AT&T announced enhancements to its managed telepresence solution last week, now providing improved security, user controls and video sharing along with Lotus Notes Domino support. The enhancements mark a collaborative effort between AT&T and Cisco since AT&T uses Cisco TelePresence systems for the managed service. AT&T offers the service on a global basis and for both internal and intercompany use.

The security improvements stem from encryption available between Cisco TelePresence endpoints across point-to-point or multi-point sessions. The encryption status is displayed onscreen during meetings.

Conference controls have been enhanced so users can select how they see speaking participants displayed using an interface on their Cisco IP phone. Conferees can also now block additional endpoints from joining an established call.

Users of AT&T Telepresence Solution can also now use Lotus Notes Domino Support to schedule meetings; Microsoft Outlook support was already included.

In addition, the managed service comes with the ability to share high-resolution video at as many as 30 frames per second with meeting participants.

We followed up on other attributes for the service with Andy Adams, the AT&T sales director for Telepresence and Collaboration Services. He noted that users are seeing increased value in using telepresence for business-to-business interactions. He demonstrated an AT&T Value Case solution tool that provides data points to enterprises in support of making a business case for AT&T managed services, such as how there may be a positive cash flow in as little as 30 days when considering the financial, productivity, performance and competitive differentiation factors. Adams also said that AT&T and Cisco are selling this solution with a significant number of sales resources trained to support the global service.

The AT&T Telepresence Solution using Cisco TelePresence system was launched in April 2008, and customers can use either AT&T equipment or their own. Deployment options include installation, full monitoring and management of the application, remote help desk service and on-site equipment maintenance and repair, according to AT&T.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.