Executive Summary

This chapter provides an overview of the most popular and productive applications for videoconferencing. It also includes some examples of innovative uses that may help you to discover the best ways to use VTC to improve communications and productivity within your organization. Since there are hundreds of applications for videoconferencing technology, this chapter is not intended to serve as a comprehensive description of the potential applications, but rather as a starting point for the development of your own solution.

While the mature application areas of videoconferencing distance learning, telemedicine, and executive communications are continuing to experience significant growth the use of the technology for increased productivity in sales and marketing, workgroup collaboration, and a wide range of vertical applications is steadily approaching mainstream status.

Powered by a variety of technical, economic, and social developments, the use of videoconferencing is growing rapidly in conventional areas and gaining widespread acceptance for new applications. The ease of use, powerful features, and low capital cost of new systems, along with the decreasing cost of transmission, are making a significant impact in all business sectors delivering increased productivity and decreased costs for travel, meetings, and training.

To take maximum advantage of these new productivity-enhancing tools, it is helpful for decision-makers to become familiar with the various types of applications how different solutions have solved specific communication needs. Examples of successful videoconferencing applications are useful for at least two reasons:

1. They provide ideas on how VTC can be used to solve similar communication needs for other organizations.

2. They...