Enterprises looking to drive down costs and improve communications increasingly are turning to video conferencing, according to a survey done for Global IP Solutions. The survey echoes what other studies are finding, and supports the strategies of such vendors as Cisco, Polycom, Juniper, Tandberg and Radvision.
Businesspeople are increasingly using video to collaborate with colleagues,
partners and customers, according to a survey released Feb. 3.
In a survey of 1,200 senior business professionals conducted by Research Now
for IP communications company Global IP Solutions, the majority said they have
used a video conferencing application. Eighty percent of those surveyed in China
said they had used such an application, while about 60 each in the United
States and South
Korea said they had.
Almost 47 percent of those surveyed in Japan
said they had used such an application.
In the United States,
40 percent of those surveyed said their companies will be deploying a video
communication solution within the next six months to two years, according to
the survey. About 80 percent of those polled in China
said their companies were planning deployments within the next 18 months.
"The results of this survey underscore the increasing value of video in
business communication," Joyce Kim, chief marketing officer at GIPS, said
in a statement.
It also is evidence supporting the strategies of such vendors as Cisco
Systems, which are making huge investments in their video communications
capabilities. Cisco CEO John Chambers has
said
video
will change the way companies do business, and has pointed to his own
company as an example. Cisco is increasingly relying on video conferencing and
telepresence technologies for everything from internal meetings among far-flung
employees to releasing corporate news to the outside world.
A host of other vendors also are making a push into the space, from
Polycom
partnering with the likes of Juniper Networks and Siemens Enterprise Communications
Group to Logitech acquiring LifeSize Communications.
UC (unified communications) vendor Radvision announced Feb. 3 that it had
bought a portion of Aethra's high-definition video conferencing endpoint
business.
According to GIPS' survey, 79 percent of those polled who use video
conferencing rely on consumer applications such as Yahoo, Google's Gmail, AOL
and Skype. Another 21 percent use video conferencing systems from such vendors
as Cisco and Polycom.
The respondents said the biggest reasons for using video conferencing
technologies were to drive down travel expenses and improve the clarity of
their business communications and understanding.
They also said the technology helps build relationships and enables users to
pick up subtle cues that might otherwise be missed in phone calls or e-mails.
Vendors will have to improve the performance of their products to keep the
momentum going. About 61 percent of respondents said video delay and video
freezing were their primary concerns regarding the use of video conferencing
technologies.
GIPS' survey echoes the results of
other
studies that are finding that enterprises are increasingly turning to new
communications technologies, including UC, VOIP (voice over IP) and
telepresence, to improve their collaboration capabilities, improve production
and reduce costs in such areas as travel.
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