Telepresence Managed Expert Services - Best Practices

Izvor: KiWi

THE Role OF MANAGED Products and services FOR TELEPRESENCE

Over the last twelve months, there has been a spectacular raise within the awareness that movie has acquired in regards to inter and intra office communications. Over a international scale, the introduction of telepresence is creating a resounding effects and leading to enterprises to vary the best way they communicate by incorporating video clip http://managedcisco.com/ as an crucial component within their communications mix. And to that close, the job of the Managed Service service provider within the movie and telepresence area is becoming increasingly suitable. In lots of situations, it's the Managed Service that can perform the main element difference inside the results or failure of telepresence inside the corporation.

Comprehending Telepresence

Right before one particular can totally appreciate the purpose that a services service provider performs since it relates to Telepresence, it truly is essential to be familiar with what telepresence truly represents. Telepresence is usually a expression coined to explain a online video interaction option, the place the audio, visible and actual physical aspects of a meeting space atmosphere are intended in the strategy to create an immersive practical experience. Along with identical or nearly similar home furniture, monitors, cameras, speakers and video equipment which happen to be installed at workplaces in various locations, telepresence geared up places use an IP network for connectivity. Every time a video assembly is initiated, the people on both aspect see and listen to one another within a superior quality, life measurement picture which yields the looks that they're basically sitting in the exact same room. For that reason arrangement of cameras, monitors and speakers, the technologies gets section of the home along with the assembly participants develop into immersed during the expertise, focusing on the agenda of the conference, fairly than on the technological know-how that's driving it.

Is that this just video clip conferencing beneath another identify?

Sure and No - Telepresence is in truth a type of video conferencing. Beyond over-all adoption issues, video conferencing has become faced with other perceived obstacles which include: high-quality of your community, non-standard place environments, and deficiency of extensively available skills / guidance.

Community - When at first introduced online video conferencing was invariably in comparison to your television and phone - the two of which took a few years to become perfected but have now come to be synonymous with dependability and high quality. Similarly, standard movie conferencing is sluggish to evolve into a absolutely responsible communications method thanks towards the constrained high quality and capability of community types (such as ISDN), ease of use troubles and lack of trustworthiness. Furthermore, there was limited focus and skills concentrated on addressing these concerns that brought on an inconsistent and poor encounter to the people on the systems.

Place Environments - Traditional video conferencing machines was normally obtained and put in meeting rooms with little or no regard on the excellent of lighting, the audio or even the placement with the camera for optimum protection of conference individuals. With video clip programs in vulnerable positions and able to currently being moved outside of placement, there was a significant probable for your lousy total knowledge. In fact, people generally complained they might not see or hear people at other websites with the trigger remaining more relevant to inadequate lights, acoustics, and area structure rather in comparison to the products or the network.

Support / Know-how - Standard movie conferencing also endured from a insufficient over-all support and "ownership", having hardly ever been given the appropriate level of awareness that other "mission critical" applications got. The result was a perceived issues in working with video clip as well as even worse, many workforce not even becoming produced aware that video conferencing was a conversation software accessible to them.

Starting in late 2000, the transition to IP as well as generation of a new breed of company supplier dedicated to supporting online video communications yielded considerable strides in improving the general dependability, simplicity of use and overall performance. Using these advancements, movie conferencing adoption started to arise in several companies. Concurrently, with bigger value becoming put on "green" strategies and price reduction attempts, movie was within the verge of becoming a "mission critical" application.

A fresh period of Video Conferencing emerges: Telepresence

At first promoted by a business identified as Telesuites, telepresence has the truth is been readily available for a number of yrs. Telesuites obtained early traction by creating and running "telepresence-type" rooms for various companies across the world. That said, the phrase telepresence didn't grow to be prevalent until finally some big technologies companies, such as HP and Cisco identified the likely and started promoting the concept globally. There was a common goal: be a part of the rising online video communications market, but length the "new generation" technologies with the detrimental connotations affiliated together with the expression video clip conferencing.

With its launch of Telepresence in 2006, Cisco and their CEO, John Chambers have become the driving power for international recognition of Telepresence and have yielded the movie industry world-wide attention and enhanced adoption. Due to the fact that time, the many major Video Conferencing market companies have included for the accelerated adoption and awareness by launching Telepresence remedies of their possess.

And telepresence is coming full-circle. Though Telepresence is regarded as a place, immersive working experience and, in its authentic sort, consists of an entire "room" configuration, numerous suppliers are transferring toward solitary screen stand on your own models that resemble common movie conferencing units.

These developments have driven a brand new expectation degree that signifies an important improve from your standard video clip conferencing period this kind of that high excellent "Telepresence" immersive ordeals are becoming the benchmark for quality and overall performance of video within the company group.

