With the economy in a downturn, it’s no surprise that companies have been slashing travel budgets. But at MetLife, officials say the focus is also on employees’ quality of life, keeping them home as much as possible. As a result, the insurance giant has recently made a big push into telepresence technology.

This involves an “immersive video experience,” or technology that provides high-end, high-definition visual and audio communications in a completely integrated environment. The goal is to make anyone involved in these meetings feel as if they’re actually in the room with the other meeting participants, regardless of where everyone is physically based.

To achieve this, MetLife is using Cisco TelePresence in three dedicated conference rooms in Chicago, New York and New Jersey, and plans to expand to other offices nationally and internationally this year. The company’s not yet sure how many more offices will use the technology.

“Instead of having to take people away from their families, you walk down to the room and turn on the lights and have your three-hour meeting and it’s extremely effective,” says Anthony Nugent, executive vice president of employee benefits sales. He regularly uses telepresence to communicate with his direct reports in Chicago and Somerset, N.J., and the clarity is so good that, he says with a laugh, “Everyone jokes around that they can reach a Coke across the table” from one location to another.

MetLife has seen a direct cost savings as well as better employee time efficiency and a way to help the company meet its “green initiative” goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 20% this year, says Nugent. The company finished its initial telepresence rollout last May and hasn’t yet determined an exact savings, but Nugent estimates the use of the systems will provide double-digit ROI in travel savings alone.

Depending on how a system is being marketed, there can be a blurry line between high-definition videoconferencing and outright telepresence. Some vendors call a single-screen, high-end videoconferencing system telepresence, says Roopam Jain, an analyst at Chicago consultancy Frost & Sullivan. Others define telepresence as a system with multiple screens and customized furniture.

Telepresence essentially uses the same basic technology as videoconferencing, says Ira Weinstein, an Atlanta-based senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, LLC. “Anyone who says this is not at least in some way related to videoconferencing is selling you something.” The difference, he says, is that the video in telepresence has been stepped up to a level of “experience,” with greater attention to detail, quality, environment and usability.

A telepresence system at a minimum must include the codecs (chips that convert data), the compression and decompression devices, the cameras, the displays and what Weinstein calls the telepresence user interface or engine. He says one screen can work fine, depending on the experience a company is looking for.

Step into a telepresence studio and you’ll find the typical conference table along with a couple of very large flat-screen displays. The wide screens fill your peripheral vision, Weinstein says, and “your brain sees that as being in the same room” as someone else. “All of this is a way of tricking your mind and making your brain think you’re actually at an in-person meeting.

“These telepresence solutions are about meeting, bonding, teaming and meeting face-to-face without getting on the plane — with five minutes’ notice,” Weinstein adds. “I can conveniently meet with people without sacrificing the experience.”

The use of both high-definition videoconferencing and telepresence is on the rise, despite the high prices. Telepresence systems can range from over $100,000 to $400,000 for a complete studio setup. There is also a recurring monthly fee on top of that, ranging from a few thousand dollars to upwards of $18,000, depending on the level of service wanted and the amount of network bandwidth that is required.

In comparison, even high-definition videoconferencing systems cost much less, in the range of $6,000.

Given the cost disparity, telepresence systems — including Cisco’s CPS 3000, Hewlett-Packard’s Halo, Teliris’ 6G and Polycom’s HDX 7000 and HDX 9004 — tend to be geared toward larger enterprises that have sky-high travel expenses. For their part, high-definition videoconferencing systems are being eyed more frequently by small and midsize businesses and bank branches.

Additionally, network provisioning and management costs must be factored in. “Some customer environments already have the excess bandwidth available on their network which they can utilize to run telepresence,” Jain says. In other cases, she adds, customers would need to acquire a separate overlay IP network to ensure the availability of bandwidth as well as the quality of service required for telepresence.

Immersive telepresence was a $350 million market in 2008, Jain says. She expects this segment to grow to over $1.7 billion by 2014. In contrast, the videoconferencing systems and services market in 2008 was about $1.9 billion. Currently more than 60% of all videoconferencing systems that are sold are HD-based, says Jain.

