AT&T has been working to improve its AT&T Telepresence Solution with service bundling options designed to give customers new choices and more flexibility to meet “face-to-face” from a wider range of locations. In addition to the new service bundles, the company has added new features and scheduling capabilities to improve connectivity across disparate video conferencing systems.
AT&T Telepresence enhancements include:
• New service bundles with a wide range of Cisco video equipment options from immersive to desktop units that include former TANDBERG endpoints. A fully managed service bundle option includes AT&T owned equipment, management, and maintenance bundled into one monthly service fee. Design and implementation for equipment including hardware and software is also available.
• Guest access so users can schedule and attend telepresence meetings with companies that are not on the AT&T Business Exchange.
• Scheduling from Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes calendar. This enhancement unifies scheduling and is expected to be available before the end of 2011 for hosted deployments.
Commenting on the developments, Brian Washburn, Current Analysis Research Director for Network Services, said “Within the next few years, global telepresence exchanges that let enterprises reach across their networks will increase the impact of, and demand for, video conferencing solutions. AT&T’s telepresence solutions allow organizations to connect networks and unlock a vast number of new meeting relationships.”
Shawn Conroy, AT&T’s vice president for Voice, Collaboration and Unified Communications added in a statement, “Expanding our popular service bundles to include conference room and desktop units is an important step in pursuing our vision of a pervasive telepresence experience where users can connect without borders from the device and at the time and place that’s most convenient for them.”
According to AT&T, over a third of the companies ranked in the Fortune 100 are connected to the AT&T Business Exchange. Its Telepresence service has grown from 1,281 meeting rooms in 2009 to more than 3,000 meeting rooms projected for 2011. AT&T customers held nearly 12 million minutes of meetings on the company’s telepresence systems in the first three quarters of 2011.
