Working Smarter, Working Better

Extracts from a report by Lyonsdown Media Group, distributed with Sunday Telegraph, June 28th 2009.

“Today’s businesses face unprecedented pressures on all fronts: economic, competitive, environmental. The aim of this report is to introduce readers to “a new way of working” that we believe can help them tackle these pressures head-on and emerge stronger. In particular, this report will focus on how telepresence and video conferencing are enabling companies to facilitate high-quality communications between distant teams, individuals, partners and customers, while reducing the reliance on travel and increasing employees’ productivity.But we also see how combining these tools with other collaborative technologies that fall under the banner of “unified communications” (UC), can ensure that workplace conversations are as rich and fruitful as possible, regardless of the physical location of participants.”

“Organisations that have already taken steps towards new ways of “smarter working” seem impressed with the results – and with the returns they’ve seen on their early investments. According to a recent survey conducted by respected market analyst firm Wainhouse Research, video conferencing customers plan to continue spending on these technologies in 2009, in order to take advantage of new product developments in a field where the technology is maturing at a lightning-fast pace. Of the companies polled by Wainhouse Research, 32 per cent of installed systems were already capable of supporting 720p high-definition (HD) video conferencing. 23 per cent of respondents had either deployed telepresence suites or were planning to do so during 2009. In addition, interest in integrating video conferencing to UC platforms has grown significantly.Unlike the video conferencing technologies of a few years ago, today’s new generation of products deliver an immersive, intimate and effective experience – in other words, it’s easy to forget that the other participants are not really in the same room.”

“We can confidently expect these trends to continue and for smarter working to become a fact of life for employees at forward-looking companies. And that will happen not just at the most senior levels but throughout the ranks of workers whose daily decisions and dialogues contribute to overall organisational competitiveness.Whatever your role, high-definition, telepresence-like experiences are already available on your desktop today. How you and your organisation take advantage of the benefits of this new breed of technologies is up to you, but we hope this report will provide valuable insight into how best to achieve “smarter working”.