Dimension Data, the $4.5-billion specialist IT services and solutions provider, said today that it has extended the Group’s TelePresence footprint and installed systems in its New York, London, Johannesburg, Singapore, Tokyo, Brisbane and Canberra offices.
The move is in line with Dimension Data’s Green strategy to reduce employee travel globally, and increase accessibility of TelePresence to a broader Group audience in order to communicate and collaborate globally in real-time.
Steve Joubert, Dimension Data’s Group Executive: Global Solutions says, “We expect to cut travel costs among the Group’s senior management alone to between 15% and 20% - and that’s without comprising crucial, realtime, face-to-face contact which makes for successful leadership.”
And because the system is also integrated into our employees’ scheduling Outlook, they can book a (TelePresence) room anywhere in the world to facilitate multipoint conferences.
Joubert says Dimension Data in Australia has been successfully using TelePresence to communicate between their Sydney and Melbourne offices for the past year. “In fact, the room in Sydney is booked out between eight to twelve hours every day by both employees wanting to communicate internally, and our clients.”
“Another benefit is being able to interact with employees, partners, and vendors in a way that models face-to-face communication. Thanks to a direct connection into the Cisco Exchange, inter-company communications are easy, and the Group’s communications network is expanding daily,” explains Joubert.
In addition to large three-screen Cisco TelePresence CTS3000 systems in Sydney and Melbourne, Dimension Data now has a third in Johannesburg. Cisco CTS1000 systems were installed in the Group’s New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo, Brisbane and Canberra offices.
Dimension Data is using the Tata Communications Limited global WAN to connect its internal TelePresence endpoints, including a link from South Africa to London using the Dimension Data owned new-generation telco, Internet Solutions.
Earlier this year, Dimension Data and Tata Communications Limited signed a global joint go to market agreement. “With both Tata and Dimension Data’s extensive global footprint, our solution offering has attracted interest from many organisations wanting to expand their own video and TelePresence capabilities,” Joubert concludes.
Plans are to rollout additional TelePresence end-points throughout Europe in the next few months, and to the rest of the Group within the next six months.
According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Forecast and Methodology 2008-2013 White Paper, June 2009, 90% of all consumer traffic will be video based by 2013 and will be the sum of all forms of video (TV, video on demand, Internet, and peer to peer (P2P)). Internet video alone will account for over 60% of all consumer Internet traffic in five years.