Justifying the expense of deployment
IT executives within organizations that have deployed telepresence almost universally sing its praises, reporting high utilization, high user satisfaction, and a strong demand to expand telepresence facilities to additional locations. Today, typical deployments are limited, only a handful of rooms located in large office locations. But with the mean price of a room deployment hovering around $250,000, plus ongoing costs for bandwidth and management, how can organizations justify such an expense, especially in light of shrinking or flat IT budgets? The answer is simply that executives perceive a great deal of value in meeting via telepresence versus room-based, desktop, or audio conferences. Telepresence, unlike other meeting technologies is perceived as suitable replacement for in-person meetings, especially for senior executives. Organizations should develop a business case for telepresence (or any form of video conferencing) that focuses on potential to reduce travel, as well as measurable benefits from better internal and external interaction.
