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VoIP Enables Less Face-To-Face, Gaia Pleased
TMCnet Contributing Editor
Face to face meetings no longer dominate our working lives and have been replaced by virtual meetings in companies across Britain, according to independent research amongst 3,000 IT managers conducted by Vanson Bourne, commissioned by storage, voice and networking distributor, Zycko.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents across all industries "frequently" use either voice or video conferencing in their work. The financial services sector is the most frequent user (68 percent), however, 65 percent of IT managers in manufacturing and 56 percent working in retail, distribution and transport industries also claim to frequently use the technology.
Only 9 percent of companies questioned have never attended a virtual meeting.
A couple months ago TMC's Stefani Viscusi wrote about a survey conducted by European Business Travel finding that "30.2 percent of respondents said they traveled via road, rail and air for more than 4 meetings out of the office each month and 25 percent attended more than 2."
Only 22.7 percent, Viscusi wrote, said the meetings had to be held face to face.
Tony Gasson, vice president Europe, Interwise has said recently that "businesses in Europe recognise the need to reduce carbon emissions and actively consider environmental issues as part of their corporate travel policies. Virtual meeting technologies now provide the means to make this possible."
"UK business executives are fed up of wasting money and time travelling to face to face meetings. Advances in technology, such as the advent of virtual whiteboards and improved call quality have encouraged companies across the UK to adopt virtual meetings. Businesses are benefiting from faster decision making, greater collaboration with global colleagues, increased employee productivity, money savings, as well as the knowledge they are reducing the environmental impact of carbon emissions through air travel," commented Phil Marshman, director of VoIP at Zycko.
The survey revealed that 57 percent of IT managers are reviewing their voice and data requirements in 2006 and that 73 percent would embrace IP convergence to reduce business operational costs.
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.
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