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IT Manager of the Month : Its Crucial Now

Videoconferencing, considered as a luxury five years back, is now part and parcel of IT infrastructure

Friday, November 06, 2009

The most common thing that any organization does is conduct weekly or monthly meetings. But what if people have to travel long distances to attend these meetings? Here comes the role of videoconferencing, which not only helps to cut down travel costs, but also simplifies work processes.

According to Pradeep Suryavanshi, regional manager, IT operations, CDC Software, videoconferencing solutions were considered by many as luxury five years ago. But with the passage of time companies became conscious of cutting costs wherever possible. The company has been using Polycom solutions for the past five years. Global offices in Atlanta, Vancouver, and Bengaluru are connected through this solution. These solutions are usually helpful during HR meetings. The company has a 10 Mbps Internet lease line with VPN tunnels that connect these offices. Telecom service providers for the company are Airtel and Spectranet. They use the services based on redundancies.

Pradeep Suryavanshi, regional manager, IT operations, CDC Software

However, there is no specific bandwidth allocated for the videoconferencing solutions. But, Suryavanshi says that they prioritize traffic for voice and videoconferencing whenever there is an urgency. Since the company has Internet lease lines for its videoconferencing solution, it also saves a lot of money on ISD calls.

Apollo Hospitals started using the facility of videoconferencing since 2004. Initially, it was used for the purpose of telemedicine and then for DVD conferencing. Now, its use has been vastly extended with many telemachines and boardrooms having this facility. Videoconferencing has proved to be a boon for consultants to share patient details, share experiences, talk to consultants, etc. Videoconferencing has enabled the group on a bigger scenario also, as it saves time that would be spent in traveling; increases interaction between both the parties; reduces costs in more ways than one; etc. The list of benefits is endless. However, connectivity and bandwidth continue to be major issues that continue to mar the use of this technology in an effective way. Apart from this, there are very few technically qualified people who can address the needs of this technology. This forces us to depend on a few qualified people. Furthermore, according to him, a lot of technical support is required to ensure that the facility offered functions smoothly. At Apollo, we use IP and ISDN based technology for the purpose of videoconferencing. Apart from the requirement of strong technical support, multi-connectivity and improvement in bandwidth would bring about exact clarity in the service. These are some of the things that would result in further usage of the technology to the fullest.

Muktiranjan Sahu, assistant manager IT, Apollo Hospitals

The facility of videoconferencing is soon proving to be a boon as it helps in saving traveling time, brings in more business, and on the whole it helps in reducing the costs of the company. Looking at the bigger picture, it provides the company the much needed boost in moving forward. We at Amkette, do not make much use of the facility of videoconferencing as there is a very less requirement for it. Recollecting our initial experience of the service, it can be said that we started using the service approximately two or three years back. We mainly use this facility once in a year. At Amkette, videoconferencing services are mainly utilized for the purpose of annual meetings. In other words, it can be said that by using this facility the time spent in traveling is saved. Videoconferencing is facilitated mainly by the use of Skype, sometimes. Videoconferencing, though useful, springs forth security as a major cause of concern. Apart from security concerns, bandwidth is another problem which comes as a hurdle in the effective usage of the service. Even though we do not make much use of the service, even a small security threat is something serious. Fuloria futher adds that the future for this facility appears to be bright.