“The expectation for 2009 was that telepresence was going to take a hit because of the recession and low capex budgets, but we continue to see high growth numbers from the telepresence vendors,” Jain says. “Companies and organizations are looking at technologies that will help them through these times with reduced travel budgets, and they want effective technologies to communicate with global teams. And green initiatives are playing into this too.

Concurring with Jain, Weinstein calls telepresence a very fast-growing segment, but says unit sales are in the single digits right now, in the vicinity of 1%. The real action, says Weinstein, is in sales of “a typical videoconferencing solution, high-definition or not, tossing it into a room and enjoying the experience. Telepresence is growing quickly, but it started off small and is not the lion’s share of the market.”

Telepresence, videoconferencing — or both?

At MetLife, the three Cisco telepresence systems cost just under $1 million to install, according to Paul Galvin, VP of enterprise services in the information technology group. Nugent says he uses both videoconferencing and telepresence, depending on what his needs are. Videoconferencing is a better choice for one-on-one situations, such as “if someone is going to do a quick presentation to me,” he says, but telepresence is ideal for meetings where participants are located in multiple offices.

Telepresence allows him to have face-to face-contact with a broader group “so it allows me to get to know people better,” Nugent says. He runs an organization with people based all around the country and used to require that his direct reports come to New York for quarterly reviews. Now they can stay in their offices and he can discuss business with a wider range of employees.

“Using telepresence allows me to see and virtually interact with more people on my team instead of just my direct reports,” says Nugent. “When we use telepresence for meetings, people who wouldn’t normally be asked to travel to New York have the opportunity to make presentations and get valuable exposure to executive management. It really facilitates face-to-face interaction with a broader cross-section of employees on an economically efficient basis.”

MetLife is considering putting a telepresence system at a business processing plant in India to avoid having employees fly over to see it. The company is also looking at ways to utilize telepresence with salespeople across the country. The idea is to have as many people using the system as possible, Nugent says.

“Flying out of Boston for a meeting when I was 20 sounded great, but the sales pitch I always give is we’re respecting the time of the employee,” he says. “So if we can give a person the effectiveness of being there and then be home with his family, it’s two wins.”

More of this article at http://www.conferencingnews.com/news/28380

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Seventeen-year-old Peyton Smith has never traveled outside the United States.

On Tuesday, the Cumberland Valley High School senior, a future international relations major, was transported from the video conference room in the back corner of the Capital Area Intermediate Unit’s Summerdale office to the flat landscape of the Camp Taji military base in Iraq.

Through the Freedom Calls Foundation, Peyton and seven classmates from Cumberland Valley High School, along with students from Red Land High School in the West Shore School District, participated in a video conference with soldiers deployed in Iraq.

Primarily known for uniting families via video conference for daily catching up and milestone events like graduations and births, Freedom Calls Foundation has since 2006 offered the FACT (Freedom Calls American Classroom Teleconferencing) program to students in kindergarten through college, FACT program chair Kathryn Harlow said.

The organization hosts between 25 and 50 FACT conferences each month, she said.

Curious

The participants from Cumberland Valley were a mix of students from an Advanced Placement geography course and those interested in military service, district spokeswoman Tracy Panzer said.

Of the eight participating students, two have already enlisted and one is considering enlisting, she added.

Senior Corey Troy, 17, is thinking about the military, inspired by his grandfather and uncle who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, he said. Hearing about the daily work and activities of the deployed soldiers only further piqued his interest, he said.

“They make you realize stuff that’s going around, and it changes you,” he said.

The participating high school students were curious about the Iraqi people (there are a few rock throwers in the north, but the people are mostly open, friendly and inviting, the soldiers said), the advice the soldiers would give to a student considering the military (be patriotic, disciplined and have a good attitude, they said) and how the soldiers use their free time while on base (“Yes, it’s true,” one of the soldiers said. “We can get movies before they hit the theaters.”)

New appreciation

Cumberland Valley 10th-grader Victoria Orlando, 15, had imagined that the soldiers would be in a harsh, uncomfortable setting, she said. Instead, they seemed relaxed. She was surprised to learn that the people in Iraq are kind to them, she added.

