Regus ties up with Cable&Wireless Worldwide and Polycom to expand global telepresence in India

Two years after Tata Communications' tied up with Cisco to launch its telepresence suites in the country, Regus has now gone ahead and partnered with Cable&Wireless Worldwide and Polycom to expand its global telepresence by launching its first real presence suite in Mumbai at the Regus trade center in Bandra-Kurla complex.

Stating its aim as implementing videoconferencing with a difference by making technology available to businessmen to reduce travel costs on business meetings and improve management efficiency, Madhusudan Thakur, country head, Regus said, “Regus is a world leader in flexible workplace solutions, including videoconferencing. However, with the business requirements in workplaces constantly changing, our new telepresence solution provides flexibility and aids in decision making, while at the same time helps reduce travel costs and carbon footprint. It was for these reasons that we tied up with Polycom and Cable&Wireless, who can bring their expertise to the table.”

Talking about the features of the Regus telepresence suites, and what separates it from its predecessors like Cisco, Paul Newell, senior director, Asia Pacific, Polycom said, “Some of the unique features of our suites include hidden cameras in the middle of the screen, which helps maintain eye contact without the person becoming self-conscious; overhead microphones which are multi-directional, thus promoting a wireless, live environment; projector screens that are curved to provide in-depth perception and make people on-screen appear life-size; high-definition sound; special LED lighting that eliminates shadows to see faces clearly; wood paneling for clear sound and no echo; and fitted laptops in individual slots on the conference table to help in sharing information like presentations and more.”

Since the suites work on OSS, one does not not need the same facility at both ends, and it is, thus possible to bring people at different locations into the conference and on multiple platforms, including video, audio and mobile, thus providing a real-time face-to-face meeting, from your workplace itself, or even from home. Moreover, since the system allows for multiple devices and multiple vendors, anyone can be pulled into conference at any time, and even a different telepresence suite can be used in the interaction, as long as it is compatible with Regus' telepresence suite.

Talking about his company's contribution to the partnership, Alex Connors, head, international product management, Cable&Wireless Worldwide said, “While in regular videoconferencing, the image and sound quality is not always good, the new telepresence suites solves this issue. Network can be a major constraint, and numerous applications cannot make up for the quality of experience. Therefore, having the right infrastructure is important thus there are four things that Cable&Wireless brings to the suite experience namely RPX suites, capability, integration of existing services, and m-service rack (which is equivalent to a pre-flight checking of videoconferencing).”

The suite also has several variations with two-screens, four-screens, and more, accommodating up to twenty-eight people in a single session, or more.

Moreover, with its flexi pay-per-hour system similar to a cyber cafe, after booking a suite, and its new profile which cuts bandwidth requirement by half. It is ideal for India, and more so, for the rural populace, who can even access the suite online and use it for tele-education, tele-medicine, etc, as long as they have the required managed bandwidth. Regus also offers customized solutions according to individual clients' bandwidth availability.

Remarks Newell, “While earlier only large businesses were using this technology, now SMEs can also use it, and the demand in this segment has seen an increase due to reduced costs in the last few weeks of running this service (highest market share in India). The service is popular in the financial sector in India, and even the government (e-courts) is a customer.”

With twenty-four video conferencing locations in nine cities of India, Regus intends to roll out these services in all these locations by the year end. So far, it has launched across fourteen locations, including London, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, and Australia, besides Mumbai.

“With an RoI of less than six months, this presents a very cost-effective solution to businesses, and the market for this service has grown considerably over the last two years in all sectors-especially with the economic scenario and high costs of travel. Regus has recorded a 75% reduction in costs in real-time meeting vs telepresence, and as bandwidth becomes more available and affordable, this market will grow further,” added Kumar.

berylm@cybermedia.co.in