VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS
New face of comms
Video is becoming a key element of the overall proposition and has been touted as the next strategic growth area in Unified Communications. How big an opportunity is desktop video for comms resellers?
adoption across businesses large and small. “It is clear that to accommodate a more efficient way of working businesses will need to implement new tools and strategies to maximise their existing operations,” said Nigel Moulton, Director of Product & Solutions Marketing, EMEA, Avaya. “Technology such as videoconferencing can play a huge role in supporting this, serving many purposes in the workplace. It can reduce the need for travel, saving time, money and lightening the organisation’s carbon footprint. It can enhance real-time collaboration and facilitate communication within companies and across time zones while saving costs and boosting worker efficiency.”
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The experience of using video at home to connect with friends or family has transformed it into a more comfortable avenue for communications in the workplace. “Videoconferencing is now becoming commonplace in both work and play, and the tools you need to communicate over video are now built into computers,” added Moulton. “Gartner predicts that 200 million workers will run corporate-supplied videoconferencing from their desktops by 2015, up from 7 million in 2008 as video is placed into the hands of every employee.”
s we emerge from the economic downturn, new forces will begin to impact technology
For the channel, this is a great opportunity to provide not only access to these tools but also transform the way businesses operate by unleashing collaboration. “Videoconferencing can also support business continuity during unforeseeable events, such as natural disasters,” added Moulton. “The snow chaos was an example of this. For some, business came to a complete halt, translating into lost time and money. Yet, for those businesses equipped with videoconferencing capabilities it was business as usual.”
The simple fact is that the technology has now reached a level of sophistication that satisfies the demands of the business in terms of quality, reliability, and ease-of-use, observes Fraser Dean, Managing Director, Vidyo UK. “And we’re not talking expensive executive room systems or telepresence suites, we’re talking about affordable mainstream desktop solutions that actually deliver the same high-definition immersive experience as telepresence, making video communication as easy and dependable as picking up the phone to a colleague, client or customer.”
Businesses are coming round to the idea that videoconferencing is an affordable and accessible technology. As a result, many companies are now looking to extend video communications
to all employees across the enterprise. This shift in mindset is driving videoconferencing beyond the boardroom to the desktop. Emerging vendors are bringing to market increasingly agile solutions that can easily be integrated into existing solutions portfolios. Dean added: “While the market has traditionally been dominated by a few legacy vendors, there is now great scope for resellers to look beyond the major players to new innovative companies offering software-based solutions that don’t require specialised infrastructure, equipment or networks and can be easily installed and maintained by mainstream IT resellers rather than specialised AV resellers.”
Approaching potential customers with this kind of software-based videoconferencing solution presents a win-win opportunity for the reseller and the end user, points out Dean. “When a salesperson can visit a potential customer and connect their laptop PC or MacBook to any available IP network – be it fixed, wireless or 3G – and connect to colleagues anywhere in the world via the Internet in an immersive HD telepresence call, then half the battle is won. The great thing about this approach is that the customer gets firsthand experience of how desktop video can be easily deployed on a massive scale, without having to leave his or her office.”
The economy has put a strain on businesses in terms of both
capex and opex expenditure and the recent bad weather conditions have compounded the issue further. However, when an organisation can economically extend video to all employees, boosting productivity through more flexible, mobile and personal communication, this can only have a positive effect on the mass adoption of visual communications.
Desktop video opens up the conversation around videoconferencing to a wider audience. However, to recognise the full revenue opportunity resellers should be looking at selling a broader UC portfolio including boardroom and multipoint solutions. A reseller that can sell infrastructure and effectively offer a managed video service will be able to recognise recurring revenues. “Desktop video is relatively easy as it is based on standard technology,” said Runa Macleod, Westcon Convergence Marketing Director. “It is clearly more complex to provide full multi-point solutions which requires a greater level of training and investment, and may well require working in partnership with VC specialist for certain peripheral requirements. We already see robust partnerships which make this a reality. Westcon has developed an effective onboarding programme for UC resellers and has been running this over the past two years. The fruits are already evident in our video sales.” See page 36 for more on video
Recruitment & Headhunting for Communications, Networking & Software Industries t: 0113 3200 401 e:
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34 COMMS DEALER JANUARY 2011
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