See the International Herald Tribune’s good roundup article, Meetings Going Virtual to Save Money:
The emerging trend, analysts say, goes well beyond a reaction to rising travel costs and a weakening economy this year.
“These technology tools are going to change the way corporations think about travel and work in the long run,” said Claire Schooley, an analyst at Forrester Research.
No single technological breakthrough explains the progress, but rather a series of step-by-step advances – and steady investment – in telecommunications networks, software and computer processing.
The results can be seen not only in the expensive new telepresence systems like those from Cisco Systems or Hewlett-Packard, but also in a host of more mainstream collaboration technologies – Web conferencing, online document sharing, wikis, group instant messaging and Internet telephony. The audio and desktop presentations in Web-based meetings, for example, are now more likely to be in sync and interactive.
So companies of all sizes are beginning to shift to Web-based meetings for training and sales presentations.
And the ZDNet email newsletter in my inbox this morning reinforces the theme: Now is the Time for HD Video Communications – The Smart Business Tool
