Stranded travellers opt for video talks

The near-closure of the European airspace because of a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano has given the service providers of video¬conferencing suites a rea-son to smile. The air travel chaps has led to an increase in demand for such services by stranded travellers, who still need to interact personally for their global businesses. According to Shabd Sha-ran Mishra, managing direc¬tor of UK-based Renais¬sance e-Services, who has business interests in US and UK markets, "Conducting business through video-con¬ferencing seems to be the only logical solution in the current situation." "I was supposed to be in the UK on Tuesday to negotiate on a business deal taut since the flights got cancelled, the only option I have is to interact with my client via video-conferenc¬ing," he said. Mishra added though inter¬acting via video-conferencing makes a lot of sense economi¬cally and is a very cost-effective communication tool compared to physically travelling to the US or the UK, he would still prefer to communicate to his clients in person. "Communication through video-conferencing only costs a few hundred rupees per hour but a lot of people still prefer to be present on the location.

In person, it gives a better feel of the client's reaction, but given the situation, a lot of people like me have very few options," he said. BT Conferencing, a part of British Telecom (BT), said the company has seen a 35 per cent increase in demand since the beginning of the disruptions in global air travel. Madhusudan Thakur, country head, Regus South Asia, an office-space solutions provider, said the company has seen a surge in requests for its 2,500 video-communication suites across the world. He said thebookings for their video-conferencing suites have gone up substantially in the last five to six days. "We have registered around 20 per cent growth in India, 38 per cent in the UK and 12 per cent across Europe. In the US, book¬ings rose nine per cent," he said. Thakur also said it is common for a major news event to push up the demand for video-con¬ferencing. "We do see a spike in the use of our services when there are strikes, like the Lon¬don Tube strike, which happened in June, 2009," he said, adding that they expect the demand for video-conferencing to continue through next week.

"Travel is expected to be affected throughout the week¬end and even into early next week. So we expect continued need for business people to conduct meetings and commu¬nicate with colleagues via video-conferencing throughout the next week," he said. Reliance World, which oper¬ates the world's largest net¬work of video-conferencing suites, also confirmed that there has been an increase in the demand for video-confer¬encing services. "The figures are yet to be compiled and would be revealed only in the monthly report. But since the last one week, the demand for video¬conferencing service has grown substantially," the official spokesperson said. Reliance Webstore Ltd already offers wired video-con¬ferencing services to over 1,500 corporate clients through its network of over 200 video con¬ference suites at Reliance World stores spread across the country.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).