A ‘BUSINESS TO BUSINESS ’ ANTIDOTE TO SARS
= VIDEO CONFERENCING

International business meetings have become increasingly difficult with travel delays & restrictions, and with new reports of the SARS disease over recent months in Southern China & Asia- Pacific regions.

Travel to major industrial and business centres in these areas have become at best less attractive and at worst life threatening.

As businesses seek alternatives to physical face-to-face meetings, interest has been increasing at a rate of 200% month-on-month for Video Connections. The Gloucestershire based company specialises in the provision, installation, ongoing maintenance and training for a wide range of video conferencing equipment.

Sales Director, Roger Paine commented: “The worldwide travel crisis facing companies with international interests has forced many organisations to review their perceptions, and often their prejudices about video conferencing."

“Often considered as a complex and expensive technology, companies of all sizes are now discovering, through necessity and survival, that in fact, today’s video conferencing equipment is very cost-effective, simple to install and as easy to use as a telephone.”

Companies with staff travelling from in-bound from SARS affected areas are also finding themselves at risk, with employees being subjected to a ten-day quarantine period. Enquiries coming into Paine’s office are also from organisations that are finding themselves unable to function without these business-critical staff for such extended periods.

With some video conferencing equipment no larger than an average computer, the latest technology is adaptable enough for one-on-one use and is proving effective in keeping essential employees ‘at work’.

Roger Paine believes however that there is a much longer term future for video conferencing once the crisis has subsided: “Many organisations are carrying out detailed travel and communication study’s which form an essential part of every organisations disaster recovery plan. With the recent WAR and SARS being the driving force behind their need to look at viable alternatives to actual physical meetings. Numerous studies are discovering that deploying video conferencing can create both huge cost savings and potential profit centres from daily use of this broadcast quality ‘eye to eye’ business tool."

“The majority of the systems that we install pay for themselves within three months if travellers only reduce the physical 'meeting habit' by as little as 35% substituting or increasing these meetings using video conferencing.

“Once Financial Directors become aware of this possibility, popularity for this technology looks set to outlive the SARS virus for years to come.”