CONFERENCING SOLUTIONS : Rewriting the Rules

The potential for conferencing solutions in India is huge, with online
collaboration now being adopted across all verticals, including health and
medicine and government. With this, the rate of adoption of videoconferencing
within the country is set to increase.

Business conferences and decision-making options depend critically on the
availability of information at the right time. In order to save time, business
meetings are increasingly being conducted over telecommunication networks with
the help of videoconferencing, telepresence and Web-conferencing.

Benefiting All

One of the crucial factors leading to the adoption of videoconferencing is
the recent development that the concept of videoconferencing can also be applied
in rural areas of India for distance learning/education of children located in
remote areas; and to inform farmers about the need of pesticides, giving them
proper agricultural and primary education. Besides, it also helped in
introduction of concepts like telemedicine in India, where healthcare direction
can be rendered to far off villages and cities from advance countries.

Beyond the cost benefits, it also helps organizations maximize their business
efficiency with fewer resources, eliminating physical distance between
customers, suppliers and traveling staff and helps speed up the decision making
process, scaling knowledge and encouraging work balance.

Today, Web-conferencing in India is also witnessing increased growth as
enterprises are realizing its added benefits like being on hosted services.
Rather than investing in a product and enterprises, individuals can do a
Web-conference as and when the need arises, with no investment. This is
accelerating the adoption of Web-conferencing.

The hi-tech industry, BFSI, and consulting are some key verticals that see
increasing usage of Web-conferencing in India. With technological advancements
like presentation sharing, application sharing and remote control, high
performance and reliability, Web-conferencing is becoming easy.

Globalization is happening fast and communication technologies are helping
eradicate geographical boundaries. Video is gaining importance due to
cross-cultural, collaborative engagement between employees and organizations.

Share of Challenges

While videoconferencing has seen an increase in uptake, the technology in
its basic form has its share of challenges. Videoconferences, in particular,
have been difficult to set up, challenging to use, and frequently unsatisfying
in their ability to replicate in-person meetings and the benefits of
face-to-face interaction. To improve this situation, companies are working on a
new technology that delivers a unique, in-person experience over the converged
network. Conferencing solutions are becoming an integral part of the corporate
strategy of enterprises at all levels, be it telepresence solutions, or the
basic desktop conferencing.

Developments in telemedicine, distance learning, and e-governance are likely
to contribute to the spread of video as part of unified communication solutions
as well. There is also strong evidence that point-to-point, standalone
videoconferencing solutions are expected to all but disappear as the shift to IP
accelerates and vendor partnerships continue to drive the convergence landscape.

New Arrivals

The latest innovation in technology has been the introduction of
telepresence solutions. With this solution, one can experience life-size remote
participants, fluid motion, accurate flesh tones, studio quality acoustics and
lighting, true-life pictures with a true eye-contact or an approximation of it,
and immersive environments that establish collective experience among disparate
locations.

Polycom has recently introduced the Real Presence HD solution, designed to
further eliminate barriers of a geographically dispersed workforce by providing
a unique and cost-effective engrossing and interactive telepresence meeting
experience. This extremely high-quality solution is able to seamlessly connect a
virtually limitless number of sites, and people in other Polycom RPX suites,
standards-based videoconference rooms, and video-enabled IP telephony and
presence-based desktop systems. Polycom truly believes that India is a ripe
market for a space that is worth around $3 bn worldwide.

Another development is on the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) platform,
expected to be the protocol of future videoconferencing.

The Next Step

Web-conferencing is another hot new technology that is available in the
market. SaaS-based models are also increasingly becoming popular. The whole
atmosphere is gearing up for unified collaboration.

Areas such as high definition (HD) videoconferencing, including HD-based
desktop conferencing, immersive real presence videoconferencing solution in a
cinematic view with HD video, stereo surround sound, hi-resolution content, and
mobile videoconferencing solution will be the attraction in coming months.
3G-based video applications on IP platform may also be the application of the
future.

The future is the sum of several independent innovations coming together,
where one network brings all types of information (voice/data/video) into the
home, office, and industry. Organizations are using Web collaboration that works
on your enterprise network, helps view and annotate documents online. Sharing of
applications or the entire desktop and demonstrating applications live and in
real-time is another extremely important feature.

Several companies are focusing their efforts on driving the growth for
collaboration technologies. They believe that features with video interfaces
must be supported by video endpoints in a converged conference to create a truly
unified communications experience. Collaborative technologies will enable
business partners to easily switch back and forth from Web, video and
audio-conferencing, to see and hear each other and share documents in real time.

Customer Demands

Online collaboration is one of the biggest demands. Over 2,500 enterprises
in India use it in varying degrees and the demand is one level from the need to
create virtualization of many processes. This enables enterprises to be more
cost effective and productive, thus fuelling the demand.

Enterprises are also looking forward to leading edge technology, flexible
conferences, flexible deployment, common management suites, highly scalable
solutions, secure VoIP conferencing, embedded multipoint options and
videoconferencing solutions.

Networks are becoming increasingly scalable and enterprises are realizing the
benefits of having all the applications on the network. The real impact of
videoconferencing technology can only be realized when the user's experience is
close to natural face-to-face meeting, and telepresence in this respect has
already started revolutionizing room-based videoconferencing services.

