Survey Says: 66% of Businesses Plan to Increase Their Use of Telepresence

Posted by James Martin at 10:19AM PST

Cisco TelePresence technology is showing up in a lot of places these days: hotel suites, TV programs, and this June, on ESPN during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

And if you work for an organization that has TelePresence, chances are good you’ll be seeing the high-definition virtual meeting technology in use a lot more throughout the company, too, according to a new survey.

In its biannual networking survey, independent research firm TheInfoPro found that 77 percent of businesses that have tried TelePresence say it has met their objectives, such as the need to reduce travel and other costs. What’s more, 66 percent of respondents say they plan to expand TelePresence to additional sites within their organization.

TheInfoPro conducted the survey of key decision makers at midsize companies and Fortune 1000 enterprises in February. For the study, respondents were asked what they believed were the most important trends currently occurring throughout information networking, which included security infrastructure, voice and network infrastructure, and wireless networking services.

The survey also found that 25 percent of decision makers at midsize and large enterprises say they plan to increase their use of unified communications technologies, such as unified messaging and audio conferencing, this year.

“The key trend of 2010 among enterprises is striking a balance between cost-efficiency and effectiveness,” said Bill Trussell, managing director of networking research, TheInfoPro. “For companies that have been forced to either eliminate or reduce travel budgets due to the downturn and rising fuel prices, TelePresence and UC have offered solutions that are both highly productive and low-cost to the network budget.”

Of course, with Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified Communications, we’re all about helping organizations be more productive and collaborative while reducing costs.

But sometimes, playing can be as important as working, especially when it comes to the World Cup soccer tournament. This year, Cisco TelePresence will play an important role in ESPN’s coverage of that event. Read Chris Barker’s personal account of his brush with soccer legend John Harkes back in 1994 and again on May 20, when Harkes was on hand for the ESPN/Cisco TelePresence announcement.