Marketplaces projections pushed from the Telepresence period

There are numerous ailments driving an increased demand for superior quality video clip communications. World wide Warming, mounting fuel costs, an economic downturn and terrorism have all combined to produce a "perfect storm" of interest in Telepresence. The different ways by new and regular suppliers to capitalize on this emerging industry have extra on the consciousness and a focus.

As outlined by the IDC and Cisco, The globally revenue option for telepresence is projected to generally be $5 billion (U.S.) by 2011, while using the major portion with the revenue ($3.eight billion) driven by network and managed support revenues. With the $3.8 billion, $1.five billion are going to be attributed to managed providers and $2.three billion for network connectivity.

Telepresence is increasingly becoming sought as a collaboration software concerning business enterprise partners and customers. Despite the fact that the value tag of installing a telepresence area (ranging from $150k to as significant as $400k) could appear to indicate that it's only created for C amount executives, in point of fact telepresence know-how is made to enable any business lower prices and boost communications. In combination with participating in a significant purpose in addressing the issue of worldwide warming and carbon footprint reduction, telepresence can assist businesses help you save money on vacation and will help to extend productivity.

A recent review by TRI, which incorporated conversations with companies who are utilizing telepresence, recognized the next enterprise goals driving telepresence:

- Greater operational performance,
- Optimization of worldwide sources & competencies,
- Mitigate risk & promote secure enterprise interactions,
- Raise top quality of everyday living, and
- Promote a homogeneous, robust culture.

Respondents to your review had the following to say about telepresence: "Telepresence provides major communications benefits. It really is a far more efficient approach to working."

"Telepresence provides a meeting across the seas as easy to set up as walking down the corridor to gather up colleagues."

"Telepresence is not just about saving dollars on international vacation, it can be about getting smarter at conversation, strategy, and collaboration."

Clearly, telepresence has the ability to impression the bottom line of any group inside of a positive way with both of those quantitative benefits and qualitative value. But how does it compare to online video conferencing?

Telepresence offers great top quality, yields a fantastic knowledge, and users love it...

So where's the "But?"

As with any new technology of technologies you can find few essential boundaries to consider:

1) Interoperability - quite a few firms already have built a major investment in "traditional" video clip conferencing products and need to leverage both the normal and the Telepresence methods.

two) Bandwidth - the great video clip excellent and dependability comes at a large expense in terms of network bandwidth. Each and every room's set up uses three or much more movie codec's that require an average of 15MB of community bandwidth.

three) Investment - while the rooms are specially developed and integrated, they represent a considerable amount of machines that must all function properly in order for the encounter being top quality and reputable.

4) Assets - the ability to establish multi-point (a number of rooms in 1 session) Telepresence calls requires additional investment and appropriately trained sources.

So when everything is operating and functioning properly, Telepresence offers a superior practical experience on the end users. However, assistance of Telepresence rooms can be a daunting task and most companies absence the experience and accessible means to dedicate to this effort. Being a final result, a brand new sort of movie managed services has emerged which is routinely offered along with Telepresence rooms identified as "VNOC" providers.

VNOC stands for "Video or Virtual" Network Operations Center and is generally comprised of a suite of products and services tailored specifically for the unique requirements of Telepresence rooms.

VNOC expert services are a crucial component of the telepresence working experience mainly because:

- The comprehensive telepresence experience must consistently satisfy conclusion people under the most demanding problems.
- The adoption rate and over-all productiveness of a telepresence investment is directly related to user practical experience with a day-to-day basis.
- The benefits of a telepresence alternative can only be thoroughly realized by leveraging the knowledge of the Telepresence VNOC Assistance Provider.
- The right assistance and aid can make the link among telepresence and movie conferencing appear seamless.
- Organization to Organization and the advent of public area rental applying Telepresence technologies is offered without additional investment or effort.

In line with Frost & Sullivan, telepresence revenues are expected to raise by virtually 850% within the next five yrs. This means that telepresence and video clip conferencing will no longer be optional conversation strategies, as they might be critical for companies to get competitive and demonstrate improved productivity, effectiveness, and to have the ability to converse with other organization's video clip platforms on public or private networks.

In order for Telepresence to avoid the challenges and pitfalls in the past and achieve extensive adoption, it will require that:

- Online video technological innovation from distinctive producers will need to successfully converse with one a different and interoperability must be achieved.
- The complexity of place scheduling and call launching calls must be overcome.
- The technological know-how must be as trusted and consistent as making use of the phone.
- Analysis and information about home usage and efficiency must be readily accessible.
- The know-how must be "always on" with enable and guidance obtainable because it is with typical aid desk availability.
- Seamless communication with private or public environments must be achieved.

