Friday, July 25, 2008

Telepresence Not Jets

Webcams not DC-10s. From the New York Times a nice piece highlighting the enormous travel savings that are possible when companies vigorously embrace remote meeting technologies. The article focuses on high-end telepresence, but I think that companies could see significant benefits with medium range webcams and software.

I should come up with some method of measuring telemeeting impact. Although it's not that hard to figure out. If you have folks who travel between two or three locations all the time, investing in a $100,000 telepresence system in those three locations would pay for itself in about 200 trips (if you spend $1500 per trip between airfare, hotel, cars, and wear and tear on your employees' souls).


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the green aspects of this set up. Add Solar powered networks and it is a carbon neutral company. BAM!

Stella Commute said...

Thanks for commenting, SK...the environmental benefits are nontrivial, but unfortunately a lot of companies aren't as concerned about that as they are saving some big money. But everyone should be glad of the environmental side effects...