Companies are cutting costs and trying to be more efficient.
So it is logical they would forgo air travel in favor of conducting meetings on the phone, or by video conferencing.
Budgets are not there for expensive systems, says Stephen Epstein, pictured in conference
Video conferencing was attracting the attention of executives even before the downturn tightened its grip on corporate budgets. Managers realized they could do more while flying less and at the same time generate a fraction of the greenhouse gases.
Now the sour economy is accelerating the demand for low-cost desktop systems even as it appears to be slamming the brakes on purchases of high-end video conferencing systems, such as Cisco Systems’ large screen Telepresence.
Corporate “pockets are very tight and sales cycles are longer,” says Stephen Epstein, chief marketing officer at Avistar Communications, a maker of desktop video-conferencing software for companies. But “we are getting more business.”
In the first quarter, revenue was up 128 percent.
Budgets are simply not there for big systems from suppliers such as Polycom and Tandberg, says Epstein. But companies such as LifeSize Conferencing and Avistar are seeing pickups.
And that may continue. “I don’t think budget will loosen up for the next year for high-end systems,” says Epstein.