The FOUR FACTORS to Properly Evaluate VNOC Company Providers

There is extra to a successful telepresence practical experience than just installing the place and devices. Utilizing a VNOC Provider Company should not be considered optional or a luxury. Even if you do have the internal sources accessible, you should be sure that you have access to a team of specialists dedicated to keeping up with machines and software changes and they should be trained and certified on all the various "standards-based" platforms for interoperability challenges. Even extra basic than that, is producing sure you have a plan to address some in the simple, most common questions that always arise:

- How do you schedule a gathering? What if you can find additional than two websites involved within the call?
- How do you start a call?
- Whom do you contact if you'll find problems?
- How are end users trained?
- Do you have the infrastructure to maintain connectivity into the outside world?

When it comes time to make a decision over a service provider, properly evaluating their capabilities is crucial. The FOUR FACTORS to consider are as follows:

FACTOR one - Expertise & INFRASTRUCTURE

Ensure that your supplier has specific expertise in Telepresence and traditional video clip conferencing, as well as networking, scheduling, multi-point bridging. Your service provider must also have a proper infrastructure to enable your surroundings to private and public environments in the secure trend.

FACTOR 2 - FLEXIBILITY

Choose a VNOC partner who is not tied to any one particular particular manufacturer or Telepresence option as your needs may adjust and diverse programs may be chosen for the differing conditional and environmental needs of your destinations. It is really essential that you retain flexibility so your organization doesn't get locked into one know-how.

FACTOR three - ROBUST AND REDUNDANT Assistance Means

A lot of businesses target over the tools and room aspects of telepresence, but the significance of maintaining a consistent experience around the world should not be secondary. Your service service provider should offer comprehensive guidance for telepresence facilities through concierge services, remote management, and connectivity over a world wide basis.

FACTOR 4 - INTEROPERABILITY CAPABILITIES

Pay careful consideration into the provider's ability to offer interoperability compatibility among and SD, HD or telepresence environments and provide both telepresence VNOC expert services, exchange expert services, public place access and community products and services:

What You Should Expect From Your VNOC Provider Service provider

Proactive Monitoring - 24/365 proactive monitoring with the conferencing tools and connections should be bundled to ensure that all tools is functional and operable on the minute-by-minute basis. A combination of advanced infrastructure technologies and experienced personnel should be deployed at all times with escalation and notification procedures in place.

Scheduling and Management - a committed toll-free quantity, a concierge company, and web portal scheduling tools for the user communities should be provided. Automation and advanced tools this kind of as integrated outlook and lotus notes capabilities with its confirmation notifications provided to requesters and contributors of meetings.

Call Launching and Monitoring - can be handled by an engineer, who manages the successful start from the call and connection of all web pages inside the telepresence conference, including point-to-point and multi-point calls. The VNOC should be able to digitally monitor connectivity levels during sessions and should always be offered to ensure a high-quality practical experience, every time.

Help Desk Assistance - consumers should have a one point of technical help for telepresence options to ensure a high-quality, uninterrupted knowledge for every call. Your service provider should be able to interface and coordinate with hardware vendors, network suppliers, and integrators to repair or replace any component parts, network degradation, or resolve home integration concerns.

Overall performance Reporting - provides critical metrics on a monthly basis to identify areas of achievements, as well as areas in need of improvement. The reporting should include the telepresence room, the network, and supporting provider levels. Your reporting should be detailed, these kinds of that it contains network and space services levels and availability, amount of conferences held, total hours of usage, mean time to respond and repair any technical issues, along with a root-cause analysis and corrective action plan, wherever applicable.

Training - required for ensuring the successful use and adoption of telepresence systems.

It is actually not only important for people to feel comfortable applying the technology, but to also comprehend the value the technological know-how brings to day-to-day business enterprise activities. Applying telepresence systems helps boost communications, enhance efficiency, and have access to subject matter experts when and where they may be needed.

Interoperability Testing and Guidance - to ensure telepresence techniques can connect with other online video conferencing rooms and businesses outside of your private community. Make sure the VNOC support supplier is experienced in evaluating and testing video conversation gear for trustworthiness and interoperability across producers and access to exchange providers for conversation with private and public environments in the secure manner.

A Final Thought

The future for telepresence appears robust. Environmental and economic issues necessitate finding extra effective ways to converse, be additional productive and creative, and telepresence is rapidly becoming a "mission critical" software in the conversation mix.

While providing a superior knowledge, today's Telepresence technologies are complex and demanding on your community and human methods. Advancements in know-how may possibly very well decrease the complexity in excess of time, but the technological innovation should always be secondary to your reason for using it. It is actually significant to address entire picture - the engineering, the service and the assistance - to ensure achievements with video programs.

As with any communications resource, Telepresence is very best supported when an experienced provider provider hides the complexity and simply makes it work, allowing the users to leverage the experience as part of their everyday existence.

We are embarking on the visual society which is endless. Whether it means communicating with business executives around the other side of the earth on essential tasks, providing complex guidance to surgeons in an operating space within a different state or country, or extending your most talented and specialized methods across borders to interact with your most valuable clients, the new period of movie communications is here and is no longer just a "nice to have".