In a Forrester blog that usually focuses on more “process” and “application” issues, Claire Schooley recently blogged about Telepresence and Video Collaboration.  It might seem a little off-topic, but we at BP3 have written a few posts about video conferencing ourselves (here and here), because we’re fans of the technology (and in particular, of the solution we use from Lifesize). And in fact, good video collaboration may be a key to more efficient business processes in the future.

What Schooley describes is the expensive high-end solution, with purpose-built-and-equipped rooms.  However, most of the same benefits can be achieved with less expensive solutions from a firm like Lifesize: high definition video, high-quality full duplex audio, IP-connectivity, and interoperability with standards that enable cross-vendor calls (with, for example, Polycom and Tandberg).

When friends ask me about our video conferencing setup, I often tell them if I could get the cost down to $1000 per location, we’d have a system in every office – because it is worth that much to us.  The high-fidelity connections are just better than a skype video chat (though that is certainly better than nothing!).  The price keeps getting closer – LifeSize just came out with a unit that brings the price down to approximately $2500, and then with the Desktop solution there’s a bit lower-fidelity option that’s even cheaper.

I don’t think it won’t be long before the quick trip on an airplane for a meeting will be a memory (or a luxury), but before that happens, we need to get high fidelity videoconferencing to be nearly as ubiquitous as instant messaging.

I’m a big fan of videoconferencing.  As a process guy, It is hard not to look at the time spent traveling (on the plane, going through security, etc) as a “non-value-added activity” as they say in Value Stream world.  But, its also the case that a phone conversation is generally greatly enhanced by video – in terms of quality, content, and focus.

Recently I held a videoconference with a few senior members of another company’s staff.  We had never met in person, and travel logistics to get us all into the same city in a reasonable amount of time were not practical.  But we could schedule a teleconference or videoconference about 4 day out that would capture everyone who needed to attend.  I suggested a videoconference, and after a quick followup with their staff, we determined that we could both do IP-dialing (please, if you still use ISDN, get IP videoconferencing enabled!  you are still in the dark ages of connectivity otherwise!) Our system is a LifeSize system, and theirs was Polycom, and they connected seamlessly.  Sadly, we didn’t have high-def videoconferencing because their Polycom system doesn’t support it.

Regardless, we had a good productive video conference, and we could finally put faces to names, and see people smiling at jokes.  Sure, you could argue it saved us the travel costs to meet in person. But really, the decision to not travel was made before the videoconference decision was made.  The real benefit was improved communication.  And anyone who has worked with a virtual team will tell you – the quality of communication is the key to success or failure.

Given all this, it was a nice surprise to see that Lifesize has released a new desktop version.  I first saw the story on Austin Startup (Lifesize was started in Austin):

LifeSize pioneered HD video communications to enable remote communications as naturally as in-person meetings, and the availability of LifeSize Desktop provides an ideal solution to extend video communications to the individual, often mobile user. LifeSize Desktop delivers HD video decode at 720p, 30 frames per second, in full 16:9 format, as well as HD audio with echo cancellation for productive collaboration. Designed for performance and efficiency, LifeSize Desktop’s low CPU utilization enables HD video calls even with multiple concurrent applications running on the PC. Remote users can easily connect and receive high quality video at any bandwidth, over the corporate VPN or through LifeSize Transit, for secure NAT/Firewall traversal.

Sure sounds good.  You can register for the free trial (and learn more about all the technical specs) here.  Of course, I’m hoping more people will get into the videoconferencing mode because that will mean more people I can connect with virtually! I’ve signed up for the trial, looking forward to giving it a test run soon. Also, if you’re interested in keeping up with the world of videoconferencing, check out their CTO’s blog.

If you’re having a call with us, and you have access to videoconferencing, ask us to videocon instead of telecon.  Its great!

We just had our first internal videoconference between HQ and our Atlanta office.  Well, that’s how we like to refer to Flournoy when we’re not calling him BP3-East.  We made the decision to invest in Videoconferencing equipment because it is really important to have high fidelity communications both internally and with our customers.

When I was at Lombardi we built a distributed geographic technical team based on the belief that high-value, high-touch interactions with customers were crucial to building lasting customer relationships.  That’s a really hard thing to do right when you are starting from a base of 2 or 3 staff members, and don’t have the national network of people to draw on.

At BP3 we’re going to attack this in two ways.  First, we’ll hire geographically again, I have no doubt.  We have a better national network to tap into this time around, and some of our colleagues from Austin have moved to other cities, and might be able to help us find the right people.  Second, we’re going to invest in videoconferencing equipment.  We think it will enhance the quality of our offsite work with customers, and likely it will somewhat reduce the need for travel expenses.  It also sends a powerful message to our team that we’re interested in their quality of life and their ability to do good work remotely.

Videoconferencing still isn’t cheap (can’t wait til its under $1000/seat), but I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable it is compared to what it cost 10 years ago, for a better product.  And with the cost of travel increasing, videoconferencing looks more and more affordable by comparison.  Oh, sure, you can go the <insert favorite IM chat client> route, but the fidelity of such video connections is generally terrible, and certainly not good enough to show someone at a remote location what you’re drawing on your whiteboard.  We went with a Lifesize system.  Its high-def, the quality is fantastic (720p), and with remote control, the person on the other end can zoom into our whiteboard to see what you’re drawing.  Voice is included in the video/audio stream, so there’s no need to place a separate voice call.  And there’s no per-call charges because it all goes over IP (over your network).

We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many of our customers have videoconferencing setups as well.  Often these are underutilized assets, but there’s no reason for that to be the case on our projects!

I want to thank good friend Megan Lueders for giving us a demo of the system and getting us to take this seriously.