“I thought it was interesting that they said that everyone was kind and welcoming,” Peyton said. “That’s really good to know that they’re over there and people are being nice to them.”

The goal of the FACT program is to allow students to learn about the life of a deployed soldier and the culture of a different place, to pick up details not often shared in reports from the field and to ask “softer” questions about the Iraqi people and the day-to-day duties of a soldier, Harlow said.

“Seeing the face and voice of a deployed person instills a sense of respect that isn’t learned otherwise,” Harlow said.

Deployment to Iraq typically lasts one year, the soldiers said. When they return home, they will bring with them the kindness shown to them by the Iraqi people, an appreciation for the United States and a larger worldview, they said.

“I’ve never left the country. It’s good to hear that we are fortunate,” Peyton said. “They (the soldiers) are appreciated.”

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) announced the availability of formal practice guidelines for the use of videoconferencing for the delivery of mental health services. These guidelines are designed to form the standard of care for such services and will be the basis for the development and practice of uniform, effective, safe and sustainable telemental health practices. They will serve as both an operational reference and an educational tool to aid in providing appropriate care for patients.

The use of telemental health has been in existence for over 40 years. It has been used successfully as a tool for treatment in diverse areas such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), providing counseling services in rural areas and offering health medication management for institutionalized patients. A number of payers and health services are starting to offer telemental health service benefits and may soon adopt these guidelines as their basis for coverage.

The guidelines focus on the use of two-way, interactive videoconferencing in the delivery of telemental health services, which now has an abundance of significant research documenting its effectiveness as well as a comparison of outcomes between various approaches used in its delivery. Other modalities such as the use of telephones and email are not addressed in this document.

An evidence-based compendium of empirical research was first established and used as the basis for the guidelines. Both the evidence-based document and practice guidelines were developed by panels composed of experts from the field, representatives from relevant medical societies and other strategic stakeholders. The guidelines and standards generated by ATA have undergone a thorough consensus, a period of public comment and rigorous review, with final approval by the ATA Board of Directors.

The guidelines as well as the evidence-based document are available at no charge on the ATA website at www.americantelemed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3311 :  .

The American Telemedicine Association is the leading resource and advocate promoting access to medical care for consumers and health professionals via telecommunications technology. ATA brings together diverse groups from traditional medicine, academic medical centers, technology and telecommunications companies, medical societies, government and others to overcome barriers to the advancement of telemedicine. ATA was established in 1993 as a non-profit organization and headquartered in Washington, DC. www.americantelemed.org

Source: The Age

New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought — with the help of electrodes, a computer and Internet connection.

Orange Business Services announced Monday the results from a recent CIO survey in which IT decision-makers identify that unified communications, which refers to simplifying and integrating all forms of communications, can improve productivity.

Respondents indicated that integrating mobile devices into the enterprise, implementing real-time identification through presence, unified messaging, instant messaging, followed by audio conferencing and desktop videoconferencing, can all have a positive impact on business efficiency, said the service provider.

The report, which surveyed more than 600 CIOs from multinational corporations operating in a wide-range of industries, highlighted that on average organizations support at least seven different communication tools and applications used by employees, said Orange, adding that it is this multitude of communication tools that pose increasing challenges to internal collaboration and ultimately slow down business processes and decision-making.

Respondents were asked about the obstacles multiple communications have on their organization. Ninety-five percent agreed that advancements in communication technologies have undoubtedly had a positive impact on business productivity, but they that the speed of communication has been compromised as a result of the increasing number of communication tools in place, said Orange.

Fourty-five percent of CIOs consider that multiple communication channels cause severe delays in colleague response time which can negatively impact business processes and productivity, said Organge.

Another 35 percent agree that uncoordinated or ineffective colleague contact can hamper an organization’s ability to meet deadlines on time. This has a direct link to lost sales and revenue or increased customer dissatisfaction, Orange added.

An increasing number of companies, nearly 41 percent, are currently exploring unified communication strategies, while another 15 percent are trialing or evaluating a unified communications system, said Orange, adding that 6 percent of organizations have fully implemented related products.

Respondents identified that customer services, 33 percent, and sales, 28 percent, are the major beneficiaries of unified communications, Orange noted.