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Cisco TelePresence Turns 5, Broadens Options: Page 3 of 3

Over the years, said Winge--who came to Cisco from its acquisition of Tandberg in 2010 and participated in the media briefing from its headquarters in Oslo, Norway--Cisco came to realize it needed to improve interoperability by embracing industry videoconferencing standards such as SIP, H.323 and the Cisco-created TelePresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP), which Cisco released to other system makers to use after the Tandberg acquisition.

Wainhouse Research issued a report tied to the announcements that showed Cisco commands a 52% share of the worldwide market for video infrastructure, based on revenue, in the first quarter of 2011. Polycom had the second-biggest share, at 25%. Polycom recently added support for HD videoconferencing on portable devices such as tablet computers, something Cisco said it would also support.

Existing telepresence users say the more their employees experience the technology, the more they want it.
When consumer products giant Procter & Gamble opened its 80 TelePresence rooms, they were used 40% of the time in an average 40-hour workweek, says Kathryn Murray, employee solutions and services section manager. Now it's up to 50%, and the company is reluctant to push utilization above 60% because employees then would have trouble finding a room when they need one.

"[Employees say,] 'We need more rooms. I can't get into one and I want to book more [meetings],'" Murray said, adding that for every $1 in TelePresence investment, P&G realized a return of $4 in travel cost avoidance.

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