Interest In Conferencing Technologies On The Rise

"There has been a big up-tick in conferencing usage after Sept. 11," said Dave Casey, vice president at Westron Communications, a network integrator based in Dallas. The economic downturn has also been a factor since customers have tightened travel budgets, he said.

Westron has seen 100 percent growth in its audioconferencing business and 50 percent growth in videoconferencing since Sept. 11, Casey said. These solutions account for roughly 10 percent of Westron's business, he said.

"A number of customers that were on the fence and a lot that were seriously thinking about videoconferencing decided to go with it," said George-Erick Brinckmann, president of Brinckmann and Associates, a videoconferencing solution provider in Atlanta. Brinckmann's business grew 15 percent to 20 percent over the past year, he said.

Another solution provider said interest in conferencing technology has increased, but huge sales growth hasn't materialized. "There hasn't been the big spike in sales people thought there would be after Sept. 11, but everybody is asking about it. Everyone wants a proposal," said Bob Kipke, vice president of sales and marketing at CritiCom, a videoconferencing and telecommunications solution provider in Lanham, Md. CritiCom's videoconferencing business has grown about 5 percent since the attacks, Kipke said.

Businesses are turning to collaboration technologies such as Web conferencing, audioconferencing and videoconferencing since Sept. 11, but that doesn't necessarily translate into sales, said Marc Beattie, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research.

In many cases, businesses are simply better utilizing existing conferencing equipment, he said. A recent Wainhouse survey of 703 frequent business travelers showed that Web conferencing usage increased nearly 62 percent, while the use of videoconferencing equipment rose nearly 25 percent, and applications using audioconferencing rose nearly 12 percent since the terrorist attacks.

"Once people start using videoconferencing, they realize how important it is to executing business. They get more done, make better decisions and are more competitive," said Barry Walker, vice president of marketing at Polycom, the Pleasanton, Calif.-based videoconferencing vendor that sponsored the Wainhouse survey.