Chambers remarked that the social networking culture driving by the younger generation, will lead the way to the next stage of business technology. While his remarks shouldn’t be considered as an actual forecast of his company’s performance, Chambers predicted that U.S. productivity will rise 3 to 5 percent in the next decade, returning to the boom of the 1990s.

Technologies such as Cisco’s telepresence and video conferencing services will allow businesses to perform tasks much more quickly at a reduced cost. Chambers said telepresence has allowed him to meet with twice as many customers while spending half the time on the road – a process that for Cisco as a whole saved $150 million last year and $100 million this year.

With a general “leadership” theme at the WBF in NY, Chambers argued that improved technology led to a different management model. He said the old style of “command and control,” where he and other top management dictated the process of a new project to others in the company, was at one time the more efficient way to move forward. With collaboration and communication technology making instant online meetings more efficient and affordable, that’s all about to change.

Cisco Vice President, Bert vanderZwan

As we expand our international footprint it’s important for us to meet internationally accepted standards in addition to US requirements. These updates to our infrastructure demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that our customers’ meetings are the most secure in the industry.

Cisco WebEx is also actively pursuing ISO-27001 certification, as recently made available by the ISO board. In addition, it reviews against DIACAP (Department of Defense Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process) and FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) requirements, and submits source code for all major product releases to third-party reviewers, with results made available in an independent security report.

Many tech CEOs are proclaiming that telepresence and video conferencing services is the “killer app” of future business communications. As energy costs sore and business travel becomes increasingly expensive, many companies are turning to the technology to cut costs and go green. An estimate by the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that businesses in the United States spend $180B on business travel annually, and that cost is rapidly increasing.

Cisco’s telepresence system of course isn’t the only available solution. As the demand for the technology increases, so has the number of companies offering a solution. Companies offering comparable videoconferencing packages for conducting virtual meetings include the likes of Hewlett-Packard, InstantPresenter, Tandberg, and Polycom. The common idea of these and other similar products is to make participants in any virtual meeting appear and sound just as they might when attending a meeting in person.

The price of video conferencing services will undoubtedly come down as the technology becomes more widespread. However if energy prices suddenly plummet as fast as they climbed, it remains to be seen if businesses will continue using these video conferencing systems, or if they will quickly revert back to the old-fashioned business travel model. Telepresence and video conferencing is still relatively new, and it remains unclear if it will remain a permanent fixture in the business place.

Today, networking giant Cisco proudly announced the installation of its 500th telepresence room. The Cisco telepresence room is essentially a room dedicated to video conference meetings, however it’s unlike any videoconference you’ve ever been in.

The room has a semi-circle table for your local members to sit at, and three high definition screens that simulate the other half, completing a virtual round table. The directional cameras and microphones allow you to directly address an individual on the remote end of a telepresence room. People that have tried this technology claim that it is very much like meeting in person.

The technology isn’t cheap. The six person telepresence installation will cost you $300,000, and you need two of them to complete the circle. The Halo system from rival HP can cost up to $350,000 and Polycom’s RealPresence can cost $200,000. There is also the cost of the bandwidth — you will need a dedicated 10-15Mbps connection between telepresence rooms, which could cost between $8000 to $10,000 a month per site.

Currently the prohibitive costs limit telepresence to wealthier companies that currently have a large travel budget. As installation and bandwidth costs continue to decrease, web conferencing via telepresence could all but eliminate the need for future business travel.

In addition to a bigger sales force, the partnership will enable video conferencing among multiple corporate customers, compared to being limited to intra-company use as it is now.

The TelePresence 3000, sold in the form of a small conference room with three high-definition screens, was originally sold at $299,000 per unit. In addition to that version, a cheaper, one-screen option will also be available through the AT&T-Cisco partnership, the companies said.

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed and the monthly fee for the service was not immediately available.