Cisco Sales Increase 500% with Telepresence Services | Video Conferencing for Online Meetings

At Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call with analysts, Cisco Systems CEO, John Chambers mentioned that orders of Cisco’s telepresence units were up 500% this year over last. A typical installation of a Cisco telepresence unit is around $300k, and considering the scope of Cisco’s $10.4 billion in sales during the second quarter, telepresence makes up a relatively small portion of overall sales for the company. However is this rapid increase and interest in video conferencing technology indicating a permanent shift in the way companies do business?

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.