The Changing face of Enterprise Communication Date:   Thursday , September 01, 2011 Technology advancements are transforming the way that enterprises use videoconferencing – empowering new applications for visual interpersonal interactions that range from the trading floor to the customer support desk. Videoconferencing is not new to enterprises. What is new is that videoconferencing is evolving from restrictive ‘room-based telepresence systems’ primarily used for executive meetings or studio-based broadcasting solutions for town hall-style conferences to easily implemented solutions that can be leveraged throughout the entire enterprise for improved business communications. Traditional enterprise videoconferencing solutions have relied on hardware-based MCUs, which require proprietary equipment and are unable to work outside of the domain. These solutions are extremely restrictive, require substantial IT expertise to manage and unable to scale for enterprise-wide deployments. Today, however, new technology advancements are creating an environment that can easily support and produce highly scalable, yet secure, low latency HD (high definition) quality video. Enterprises can now easily launch and integrate videoconferencing from almost any of their third-party applications and platforms, including, for example, Instant Messaging (IM) solutions such as Skype, Lync and Office Communication or enterprise social media platforms like TIBCO’s Tibbr. The integration is virtually seamless with no disruption to the existing infrastructure. Driving these advancements are: advanced video technologies featuring more powerful codecs; higher processing power for all endpoints, including PCs, Macs and now even mobile devices; and the emergence of new cloud computing services. With all of these capabilities, enterprises now have an extremely powerful yet affordable and easy-to-use desktop videoconferencing solution that can be delivered right from an employee’s PC or Mac without requiring any additional computer equipment. The growing use of smart phones and tablet devices is having an enormous impact on videoconferencing. Moving forward, all vendors should be able to provide the ability to videoconference from any device to any device with high quality videoconferencing capabilities basically available on-demand. Making HD videoconferencing calls will become as simple and as common as making a phone call from one’s PC, Mac, smart phone or tablet device. We predict that there will continue to be additional improvements in the technology, including video codes and hardware support for video processing (such as ViVu’s collaboration with AMD on its Fusion processors). The enterprise videoconferencing space is highly competitive with well-entrenched players and long-term contracts. New entrants must be able to offer a differentiated solution that’s compelling enough for enterprises to make the switch. The silver lining is that videoconferencing is not yet fully adopted within enterprises. With gaining acceptance and openness to videoconferencing from enterprise users, the market pie itself is growing at a rapid pace. The author is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of ViVu