Telepresence is good and good for you, according to a recent report on the potential economic and environmental impact of the technology.
A new Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) study produced by independent analyst firm Verdantix found that organizations in both the U.S. and the U.K. will achieve almost $19 billion in financial benefits from deploying nearly 10,000 telepresence suites between 2010 and 2020. Over that 10-year period, the deployment of telepresence technology will also deliver cumulative CO2 emissions reductions of nearly 5.5 million metric tons — equivalent to taking 1 million passenger vehicles off the road. Telepresence technologies incorporate high-definition audio and video along with very high bandwidth to create an immersive meeting experience.
“Companies that invest in carbon-cutting technologies and reengineer the way they do business will not only be better placed to succeed as we transition to a low-carbon economy but can experience considerable business benefits during this transition,” said Carbon Disclosure Project CEO Paul Dickinson. “This CDP report produced by Verdantix clarifies the economy-wide transformational potential of telepresence deployment in line with 2020 climate-change policy targets.”
The analysis is based on detailed case study evidence from interviews with Global 500 companies such as Accenture, Aviva, Deutsche Bank and PepsiCo that are early adopters of telepresence suites. The Verdantix analyst team applied an innovation diffusion algorithm to forecast telepresence adoption by 2,653 U.S. firms and 457 U.K. firms with annual revenues greater than $1 billion, and studied the potential economic and environmental impact of increasing adoption.
“By substituting some business travel for telepresence meetings, large firms will achieve substantial financial benefits and add impetus to corporate sustainability commitments to cut back on CO2 emissions,” said Rodolphe d’Arjuzon, the Verdantix director who led the research. “Our forecasting model is based on an individual business implementing four telepresence suites with an upfront investment cost of $600,000 and annual operating costs of $85,000, which includes bandwidth, room usage, electricity costs and system support services. Cost savings from projected reductions in air and road travel plus productivity gains from time saved mean firms achieve a payback within 15 months.”
The unique benefits offered by online conferencing were dramatically highlighted in April 2010 when an Icelandic volcano grounded flights in and out of Europe. Officials from several providers of telepresence and videoconferencing solutions reported significant spikes in usage during the six-day period when more than 17,000 flights were disrupted.
“The effectiveness of the latest technologies and the impact of the global economic downturn are impelling businesses to reassess visual collaboration such as video telephony, videoconferencing and telepresence as viable solutions to facilitate reduced operations costs and create new sources of productivity. The volcano ash clouds from Iceland are just the latest in a long line of issues that have impacted business travel,” said Frost & Sullivan principal analyst Dominic Dodd. “Telepresence in particular has played a pivotal role over the last two to three years in helping build greater awareness and in refocusing executive-level attention on visual collaboration.”
Frost & Sullivan says rapid development in the capabilities of videoconferencing systems and Internet Protocol (IP) networks over the last three years is driving increased sales and creating further opportunities for service providers and systems integrators.
The high-tech market research firm places the value of the telepresence market at $396.2 million for 2009, and forecasts this to reach $825.9 million in 2015. The visual collaboration endpoints covered in the company’s research include both ready-built telepresence room solutions and kits of telepresence component parts that are used by third parties to construct customized solutions.
Telepresence offers a unique proposition that can deliver effective and reliable visual communications. Its development and growth in popularity parallels advancements in other forms of visual collaboration, notably the rapid emergence of high-definition videoconferencing and managed services.
Visual collaboration is also an essential component of unified communications (UC). The technological and industrial structural changes, which are still playing out, are part of a process of fully integrating all forms of visual collaboration into the wider UC portfolio of products and services.
Despite rising awareness of the benefits offered by immersive telepresence solutions, prospective buyers have moved cautiously. The majority of telepresence systems continue to require significant network bandwidth and quality of service management to perform up to their maximum potential. Globally, reasonably priced and accessible network and managed services remain patchy.
"There is growing opportunity for visual collaboration in general — being driven by an irresistible combination of technological developments and increasing customer need," said Dodd. "While telepresence can uniquely offer a number of attractive customer benefits, there are concerns about the cost and availability of the network required to support it, and also how effectively it may work with other parts of a customer's video estates."
Visual collaboration endpoints are expected to fare well in the long term. Although the product format by which immersive telepresence is delivered is likely to change, the overall demand for its unique features and benefits will continue to grow. The emerging custom telepresence solutions segment is expected to gain further importance over the next three to four years with several opportunities for systems integrators, visual collaboration applications developers and managed services providers.
"While the latest research indicates that the market for today's ready-built systems will ultimately reach its upper limit within the next five years, it also shows how demand for the immersive experience can accelerate as it is fed by other product sets such as high-definition videoconferencing and custom telepresence solutions," Dodd said.
