Meeting on the tube.

• Author: Gilbert, Jo
• Position: Trend among companies to use videoconferencing technology

More companies find that videoconferencing is no longer a novelty. Technology is mature, quality good and equipment affordable.

Studies of verbal and nonverbal communication have found that 55 percent of effective communication occurs with visual, as in face-to-face, meetings. Another 38 percent comes from verbal intonations, and 7 percent stems from the content of the message itself.

Perhaps that is why companies of all sizes, seeking to maintain the effectiveness of face-to-face meetings, are seriously looking into videoconferencing as an alternative to business trips.

The concept of combining video with telephones is not new. At the 1964 World's Fair in New York, AT&T displayed its Picturephone, but manufacturing such a product for widespread use just wasn't practical at that time. "The technology needed to support it was incredibly expensive and incredibly complex," says Chris Pitts of MCI Telecommunications. "It was no more than a novelty."

Not anymore. Developments in the past few years have allowed videoconferencing to enter the mainstream as a valuable business tool. Pitts explains there are five major market drivers that have brought videoconferencing to the forefront. Most important is general market acceptance.

"Decision makers are kids of the TV generation," he says. "Even 10 years ago, a CEO of a company wouldn't accept that--it's not a novelty anymore."

Other market influences include competitive pressures, development of inexpensive microprocessor chips, improved transmission capabilities and established international standards.

According to Gary Segreto of GTE in Carmel, a company in the past could only communicate with another company if both were using the same brand of equipment. But in the past couple years, the Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraphy came out with standards allowing different units to interface with each other.

International events have boosted the usage of videoconferencing as well. Says Nathan Harrell, manager of national sales at Sprint, some American companies during the Persian Gulf War prohibited travel internationally, and even domestically. Videoconference business increased 300 to 400 percent immediately. "We thought there would be a decline after things returned to normal," Harrell continues. "But some customers found it to be a useful communications tool and kept using it."

Segreto of GTE adds, "The technology is just now mature to the point that the quality is good...