Videoconferencing is on the ascendancy

by Catherine Woods - Friday, 28th March 2008 -

Videoconferencing specialist ICU Global is cashing in on the public’s ever-growing awareness of environmental issues as well as the desire of many business people to spend less time in airports.

Founder and CEO Stephen McKenzie says even though videoconferencing has been around for years, there’s huge potential in this business technology area.

“You save money on travel, it speeds up decision making, it reduces your company’s carbon footprint, it improves people’s work-life balance and there’s productivity and time saving elements to video conferencing,” he says.

ICU Global’s message is that it doesn’t need to be expensive, either. “We keep things simple and cheap. We use an existing technology – the internet. Everybody has it at home and for their business,” he says.

“You can download the software from the website in less than five minutes, support staff create passwords and IDs and then you’re up and running. You have your webcam, headset and access to all the functions of a full-size video conference.”

Extra functionality is bolted on if required by the user. “It’s like car sales,” McKenzie explains. “You can get a great car for a fixed price but then you have the add-on options.”

Last year, ICU Global launched a desktop collaborative web conferencing solution that works on most PCs and laptops fitted with a webcam and using a standard internet connection. A new version was released in March 2008.

Picture source