Business Travel Tips

It seems time for videoconferencing technology is coming. The New York Times reports as the technology has matured to the point where it is often practical, affordable and more productive. As a consequence, with rising travel costs and airlines increasingly cutting service, companies large and small are rethinking the face-to-face meeting — and business travel.

However the newspaper quoted Forrester Research analysts as saying the emerging trend goes well beyond a reaction to rising travel costs and a weakening economy: “These technology tools are going to change the way corporations think about travel and work in the long run,”

Past predictions that technology could replace travel have been frequent and premature. The main difference today, analysts say, is that the technology is finally catching up to its promise. […] Companies of all sizes are beginning to shift to Web-based meetings for training and sales presentations. “Only in the last two years has the technology gotten to point where it really makes sense to use it,” […] A report last month by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, a group of technology companies, and the Climate Group, an environmental organization, estimated that up to 20 percent of business travel worldwide could be replaced by Web-based and conventional videoconferencing technology.

Even if the most dedicated business travelers keep to do much of their work in person with clients, they are increasingly using online collaboration tools for work within their firms.

- Costs -
Completed telepresence rooms, typically with three huge curved screens (and a fourth screen above for shared work), custom lighting and acoustics, cost up to $350,000.
Cisco, which has more than 200 telepresence rooms, figures it is avoiding $100 million in yearly travel costs, and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from air travel by 10 percent. H.P. says air travel among its offices with telepresence rooms is down 25 percent.

When used regularly, the rooms pay for themselves within a year, analysts estimate. (source)