Videoconferencing: Why Businesses Should Consider This Option, Frost & Sullivan Answers

The necessity of companies to reduce travel expenses coupled with the need for other means of communications with employees and clients drives the European videoconferencing market. Factors like integration with other products and services, pricing, and ease of use will become the major differentiators between the solutions in the future, according to the findings from a latest Frost & Sullivan webinar.

"Having a limited travel budget, companies seek new means of communications and collaboration tools," says Iwona Petruczynik, Research Analyst for Frost & Sullivan's ICT practice. "Due to the reduced number of regular in-person meetings, tools that enable companies to build and consolidate business relations while saving time and money are becoming the key solutions." The European videoconferencing endpoints market reached $514.08 million in 2010, growing at a rate of 21.7 per cent from the previous year, which indicates a rising interest in overall videoconferencing solutions.

Videoconferencing accelerates the decision-making process and enhances teamwork in the ever-more dispersed workforce, as businesses are shifting from utilising stand-alone solutions to comprehensive communications and collaboration tools integrated with other applications.

Additionally, the shift towards Unified Communications is leading to an increased attention on the adoption and usage of visual collaboration in business. Many conferencing service providers and equipment vendors are developing visual collaboration system capabilities to offer a one-stop-shop to their clients.

Not without significance is also the 'green factor' of ICT which, due to the more pressing issue of the economic crisis in 2008, has been put on the back burner. Now, as the crisis has no longer severe effects on companies, businesses are focusing again on the importance of environmental sustainability and are promoting 'green ICT.' "Videoconferencing offers companies new solutions that enable implementation of environment-friendly policies that significantly reduce their carbon emissions, thus lowering their carbon footprint," adds Iwona Petruczynik.

Among numerous trends in the videoconferencing market, a rise in demand for desktop videoconferencing is important to note. Responding to the need for extending traditional room-based videoconferencing to remote workers and telecommuters, many videoconferencing equipment vendors have either introduced a form of desktop video software or revamped their previously available desktop video products. Even though a wide-scale adoption of desktop video has been not yet witnessed, a huge demand generates from IT managers. "Communication infrastructure is being upgraded, and desktop video is finally gaining attention as a value-add application over IP networks," comments Ms. Petruczynik.

Frost & Sullivan has recently organised an on-demand web conference entitled Videoconferencing - Less Hassle and Travel Cost Reductions for Businesses. The webinar summarises Ms Petruczynik's market findings by giving an analysis of video conferencing market trends, factors driving and restraining the market growth and a general competitive landscape.

This webinar will be interesting for videoconferencing endpoints vendors and videoconferencing service providers, as well as potential clients by discussing benefits of visual collaboration and providing forward projections for the industry.

To receive a webinar presentation and a link to the recording please email Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at [email protected] with your full contact details.