Published on the 02/12/2009 | Written by Newsdesk
40% of New Zealand companies have invested in VC over the past year and almost half plan desktop implementations within five years…
Video communications systems have become much more prevalent in New Zealand businesses with 40% of companies investing in the technology in the past 12 months alone, a recent poll has indicated.
The poll also identified the two most popular applications for video communications are executive meetings and internal communications but still almost half of companies use it to communicate with their customers and suppliers and over a third of respondents use the technology for training and human resources (HR) requirements such as candidate interviews.
The results suggest that companies are turning to video communications to not only reduce travel expenses and reduce employee or executive time away from the office, but that they are also seeking to introduce greater flexibility in work locations and to obtain the HR benefits of deeper, wider recruiting.
Desktop video communications also appears to be coming of age in New Zealand with 46% of respondents anticipating that their organisation will implement video communications technology onto their employee’s desktops within the next three-to-five years. The poll indicated that unified communications strategies are driving changes with a number of organisations looking for the benefits that video communications technology integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator or Lotus Notes will bring.
The findings are the result of an October poll of 35 senior New Zealand IT professionals released by video-conferencing vendor TANDBERG.
Designed to provide a snapshot of video communication use in New Zealand, the poll posed questions relating to application of the technology, purchasing intentions and future directions. 86% of the respondents said they currently used video communications within their organisations; 11% are investigating the technology while 3%weare not considering it at all.
“New Zealand has always been an early adopter when it comes to technology,” says Phil Siefert, TANDBERG’s ANZ regional director.
“That is why we have been surprised that until recently we haven’t seen the same trend as we have in other parts of the globe when it comes to embracing this technology. With tight economic times New Zealand businesses seem to have now grasped that video conferencing offers a sure way of improving employee productivity while maintaining tight cost controls.”
