Indians are most bullish on prospects of video
conferencing (VC) becoming a ‘way of doing everyday business’ with more than 70
per cent saying it will become a regular practice at workplaces this year,
according to a research conducted by Cable&Wireless Worldwide.

 

Indian males (64.2 per cent) put in more effort to look
good when compared to Indian women (55.6 per cent).

 

Currently, video conferencing (57 per cent) is the third
most preferred method for communicating with clients, after face-to-face
meetings (82 per cent) and email conversations (60 per cent) at Indian
workplaces.

 

The emphasis on face-to-face communications appears
stronger in Asia as compared to Europe. As high as 98 per cent respondents in
India agreed that seeing a business contact is important while carrying out a
significant business deal. 

 

Indians also believe that a face-to-face or a video
conference with their bank manager, travel agent, or their insurance company,
for instance, would be more impactful than an email or a telephone
conversation.

 

A majority of Indians put in an extra effort into their
appearance to make a good impression while taking part in a face-to-face or a
video conference meeting with business associates. This figure was the highest
amongst Indians (98 per cent) when compared to UK (90 per cent); Spain (94 per
cent); Singapore (97 per cent) and Germany (90 per cent).

 

Apart from the business angle, the survey also found that
more than 54 percent of people in India would be happy to deal with their
doctor or health provider on a video call, while 31 per cent would want to meet
their employer over a VC.  

 

We conducted this survey in order to get a fair
understanding of the direction video conferencing is headed globally. We are
happy to see that Indians are extremely bullish about the technology,”
Commented Shali Thilakan, managing director, India, Cable&Wireless
Worldwide.

 

In India, corporates at large are regular users of Video
Conferencing today. Industry experts believe that in
2011-2012, we will see successes across business segments with large
enterprises as well as small and medium businesses (SMBs) in various markets
including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, financial services and
government sectors. There could be a considerable uptake in the media &
entertainment vertical as well,” remarked Shali on the potential for VC in
India.

 

Cable&Wireless Worldwide provides
telephone and video conferencing solutions, to large national and
multi-national companies and government departments. It estimates that the use
of managed video conferencing (MVC) saves customers at least 25 per cent on
their travel costs.

 

The number of video conferencing units being deployed to
customers has increased by 34 per cent over the last 12 months. Internally,
Cable&Wireless Worldwide uses video conferencing extensively, clocking up
over 1.2 million —minutes across the business in 2010 with usage increasing
36 per cent in the last six months alone.

 

By TelecomLead.com Team
[email protected]