Deloitte's decision to go to video conferencing looks like a money saving move has knock-on effects of reducing air travel and gives their employees more time with their families, or so it hopes.

Deloitte, a professional services firm with a world-wide presence, signed Nortel to provide global 'telepresence', video conferencing and associated multimedia services. Nortel was choosen for a couple of reasons, first that it can manage a global presence and second that Deloitte already had equipment in place of the same supplier that Nortel manages.

There is hope that Deloitte's 130 member firm locations will also choose to use the video conferencing solutions. According to Nortel, rising fuel prices, airfares and environmental sensitivity were some of the reasons for Deloitte's decision.

The numbers it cites support this as a company spending as much as $23 million annually on travel can use 'telepresence'  to recover as many as 385,000 hours of lost productivity, reduce its 'carbon footprint'  by as much as 4,200 tons and save as much as $7 million, according to Nortel.

Citing data from Nemertes Research, Nortel says enterprises could cover the cost of multiple, dedicated, high-end telepresence facilities and managed telepresence services with only a two  to three percent  reduction in international travel. Compare collaboration products.

Nortel will 'provision' the services from Multimedia Network Operations Centers deployed globally. The services include implementation, network monitoring and 24/7 (3.3333333 recurring)  support.  X

Check Out
Network World