How is the global video conferencing (VC) market shaping up?

The market is growing tremendously. According to a Wainhouse research, the size of the market will be 5 billion dollar in the next couple of years, and this would be around video conferencing (VC) specifically. Meanwhile, Forester says it could well be a 14.5 billion industry in next few years. Some industry estimates even suggest it could be a 35 billion industry. A lot of this growth, however, is on the back of traditional UC applications.

What value proposition does video conferencing bring to businesses?

Different industries face different issues. For instance, the energy sector wants to reduce downtime. Every 1 percent savings in downtime saves 10 million dollars. So, for every minute that I can save, there is an impact on the bottom line. In retail, hospitality and even finance, it is all about customer satisfaction. In healthcare it is about saving lives. In the government, it is about improving judicial applications, emergency response or citizen-centric services. The important challenge in the manufacturing sector is to reducing the time to market. According to studies, Polycom is reducing time to market for companies by as much as 24 percent. So we are not talking about reducing travel costs. We need to help people understand how technology can be used in day to day operations. Yes they are saving 30 percent on travel. But they are also saving 27 percent on downtime costs; 24 percent on training costs and sales related costs, and 20 percent on reducing recruitment time by 20 percent.

But corporates don’t still view video conferencing as a replacement to travel.

Yes, it is true. During the recent volcano in Europe, the use of VC increased 180 percent in some cases. However, as the volcano subsided, people again got back on the plane and VC usage dropped. People are therefore using this as a second option, not the first option. We want to change this and help people understand the true business reasons of using this technology. For this change to happen, however, we would have to look at alternatives. For instance, we need to make people aware of applications such as mobile video, telemedicine, and customer service related applications (such as kiosk type of applications). We need to look beyond traditional applications and opportunities.

So, just looking at reducing travel time through VC is akin to not looking at the bigger picture. We realize VC could be a part of much larger solution. We are working with vendors such as HP and IBM to promote these applications. There are other routes to market by working with telemedicine associations and distance learning associations. These are all vehicles we can use for promoting these applications.

Developing applications is one thing but you need to have the bandwidth to support them. The cost of bandwidth is still too high in India.

The cost of bandwidth has not come down. We realise that and India is looking at a national broadband initiative. But there are solutions that we have developed that can overcome these issues. Through these solutions, high definition can be provided even with low bandwidth. A lot of networks are also on public networks. We have technologies such as last packet recovery that optimises video conferencing in these non optimised public type of networks.

How does Polycom expand beyond horizontal applications and look at applications in enterprise?

There is a need to look beyond components. So in healthcare, we need to look as to how do we integrate into the pax imaging system? In hospitality, we have to look at integrating into a CRM solution. How do we enhance a traditional manufacturing application with remote inspection and repair? This is where video can be viewed horizontally and also has a vertical element.

How do you cut down the time to market for a manufacturing customer?

The first step towards this exercise is to look at each of the processes an automobile company (a manufacturing entity) takes to bring automobile to the market. We then determine where we have the opportunity to shrink time. There was a lot of potential for collaboration on the design front. Take for instance, a designer bag manufacturing company. The designers can show their CAD drawings. They walk through and do real time modifications to the design instead of wasting cycles. Diamler truck and Targus bags are some of our clients. Diamler trucks have our solutions across their sales offices.

Another important aspect is the reduction of downtime in manufacturing. In a typical manufacturing environment, you will have supervisors seated above overlooking the manufacturing floor. Through the use of mobile VC solutions, they now have eyes and ears on the manufacturing floor to assist with remote repairs, remote inspections and other processes such as training new employees, training manufacturing groups.

Which are the verticals where VC has great scope of adoption?

The two industries where VC applications are becoming more apparent by the day are healthcare and telemedicine. In a lot of our discussions across the healthcare sector worldwide, CIOs are the enablers, while doctors, nurses, medical professionals are the users. However, CIOs and CTOs can help to drive these technologies by helping the users understand the benefits from a business point. CIO needs to take a strategic point of view of the overall organisation not just from a tech or communication perspective but from a business matrix standpoint. Education is about distance learning, recording, and streaming. Through the use of VC, you can take an entire field trip to a classroom instead of taking a classroom to a field trip. There is also a huge potential in the energy and government verticals.