector continues to energy its green values, this mismatch between magniloquence and reality is becoming harder to ignore. So why are comparatively a few(prenominal) pile using videoconferencing?Andrew Davis, managing partner at online collaboration market research firm Wainhouse, says the technology is let down by usability. For galore(postnominal) peple, videoconferences are just too difficult to set up. This is why Nortel is emphasizing the service side. The barrier isnt the technology. Its the work around that technology, says Dean Fernades, the companys General Manager of Network Services. Nortel is one of several companies getting into a relatively new segment of the videoconferencing market called telepresence. particularly equipped rooms enabled people to have the appearance _or_ semblance as if they are sitting crosswise the table, with life-size video representations of remote colleagues in high-definition video. Customers pay to use Nortels facilities, which outhouse also handle video filmi ng, alter the room to double as a production facility for corporate TV, for example. Nortel go out also handle post-production tasks such as editing. Accenture, on the other hand, opted for the capital investiture route. Mr Modruson said it is installing rooms in Chicago and Frankurt, and hopes to roll out another(prenominal) 11 cities in the next few months.