Eco-worries a green light for videoconferencing?

Videoconferencing is being touted as a technology to help organisations stay 'green' and lean - but there is more to getting it right than just installing the hardware.

While videoconferencing technology is well established, it has recently received a boost because businesses are keen to limit their impact on the environment. Recent research from Frost & Sullivan found the market for high-end videoconferencing - so called telepresence - will reach $409.6m by 2013 as CIOs look to cut costs and carbon emissions alike.

And it's not just top execs who are aware of the issue. UK employees think more than one-third of face-to-face business meetings are both unnecessary and counter-productive, according to research commissioned by WebEx, which found workers attend 91 face-to-face meetings per year.

Manufacturing union Amicus is one organisation that has been using videoconferencing to reduce its travel costs.

The union, which has two million members, spent £1.5m on travel in 2005, and hopes the use of videoconferencing will reduce that figure, boost its green credentials and help improve the work/life balance of its staff.

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The union has been using the technology for the last six months across 38 UK sites.

Amicus director of IT Dominic Hook explained: "Having people travel from every region to London is a lot of time wasted for a two- or three-hour meeting."

The union has already held an event where the general secretary addressed 200 people in 20 offices via videoconference. Hook said: "The alternative to that in the past was to bring all those people into London for a conference."

So when will Amicus see a return on its investment in videoconferencing? Hook said: "With the cost of travel we have at the moment we think if we push it we could get it in three years but we are aiming for five."

The union is making a gradual start with the new conferencing tech. For example with a group that might meet six times per year, the plan is to make one of those meetings a videoconference. Speaking at a roundtable arranged by videoconferencing company Tandberg, Hook said: "You don't want to ban all travel because you need people to get together."

The roundtable of experts came up with some tips for companies that want to make sure they are getting the most out of their videoconferencing investment. They are:

• Show users a demo. Once they've seen it they will understand the concept better.

• Keep it simple. Give users tips on how to get the best out of the technology. Don't make it too complicated to use but as user-friendly as possible

• Have a good chairman. Make sure you have someone who is able to understand the technology and manage the personal interaction