Businesses, Healthcare organisations, Government departments and Educational establishments are today facing more and more challenges that impact upon their successful and efficient operation. Some of the main concerns include increasing fuel and travel costs, new laws relating to employee working hours, the accident rate on roads and worries over the safety of management and staff on business travel. Such factors mean that organisations are adopting a fresh approach to work-related travel and reviewing their current operational methods.

People generally travel to business meetings because face-to-face contact is such a vital part of any discussion. The telephone conveys a fraction of the total message, but facial and body language account for approximately 90% of the communication.

Today, managers from a wide variety of businesses, institutions and organisations, have realised the importance of the concerns listed earlier and have made an investment in videoconferencing technology. Many of them have reported that this investment has brought about faster decision making and employee morale has improved due to the better work/life balance. They have also dramatically improved access to their remote working talented staff and consider that overall they are far more efficient.

Polycom with an investment in research and development of some $100m last year, which is several times more than that of their nearest competitor, have developed solutions that create a very natural experience between remote parties. This has resulted in a considerable improvement in the take-up of conferencing technology by large organisations, Government departments, Educational establishments, SMEs and home workers as prices have dramatically reduced making videoconferencing affordable for everyone.