Federal Gov't Invests $13.8M in Telepresence

The Federal Department of Finance in Australia will deploy 20 Telepresence units: 13, 3-screen CTS 3000's (USD: $299,000) and seven single screen CTS 1000's (USD: $59,000) to link seven Commonwealth offices, Prime Minister and Cabinet Offices and the offices of Premiers and Chief Minister agencies in every state and territory.

This is the largest Government deployment of Cisco Telepresence in the world to date.

On the assumption that an average business class domestic flight costs around $700 (with flexible business class fares in Australia ranging from $300 to up to $2000), the system would need to enable ministers to defer travel on some 20,000 occasions before the Finance Department could calculate a direct financial benefit from the system.

Today, Cisco Systems conducts over 4,000 Telepresence meetings and the combination of Telepresence and WebEx has reduced corporate travel by more than $400M year over year. The average cost per employee for travel has also been reduced by almost 50%.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Citrix Downplays Need for Video at SMB Level

As I mentioned in a blog in October...that Telepresence would enter the SMB and consumer markets, John Chambers: CEO of Cisco, has predicted that Telepresence will be in homes in less than a year. http://davidchao.typepad.com/webconferencingexpert/2008/10/telepresence-ma.html

Brett Caine, President of Citrix, sees things differently. Brett Caine sees little need or demand for video at the SMB level. He has also stated that there is little demand for instant messaging, video chat, and teleconferencing...though Citrix just acquired audio provider Vapps based in New Jersey. (It should be noted that Citrix does not have instant messaging or video capabilities today and perhaps why they the perception is that these solutions are of "little need or demand.")

The only potential obstacle that I can see with consumer-based Telepresence is internet bandwidth. Not every home has a broadband connection as some homes are still using solutions like NetZero. It will be the consumers who pay more for broadband that will see the benefit of Telepresence and want to pay for it, not the NetZero type users.

Telepresence Providers:

• Cisco
• HP Halo
• LifeSize.com (Small company that has done $14M in revenue)
• Tandberg
• Microsoft Roundtable

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert