ANOTHER article about the joys of teleconferencing and, more specifically, of telepresence (see also this post). Telepresence is the technology that allows users in one location to communicate with users in another location as if all were in the same place. Accenture, a consulting firm, is given as a notable example of a company that is using telepresence to save money on travel bills. It will, though, be a while before small companies can justify the high outlay.

Accenture initially installed telepresence rooms in Chicago and Frankfurt. Despite low utilisation, the company persevered and installed it in a further 11 sites.

Usage rose dramatically and levelled off in April when it became harder to schedule meetings in the few slots left available. The monthly average is now between 600 and 900 hours of telepresence meetings, with 100 hours between London and Chicago alone.

According to Modruson [the CIO], telepresence is saving Accenture $1m per month in travel, which is four to five times the operational cost of the sites.