Businesses are increasingly turning to videoconferencing as a way to have less impact on the environment and also on the company’s finances, according to an expert in the industry.
Jon Knight, audio visual expert at Smartinteractive.co.uk, said: “Businesses are under more pressure to make a profit by looking to reduce costs and there’s the green angle of reducing carbon footprint.”
He pointed out that as well as saving money for firms, being green gives them a good reputation and is more and more something the larger corporations are keen to achieve.
The environmental vulnerability of business travel was highlighted during the ash cloud crisis, Mr Knight said, showing that alternative infrastructure was needed in order to prevent the disruption such instances cause.
On top of this there is the increased efficiency of staff when they are not required to get on a plane or train for hours on end in order to participate in a business meeting.
Mr Knight also mentioned the way in which technology has enabled businesses to rely on video conferencing to a much greater degree.
He said: “Then the flip side to all of this and the real reason behind a lot of this now being possible is the rise of the internet and the fact that the internet is now able to offer bandwidth, without people having to take out specialist or expensive bandwidth contracts to enable them to run video calls.”
Videoconferencing is expected to be brought in for many companies in London who hadn’t considered it before, due to the disruption to public transport during the Olympic Games.
As members of staff who rely on the tube on a regular basis may find that the increased number of visitors to the capital mean services are oversubscribed, many firms will rely on videoconferencing in order to cut down on business travel.
It is hoped that such practices will be one of the legacies of the London 2012 Olympic Games and act as a catalyst to make businesses more efficient.