Staying Competitive

To maintain a competitive edge, businesses are constantly seeking ways to
improve enterprise communications and boost employee productivity. Conducting a
meeting via conference call and videoconferencing is standard practice today,
but these modes of communication lack the full experience of an in-person
meeting. At the same time, business travel costs continue to increase, and
employees lose countless hours of productivity getting to and from meetings
across towns or across the country. As voice, video, and data applications
converge, enterprises must change their traditional business models for
interpersonal communications and empower teams with innovative tools to
instantly connect to co-workers, partners and customers on a global scale.

The inherent benefits of videoconferencing have often been offset by a number
of operational issues. India has also faced bandwidth and special networking
requirements that has lead people to perceive that videoconferencing integration
with the enterprise's overall communication network is limited and makes it an
overlay application that required special attention and administration.

But recent advancements in the collaborative communications tools are
ushering in a new era of video telephony facilitating easy usage and ad hoc
access of video conferencing. The migration to converged IP networks and the
spread of IP telephony has also provided a receptive platform infrastructure
that can enable video to become an integrated element within the communications
environment of every organization.

Expected Growth

Communication technologies help eradicate geographical boundaries. Video is
gaining importance due to cross-cultural engagements between employees and
organizations. A Frost & Sullivan survey expects the videoconferencing market to
grow at a CAGR of 24.9% till 2011.

There is a growth explosion expected (30% for the next two years) in the
medium-term, beyond which growth rates will stabilize at 22%. Growth is
witnessed not only in the large enterprise segment; but even small and medium
businesses are adopting videoconferencing solutions, recognizing the vast
benefits they offer.

One of the main drivers of Webconferencing is increased adoption and
availability of broadband. The Internet has drastically changed the way
enterprises communicate and professionals conduct their business relationships
today. One of the hottest marketing trends for enterprises across all industries
and verticals is to conduct virtual meetings without actually having to be
physically present. Webconferencing and Web-based seminars are quickly replacing
traditional business travel and telephone conference-call strategies.

In the Indian context, Internet has already pervaded the everyday life of a
city dweller, smaller towns are not far behind. The increased adoption of
broadband in smaller towns, coupled with the government taking steps to reach
Internet connectivity to these towns, will definitely pave the way for increased
adoption of Web-based collaborative applications like Web-conferencing.

India Inc, riding the wave of outsourcing, thereby realizing the need to
communicate with different geographies on a regular basis at real time, is
looking at Web conferencing and online meetings to improve efficiencies and
productivity. In India, though hi-tech sectors like IT/ITeS, BFSI, healthcare,
among others have realized the benefits of Web-conferencing and have taken to
the service in a big way, other sectors like pharma, automotive, manufacturing
are also seeing the need for collaborating and communicating real-time.

Web-conferencing is being used as an innovative tool for programs like
training sessions, review meetings, investor relations, and seminars.
Enterprises today are using Web conferences for project meetings, review
meetings, management and important board meetings, regional sales meetings,
sales pitches across countries, and internal meetings across locations. This
trend, coupled with the ready availability of broadband, is slated to make
Web-conferencing the tool to transform the office environment across verticals.

Iminent Growth

Despite its inherent technological and cost advantages, videoconferencing
over converged network faces certain challenges that impede its growth. In
India, the biggest challenges were regulatory restrictions imposed by the Indian
government and interoperability issues that result from lack of standardization.
Moreover, there is a lack of education and low awareness on the business
benefits of conferencing solutions.

Factors like cost of ownership, maintenance of infrastructure, and the
general perception about videoconferencing as an item of luxury could possibly
affect the growth of this market. At present, most enterprises connect via ISDN.
However, Internet-based connections are increasing in popularity and many public
rooms have come up in India, which allow these conferencing over IP network.
Bandwidth issues at the backend need to be addressed to ensure that full
benefits of videoconferencing can be availed.

Fortunately, broadband is fast becoming all-pervasive in India and, looking
ahead, IP-based networks will play a critical role in advancing the broadband
penetration in the country. Bandwidth availability and the price of bandwidth
will also be driving adoption of videoconferencing. India is a growing economy,
and there is immense competition among companies. Pressure to be more productive
at lower costs, short time to market and being able to reach people are
pertinent for the companies to gain competitive edge, and these requirements are
driving adoption of videoconferencing in the country.

One of the perceived challenges for videoconferencing would be the adoption
of other collaborative communication tools by-corporates. In India, the
bandwidth availability and the ability to provide last mile connectivity is a
challenge in smaller towns given the slower rate of adoption and development.
The other issue facing this adoption is the mindset of the user.

A Better Solution?

Companies are working overtime to gain more market share and outdo their
competitors. This can only be done through real-time collaboration and quick
turn around time. With video/Web-conferencing, a secured online meeting service
that not only allows discussion of ideas through sharing of applications,
documents and presentations, but also lets the participants of the meeting edit
these documents and presentations. For an enterprise whose primary business
strategy is to reduce cost and get the maximum efficiency and productivity,
video/Web-conferencing is the optimum solution, as it increases productivity and
effectiveness.

The real impact of videoconferencing technology can only be realized when the
user's experience is close to natural face-to-face meeting, and telepresence in
this respect has already started revolutionizing room-based videoconferencing
services.

Baburajan K

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in